"Goin' Down the Road: Folksongs of Illinois, 1818-1960" at La Salle Library
On Tuesday, February 25th, at 6:00 p.m. the La Salle Public Library will host Humanities Scholar, Music, Historian and Performer, Bucky Halker when he presents his unique program, "Goin' Down the Road: Folk Songs of Illinois, 1818-1960."
From the beginning of Illinois statehood through the folk revival that swept the nation in the 50's, the people who made Illinois their home produced a huge body of folk songs and music. This music includes historical ballads that recount the stories of community events from floods and tornados to murders and coal mining disasters. Such ballads allowed community members to remember their history and lives at a time when newspapers and literacy where less common. This body of music also included protest songs from mills and mines, as well as labor anthems to bolster the spirits of workers at demonstrations or union gatherings. Bucky will combine musical performance with commentary featuring folk songs from around the Prairie State, and highlighting important folk song traditions of the state.
Bucky Halker is a musician and historian with fifteen albums to his credit. Halker, a Ph.D. in labor history, is the author of For Democracy, Workers, and God: Labor Song-Poems and Labor Protest, 1865-1895 and the producer-scholar for the Folksongs of Illinois CD series, vols. 1-5. He has received numerous awards, including the Archie Green Fellowship from the American Folklife Center in 2012, and served as guest professor in Germany at Carl Von Ossietzky University in 2016. Since 2007, he has been the director of Company of Folk, an organization dedicated to folk and ethnic arts and traditions in Illinois.
This program is free and open to the public, and is made available through funding by the Illinois Humanities. Illinois Humanities is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Illinois General Assembly (through the Illinois Arts Council Agency,) as well as by contributions from individuals, foundations, and corporations. The La Salle Public Library is located at 305 Marquette Street, La Salle and is ADA compliant and welcoming. For more information, contact the Library at 815-223-2341.