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Tennessee Walt's 'A Year in a Distant Country'

at North Babylon Public Library | Sat Mar 13

Location

North Babylon Public Library

815 Deer Park Avenue
North Babylon, NY, NY 11703
(Map)
Tel: 718-777-8486
Contact Name: Gayden Wren
Visit Website: Website.

Date & Time

02:00 PM - 03:30 PM
Sat, Mar 13, 2021
Cost: Free Event
Description

Classic Country Music for a Year Like No Other

 

 

It was a year ago that the New York-based country singer Tennessee Walt—like almost every other live performer in the world—was forced to shut down his live shows indefinitely.  Flying in the face of the image of country music as an old-fashioned, low-tech art form, Walt took to the internet and, over the course of the next nine months, staged seven live-streamed concerts to thousands of viewers around the tristate area and beyond; two of those concerts were even co-hosted by The Grand Ol’ Opry.

 

Now, to mark the end of a year like none other in American history, Walt is returning to the internet for “Tennessee Walt’s ‘A Year in a Distant Country,” celebrating—if that’s the right word—a socially distanced year in which, nonetheless, we’ve all found new ways to keep ourselves going ... including internet concerts.  The show will be steaming live on Saturday, March 13, at 2 p.m.

 

Garden Wren, the Long Island theater veteran who performs as Tennessee Walt, promises a diverse program including songs by Hank Williams, Junior Brown, Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, Kris Kristofferson, Gretchen Peters, Jimmie Rodgers and more, including a salute to four country legends who died in the past year: Jan Howard, Charlie Pride, Billy Joe Shaver and Jerry Jeff Walter.  Also featured will be a few songs by Walt himself, including the popular “It’s a Gray Day in Lockdown City,” debuted on his first internet concert on April 2, 2020.

 

“We’ve all lost so much through the year of lockdowns, quarantines and social distancing,” Wren said, “but the past year is also a story of survival, and America’s artists are no exception.  Movies, plays and music—classical, popular and otherwise—have migrated to the internet and many of us have, like myself, found new audiences and new creative options as a result.  We’ll certainly memorialize the things and the people we’ve lost on March 13, but we’re also going to be celebrating the courage and resiliency of country music, American artists and America itself.  Much has been lost, yes, but much also has been gained, and this show will reflect that.”

 

The concert is the eighth in a series of live internet shows presented under the sponsorship of dozens of tristate-area public libraries.  It will stream live at 2 p.m. on Saturday, March 13 on Facebook.com/TennesseeWalt.  (71 different libraries have co-hosted at least one of the shows, as have several other institutions including “The Grand Ole Opry” itself.) 

 

“The libraries still can’t host their usual lectures and concerts,” said Wren, who has performed at area libraries since the 1970s.  “That leaves library audiences, as well as everyone else in the greater New York area, deprived of theater, movies and live music, so this is a way for people to make up for that, to kick back and enjoy some of America’s greatest music.”

 

“Tennessee Walt’s ‘A Year in a Distant Country’” will be presented live on Facebook.com/TennesseeWalt on Saturday, March 13, at 2 p.m. Admission is free, and no masks are required!  (Those not on Facebook can see the show on YouTube within 24 hours afterward.)  For further information, visit www.TennesseeWalt.com.