Thomas D. Isern's Blog: Willow Creek: A Writing Journal, page 8

Bargains & Ballads

Last week on Prairie Public - https://news.prairiepublic.org/podcast/plains-folk/2022-11-19/bargains-and-ballads

The Badger

Singing with the Badger for WCFS No. 121 tonight. Streaming live from the Salon on Willow Creek 8pm CST.

View the Willow Creek Folk School Fridays at 8pm Central on the Facebook timeline of Plains Folk. Listen to Plains Folk essays weekly on Prairie Public radio or as podcasts on NPR One. Check out the author profile for Thomas D. Isern on Goodreads.

WCFS No. 120

Last night's Willow Creek Folk School - https://fb.watch/gM4Wf5cn96/

Second Rise

This week on Prairie Public - https://news.prairiepublic.org/podcast/plains-folk/2022-11-12/second-rise

WCFS #120 This Week

This week on WCFS No. 120 (livestream on the Facebook timeline of Plains Folk, 8pm CST) we'll offer a Veterans Day feature based on "Tenting Tonight," the Civil War ballad; deposit "The Last Longhorn" into the Willow Creek Songbag; announce discovery of a new old balladeer from the High Plains who sang of the vagaries of the homestead land system; and conclude with Angie's pheasant-hunting ballad. Covering a lot of ground! Join us.

The Story of "Hell in Texas"

This week on Prairie Public - https://news.prairiepublic.org/podcast/plains-folk/2022-11-05/hell-in-texas

WCFS No. 119

Last night's Willow Creek Folk School - https://fb.watch/gCQoAauauE/

There Will Be No More Ballads

Join us tonight (8pm CDT) on the Facebook timeline of Plains Folk (facebook.com/plainsfolk) for the livestream of Willow Creek Folk School No. 119. In the meantime, I'm posting here the full text of my recent paper on Great Plains balladry presented at the annual conference of the Western History Association, meeting in San Antonio. I don't ordinarily post text of conference papers, but this is an exceptional case in that the paper is intimately connected to a public event, the Willow Creek Folk School, which has an interested public, including some folks who might wish to wade through the scholarly presentation. The paper is a progress report and overall rationale for work on its subject, the heyday of balladry on the Great Plains. All rights reserved, of course.

There Will Be No More Ballads: Revisiting the Efflorescence of Folksong on the Great Plains

Still Hell in Texas

Last night's Willow Creek Folk School, No. 118 - https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=826560908588196

Lecturing in Brookings Thursday Night

What I'm doing on Thursday night: href=https://www.sdstate.edu/events/2022/10/no-crossroads-community-and-sense-place-great-plains-dr-tom-isern

Thanks to Gwen McCausland, Director of the South Dakota Agricultural Heritage Museum, Brookings, for the invitation to give a talk in association with the Smithsonian traveling exhibit, Crossroads: Change in Rural America - https://www.sites.si.edu/s/topic/0TO36000000aR1sGAE/crossroads-change-in-rural-america

My remarks may be a little counter-intuitive, but I think they are grounded. Looking forward to meeting people in Brookings.