Program Title: Tales from the Heartland
Through humor, James Mellick presents his mature observations about life in his animal sculptures, stories and songs he has written. With Garrison Keillor's "Prairie Home Companion" as a model he has added visual art to the songs and stories to which he applies the same craft. His one man performance is a fusion of these three creative interests. A few years ago Jim formed the acoustic band "Heartwood and Friends", a group of talented musicians who get together to overcome the monotony of their lives. Joining Jim for the Berkshires Arts Festival will be Jennifer Byers and Laurie McCannell who have performed with Heartwood for several years.
Jennifer Byers' day job is a medical technologist but her soul is folk music delivered in a beautiful alto voice. She grew up playing the 12-string guitar and singing with her family in the Appalachian foothills of Southern Ohio. One of her early memories is hearing Judy Collins perform at Tanglewood. Jennifer often uses her music to serve others such as singing at the Ohio Reformatory for Women.
Laurie McCannell has recently moved back to her family farm in Canada. A young mother of three and music graduate from Cronrad Grebel College, she sings soprano and composes on the keyboard and leads music at her local church. She is of a younger generation but the spirit of the folk music is carried on in her songwriting and singing. She is an amateur visual artist and recently has begun carving and exhibiting small sculptures in stone.
James Mellick started drawing and painting as a young child and by high school he was writing songs and playing the guitar and piano. In college he was influenced by the folk music movement and Saturday night "Hootenannies". When he went to graduate school and became a college art professor he put his music aside for the next 30 years.
In the last ten years since building his home and studio in the country, songwriting and performing has come back into Jim's life. He says that "music brought me back into community and breaks the long tedious hours of isolation working alone in the art studio. "Music heals the soul and provides immediate gratification, communication and audience response that visual art can't." Mellick writes in the spirit of Woody Guthrie (who was also a visual artist) and Bob Dylan. James performs with the guitar and keyboard.
Tales From the Heartland, songs and stories based on growing up in America, is ideal for an arts festival that takes place in the rural beauty of this country.