Contents
The Strychnine Banjo
–Jake Wallace, Charley Rhoades and “The Days of ’49”.
A slide show and talk with musical examples, The Strychnine Banjo presentation (based on a book of the same name) reveals the long lost history of the far West’s two most important banjo players and their song, “The Days Of ’49”–the famous anthem of the gold rush.
The Major and The Gambler
–a one man play with CW Bayer!
The story of William Ormsby and Lucky Bill as told by each historical character. A tale of violence, politics and empire building. 1.5 hours with 15 break in the middle. CW has presented this play for years and has written the book on this amazing history.
The Western Ragtime Guitar
–more twang and bounce than you can imagine!
A discussion/performance of American finger style guitar by CW BAYER. CW talks about learning this style 50 years ago during the “folk scare” of the 60s, talks about the ragtime form and its arrival to the guitar around 1920. He discusses the rise of “jazz” and the perpetuation of hot jazz in “cowboy hillbilly” music during the 1930s and western swing in the 40s. All with lots of twang and punctuation on the ragtime guitar–a fun and historical American sound!