Home on the Grange


By Claudia Bradley, special to the Islands' Weekly
Mar 20 2007

"It has been a very long time since music has happened at the Lopez Island Grange," said Lopezian Sue DuMond.

That will change when Danny Schmidt, folk-musician, poet and song-writer from Austin, Texas, performs at the Lopez Grange on Sunday, March 25, at 7 p.m.

Danny's songs range from deep-rooted Appalachian mountain gospel to English balladry, from syncopated Piedmont country-blues to vagabond 1960s protest folk-stumpery. "He is hands down one of the best living musician/poets that I am aware of," said Bob Thiele, Nashville Producer. Esther Golton, vocalist and musician from Talkeetna, Alaska, will be opening the evening and accompanying Schmidt, playing dulcimer and flute.

Suggested donations are a sliding scale of $8-12 per person. After venue costs, all admissions go directly to the artists.

DuMond, organizer of Schmidt's concert, said, "I am purely doing this for the love of music and wanting to share some musicians I know with our community. I had to borrow a sound system, will be schlepping it over there and setting it up.

DuMond says that her efforts are in pursuit of her vision of "a more intimate concert setting."

DuMond has several musician friends who have wanted to come to Lopez and perform. "I realized it was time to take some action and fire up RadioFreeLopez, a domain I've owned for some time," she said recently.

A series of concerts will be held this spring and summer at the Lopez Grange and at the Legion Hall, sponsored by RadioFreeLopez, DuMond's non-profit, non-commercial venture. Patterned after RadioFreeOlga, the project will bring in local and off-island musicians in hopes of revitalizing the use of Lopez Island's old wooden halls.

Later this spring, RadioFreeLopez hopes to present the jazzy-bluesy Alice Di Micele and the four-man band, Bayou Cadillac.

More information about RadioFreeLopez, and sound clips of the featured artists, can be found at www.radiofreelopez.com.