"If You’ve Got the Guts."

The Carthage Acoustic Music Festival will include devoting the first three hours on Saturday to "open stage."

Beginning at 10 o’clock Saturday morning, the open stage will allow individual and groups the opportunity to perform on stage with a professional sound system in a festival setting. Sign ups will begin at 9 a.m. The open stage will stop at 1 o’clock and booked bands will begin.

The traditional acoustic theme for the festival will continue with no electrified instruments or tapes allowed during the performances all day.

During the open stage portion of the program, individuals will be allowed up to ten minutes on stage and groups of two or more will command up to twenty minutes of stage time.

According to festival organizer H. J. Johnson, "anyone with the guts to get on stage can perform."

The CAM Festival is sponsored by the Powers Museum with funding assistance from the Helen S. Boylan Foundation. The event is produced in cooperation with the Carthage Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Bluestem Band Featured at 2010 Carthage Acoustic Festival.

The Carthage Acoustic Festival pre-festival concert will feature the band Bluestem this Friday at the old High School Auditorium beginning at 7 p.m. Opening the show will be Alan Young and Joe Smith blending their Dobro/guitar talents and showcasing Young’s vocal and songwriting abilities.

The Bluestem group was formed in 1982 and has performed frequently on stage at the Winfield Music Festival and is a seasoned and professional performance.

Advanced tickets for the Friday show are on sale at Oldies & Oddities Mall on the Square, or at the door for $7. Children under 12 are free.

The Festival will continue on the Historic Carthage Square from 10 a.m. until 10 p.m. on Saturday.

The Fesitval is sponsored by the Powers Museum with funding assistance from the Helan S. Boylan Foundation. Other considerations provided by the City of Carthage, the Jasper County Commission and the Mornin’ Mail and is produced in cooperation with the Carthage Convention and Visitors Bureau. info@visit-carthage.com

Bluestem Band members:

Keith Alberding, sings the girl parts and has all the charm of a banjo player. He always waits until you mouth is full of coffee to tell the punch line. Plays banjo, guitar, and sings tenor

Jim Rood, runs with scissors and usually talks too much. He is not usually influenced by quality.Plays fiddle, guitar, and sings baritone and tenor

Rick Marshall, can recite every line from Monty Python’s Holy Grail and likes pie.He has a large collection of our capos. He even has Elvis’s capo. thank you very much.Plays guitar, and sing baritone and tenor

Marvin Pine, is the geezer and is the owner of the largest boot collection. He is Cowboy #54 in the state.Plays bass, spurs, and recites cowboy poetry.

Woody the wonder bass

The real star of the show, holds Marvin up.

"We hope to see you down the trail for some tunes and some laughs."

 

It’s always fun to see the Square with some additional activity. Onea the things ya always hear from the "old timers" is how the Square used ta come alive on Saturdays.

Hopefully activities like the CAM Fest (I’m likin’ that abbreviated handle) bring back some of the feelin’ of those days gone by.

While you’re on the Square enjoyin’ the entertainment, take a few minutes to appreciate the merchants that still occupy the Square. You might be surprised at the variety of businesses that are on and around the district.

Hopefully you’ll want to come back and visit when ya have more time to shop the downtown area.

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’.

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Weekly Columns

artCentral

ART NOTES from Hyde House

by Sally Armstrong, Director of artCentral

Last month a special event was held by artCentral that left us all speechless! I have not yet written about the 5X5 Art Auction, as the PRESS ran a nice article just after and I wanted to wait a bit to blow our horn, but allow me to do so now. At the outset the board of directors thought we had a good idea, germinating after an initial thought voiced by member Eric Haun that this could be fun, using a 5x5 inch format and asking all member artists to donate a piece for auction. Eighty nine canvases were ordered, and seventy five were returned completed, a great average. Silent bidding took place over a three week period, following a special afternoon opening party on April 25th, and we had hoped to receive at least $3000.00 in donations for the various pieces, an amount we would have been thrilled with. Imagine our joy at the news of $8,165.00 total in donations for the seventy five works taken away the evening of May 15th! Special thanks go out to my entire board of directors who were present en masse on that evening to assist with the auction, both in the collection and auction areas. Thanks as well to our underwriter for the event and show, HOMETOWN Bank. And most importantly, our thanks to the 75 artists who took their time to create the various pieces, not knowing how much revenue their particular work would generate, but agreeing to create these donations. We did know that artist Andy Thomas’ painting would draw a high bid, but little did we expect it to reach $3,000.00! Thank you, Andy, for this most generous donation of your time and talent. Many other pieces drew high bids, and I will note that Joplin artist Frank Young was second with a piece bringing 500.00, Lowell Davis’ piece was third at 400.00, and Jorge Leyva’s small work received 200.00. But of course, it was the total of all the remaining works that added up to the great total that we enjoyed, so each and every entry played a part in our great success. "Stay tuned" for other special events being planned for the remainder of this anniversary year, and please, do stop by this weekend and view the beautiful ceramics and tapestries in our current exhibition, TEXTURE, by Jack and Lee Ann Sours and Suzanne Sours Israel, that will only remain in the gallery for this last weekend. We will be open Friday, Saturday & Sunday, noon to 5:00.