Southern Stars to Perform with Nashville Star Pete Huttlinger

Nashville Star, Pete Huttlinger, to Perform with Southern Stars By Rebekah K. Bohannon Beeler There is something about players and their sound. It doesn’t start with the instrument. It starts in the heart and then goes down to the hands. This is an excerpt from Pete Huttlinger’s Blah, Blah, Blog posted September 6, 2010, less than two months before he suffered a major stroke and while recuperating subsequently incurred massive heart failure. In light of his unique heart and the medical adversity he has overcome as a result, Huttlinger, the world renowned, award winning fingerpicker who has learned how to play the guitar twice, is an expert on matters of the heart. The battery pack he keeps by his side that powers his heart pump is not the only thing keeping him going; his music does, too. Relearning how to play the guitar, among other things, has made him concentrate on the tone of his instrumentals and working through strained dexterity, he has found that he is “less of a show-off” but he is not in any way less of a musical mastermind and performer. He appreciates things more and that includes his guitar; realizing now that it offers more than it did before. His guitar acts as a voice for the new songs that are in his revitalized heart. A few of Huttlinger’s amiable experiences on his entertainment resume include performing at Carnegie Hall, Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Festival, touring with John Denver, touring with John Oates (of Hall & Oates), several television appearances, and performs with LeAnn Rimes who often requests him for her acoustic performances. He is adding yet another prestigious performance to his long list of musical accomplishments as the guest artist for the upcoming Southern Stars Symphonic Brass (SSSB) “Strings Attached!" concert at the Central Baptist Church in Crossville on April 20. The SSSB is a professional 30-piece brass ensemble that has wowed crowds by the hundreds since its founding in 2008. “I’m looking forward to performing with the SSSB. It’s not often that you get to hear the acoustic guitar featured with a brass band,” Huttlinger says, jokingly, “ Or should I say it’s not often that you get to hear a brass band featured at an acoustic guitar concert?” Either way, the SSSB concert showcasing Pete Huttlinger’s magical musical abilities will undoubtedly be the musical delight of the season. Huttlinger’s rebirth can be heard in all of his songs and as his heart keeps pumping to its unique rhythm, keeping time for him and his guitar, he will be enjoying the art in all of its facets as the sound starts in his heart and moves to his hands and makes his guitar sing. For more information or tickets to the SSSB concert with headliner Pete Huttlinger contact Dwight Wages at 931-484-6939 or visit the website at www.southernstarssymphonicbrass.com. You can find last year's spring concert of the SSSB and Nashville recording artist Buddy Green at http://crossville-chronicle.com/gladesun/x2089087479/SSSB-concert-features-Green-Taylor

Anne Frank Ballet Review May 2012

The Anne Frank Ballet at CCP Educated and Inspired By Rebekah K. Bohannon-Beeler In a special performance to benefit the Tennessee Holocaust Commission (THC), the Nashville Ballet presented “The Anne Frank Ballet” at the Cumberland County Playhouse on Monday May 7. Based on Anne Frank’s Diary, the cast of five dancers portrayed Peter van Pels, Margot Frank and three dimensions of Anne Frank to better represent the complex internal struggles she endured throughout two years of life in the Annex. Tennessee Holocaust Commission member Felicia Anchor said, “[Anne Frank’s diary] is the entry point, the portal for young people to understand what happened in the Holocaust.” Two performances were scheduled for the one-day event each followed with an open-audience question and answer session with liberators, survivors and performers. The school matinee was prefaced with a narrated video to set the scene for The Anne Frank Ballet. Following the school matinee, the Q&A session was held with Jimmy Gentry, American Armed Forces veteran and a liberator of the Dachau Concentration Camp, and Frances Cutler-Hahn, hidden child Holocaust survivor, as well as the cast of the Nashville Ballet. The students were able to listen to the testimonials of Gentry and Hahn and ask questions about what they had come to understand and ask the dancers for advice on how to achieve goals. As a prelude to the public performance Monday evening, the Cumberland County Playhouse’s Company of Dance performed a modern dance entitled “Loss of Innocence” depicting a group of friends playing together in early Nazi years who then began to distrust and exclude other members of the group until they were no longer able to play together. “Castle in the Cloud,” “Our Children” and “Will There Really Be a Morning” performed by Playhouse Music Education students and “Children of Terezin” performed by Playhouse Theater Education students set the audience to view the Holocaust from a child’s perspective who saw and felt what was happening without understanding why. The public performance was succeeded with a Q&A with Tennessee Holocaust Commission member, Felicia Anchor, born in Bergen-Belson concentration camp while her mother was a prisoner, also Art Pais, a Lithuanian Jew forced to live in the Kovno Ghetto and prisoner at the Dachau Concentration Camp, and was again joined by Frances Cutler-Hahn, hidden child survivor, and the dancers of The Nashville Ballet. “I have seen ‘The Anne Frank Ballet’ three times,” said Hahn to the performers with tears in her eyes, “and each time is powerful and more so.” The courage and fortitude shown by those who shared their touching stories and unique perspectives enriched the performance allowing for a once in a lifetime opportunity to see the Holocaust through the eyes of a survivor, through the eyes of a liberator and through the eyes of a child. An exhibit from THC entitled “Living On: Portraits of Tennessee Survivors and Liberators” was displayed for the audience to see the faces and read the stories of Tennessee residents who experienced the horrors of the Holocaust. For more information about the Tennessee Holocaust Commission and its endeavor to educate Tennesseans about the Holocaust visit HYPERLINK "http://www.tennesseeholocaustcommission.org" www.tennesseeholocaustcommission.org. Also, visit HYPERLINK "http://www.ccplayhouse.com" www.ccplayhouse.com and HYPERLINK "http://www.nashvilleballet.com" www.nashvilleballet.com for current listings and events to support the arts. Picture caption: The Playhouse Music Education students singing “Our Children” in The Anne Frank Ballet performance performed at the Cumberland County Playhouse presented by The Nashville Ballet and the Tennessee Holocaust Commission on Monday May 7. Photo by Rebekah K. Bohannon-Beeler

Supertwang

It was “Supertwang or bust”. Then it turned into Supertwang was a bust. As far as the line up goes, festival promoter Hal Royce apparently had some strings to pull and was able to reel in a lot of talent to the Bonnaroo-like festival held on private farmland in Speedwell, Tennessee, he just couldn’t pay them. Nor could he pay the Campbell County Sheriff’s Department or the event staff among others. There were rumors circulating through the crowd of people, some of which had been camping since Wednesday, but we all knew something was going on when the Coors Beer vendors packed up early Saturday afternoon after the talents of Jesse Watson, who wrote the Supertwang them song, and an exceptional performance from up-and-coming Southern Rock band Bush Hawg. One event staffer commented that there was a problem with the beer license. It was strange though that one of the prohibitions of the concert was no outside alcohol as they would have their sponsor Coors Beer and other beverages to sell. Many decided since they weren’t going to sell it the deal was off and went on their own B-double E- double R-U-N. Our suspicions were confirmed as we saw singer Matt Stillwell’s bus drive right on through. One thing was for certain, though, Supertwang was abandoned and was up for adoption. The festival was foster parented by Matt Dylan & Most Wanted and Kathy Ross as well as local bands 1 Foot Down and The Parrot Brothers. We heard patrons and security alike saying that Confederate Railroad and Rhett Akins also wouldn’t be performing. Supertwang needed a forever family. We saw a man at the mercantile tent and he was selling Van Zant t-shirts and merchandise and had a Lynyrd Skynyrd tattoo on his forearm and backstage passes hanging on his neck that said ‘family’. I asked him if Jimmy would be playing because we had heard otherwise. “Bull [explicit]. We’re on at 6:30,” he told me and sold me a shirt. At that, our hopes were restored. The first thing Supertwang’s official adoptive dad, Lynyrd Skynyrd original, and Southern Rock legend Jimmy Van Zant said onstage was, “They told me I have ‘til 7:30, but I’ll see if I can push it ‘til 8.” With his signature bare feet, Van Zant gave the growing crowd the show we came to see. And, yes, it is true what they say, if you chant, “Free Bird,” Van Zant will sing it. “[Van Zant] made it all worthwhile,” said one patron, though, understandably, many patrons were very upset. Local law enforcement and Tennessee Highway Patrol joined forces with neighboring counties and beefed up security in anticipation of an uproar at the turn of events. They held a little powwow to inform them what exactly had happened and make sure everyone was up to, um, ‘Speedwell’. They also discussed the best course of action which according to one officer, “I told them to let you all camp until [Sunday]. We just couldn’t justify making everyone leave, especially those of whom who have been drinking. It’s better to wait until [Sunday] when everyone was planning on going anyway.” The officer also commented on how they were actually surprised at the simply calm reaction, aside from a few interviewees getting their faces on the local news about getting their money back, that even they loosened their gun belts a bit and enjoyed the entertainment by Van Zant. He and his band members milked it as long as they could before the crews blew the whistle and absolutely had to take down the stage. After “Free Bird” Jimmie went to the back of the stage and came back up and said he was given the go ahead for one more song. He asked if we were having a good time to which we all screamed and yelled and he said, “There it is. I just got paid.” He then started “Sweet Home Alabama” and turned it into “Sweet Home Supertwang.” As if it weren’t enough that Jimmie became Supertwang’s Big Poppa, he and the band members stuck around, came back out and signed our shirts and pictures and even the rear ends of some britches. Even when it was finished, it wasn’t finished. The only uproar there was on Saturday night was that we could have our own Supertwang and didn’t need a stage to do it. What had happened didn’t steal our joy but rather inspired us to do a little of our own twang thang. So there it was and there we were, breaking out the tiki torches and old guitars. The students had become the masters as the Twangees became the Twangers.