This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
Genre | Music, interview, storytelling (radio variety) |
---|---|
Running time | 60 minutes |
Country of origin | United States |
Language(s) | English |
Hosted by |
|
Recording studio | Boulder, CO |
Original release | April 22, 1991 |
Website | Official website |
Podcast | itunes |
eTown is a 501c3 non-profit broadcast organization based in Boulder, Colorado. eTown is a nationally syndicated multimedia and event production company. The eTown radio broadcast can be heard on National Public Radio, community radio stations, and commercial radio. The program has a variety show format featuring live musical performances, interviews with musicians, authors, and other public figures.
eTown is recorded in front of a live audience at eTown Hall, a solar-powered theater in Boulder, CO, which also serves as a social hub for community events. eTown also records eTown on the Road which is taped on location in various cities across the country. The program and podcast can be heard on over 300 radio stations across the U.S. and around the world.
Since 1991, eTown has coupled music and entertainment with information and interviews about environmental and social issues like global warming, environmental justice, the viability of alternative energy, and the importance of conservation and environmental stewardship. eTown's listener-nominated segment, the eChievement Award, highlights stories of individuals working to make a positive difference in their communities and beyond.
eTown was founded in 1991 by host Nick Forster and his wife, Helen Forster who serves as co-host and executive producer of the show. eTown presents a wide range of roots music, conversation and examples of environmental and community activism to listeners around the world.
eTown host Nick Forster's involvement in music began as a teen playing guitar in various amateur folk and folk-rock bands in upstate New York. A job offer as a luthier (guitar repairman) led him to Colorado in 1975, where he met future bandmates Charles Sawtelle, Pete Wernick and Tim O'Brien. In 1978 they formed the bluegrass group: Hot Rize. In Hot Rize, Nick played the bass and guitar, provided vocals and acted as the group's M.C. The band released ten albums, toured worldwide and appeared on radio and television programs, including Austin City Limits, The Grand Ole Opry and A Prairie Home Companion. Hot Rize earned both a Grammy nomination and the International Bluegrass Music Association's Entertainer of the Year Award before retiring in the spring of 1990. Nick teamed up with Tim O’Brien and Jerry Douglas to form a new group just after Hot Rize retired. In 1990, Nick accompanied Sam Bush, John Cowan, and Laurie Lewis on an extensive US State Department tour of Eastern Europe and Turkey. During the tour, he was struck by music's ability to bring people from diverse backgrounds together, including former Communist Party bosses, new democratic leaders, schoolteachers, business executives, dissident poets and everyday citizens. He was also astounded by the region's noticeable environmental degradation due to lack of community control. Nick imagined there had to be a way to link the power of music with the sharing of information about and solutions to the environmental and social challenges facing the planet, inspiring people to work together to make a positive difference. On the flight home, he came up with the idea of a radio program that would channel the energy and spirit of live-performance audiences into a dialogue about global issues. Returning home from that U.S. State Department tour, Nick shared the idea of the radio show with Helen, who agreed to help him. The two of them launched the program ‘eTown’ on Earth Day in 1991. [1]
eTown's co-host Helen Forster began her artistic career as a child studying and performing theater and music in Minneapolis. She attended the University of Minnesota, where a chance enrollment in one of its first environmental studies courses made a huge impact on her, one that would establish an environmental awareness within her that would eventually guide her involvement in eTown. After college, Helen moved to Telluride, Colorado, where she joined two theater companies: SRO, an improvisational comedy troupe loosely modeled on Second City Chicago, and Plunge Players, a formal theater company led by L.A. director Paul Fagan. During this period, in addition to her role as a professional theater actress and as a writer/performer in SRO, she also performed in multiple radio theater productions, co-authored three children's musicals and honed her skills musically as a professional vocalist. Additionally, Helen developed broad production experience as producer and director of numerous stage productions and live "on-the-air" radio theater pieces. For several years, she also owned and produced the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, an annual music festival with international acclaim. (It was behind the stage during that festival in the late 1980s that Nick and Helen first met, eventually marrying in 1991.) Outside of her current day role in eTown, Helen has performed as a vocalist on Prairie Home Companion and in concerts around the country. She is also a nationally established voice-over talent. [2]
eTown's broadcasts include a mixture of musicians who perform for the show's live audience in a variety show format. Two artists typically appear on the show each week. These musical performances are interspersed with informal interviews with show host Nick Forster. These conversations explore each artist's roots and influences, as well as their interests in social and environmental causes. eTown broadcasts also include the show's flagship eChievement Award segment, where individuals are showcased for their work on behalf of the greater good. These are people who have identified an environmental or social issue at the community, national or global level and whose efforts are effectively addressing the resulting need. Some of the shows also include an additional interview segment, featuring discussions with a variety of different authors, activists, scientists and policymakers about a range of social and environmental issues and their possible solutions.
Since its inception in 1991, more than one thousand visiting and local artists have performed for the eTown audience. The program's guest artists have included artists such as Aaron Neville Quintet, David Gray, James Taylor, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Loretta Lynn, Ray LaMontagne, The Fray, Ralph Stanley, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Bruce Cockburn, Barenaked Ladies, Ingrid Michaelson, Koko Taylor, David Crosby & Graham Nash, Ani DiFranco, Pops Staples, Randy Newman, Dr. John, Joe Jackson, Sarah McLachlan, Los Lobos, The Fairfield Four, Bruce Hornsby, Bill Frisell, Shawn Colvin, Lyle Lovett, Buddy Guy, Jack Johnson, Odetta, Ben Harper, Richard Thompson, Wanda Jackson, Rickie Lee Jones, Keb' Mo', Spoon, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Del McCoury, Taj Mahal, Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson, Nickel Creek, Pinetop Perkins, Béla Fleck, Earl Scruggs, Glen Hansard, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, The Flatlanders, Townes Van Zandt, Patty Griffin, Charlie Musselwhite, Doc Watson, James McMurtry and hundreds more.
The eTown house band, the eTones, perform throughout various segments of the program, and often with the visiting artists featured on the show. Ron Jolly (keyboards), Christian Teele (drums), Chris Engleman (bass), and Helen Forster (harmony vocals) join Nick Forster (guitars/mandolin) as eTown's resident musicians.
In addition to the various musical guests, some of the eTown interviewees have included such guests as Dr. Jane Goodall, Vice President Al Gore, Poets Jack Collom and Allen Ginsberg, humorist Dave Barry, environmental advocate Bobby Kennedy Jr., President Jimmy Carter, Michael Moore, poet Terry Tempest Williams, Professor Bryan Willson, cowboy poet Baxter Black, Nobel Prize–winning economist Paul Krugman, actor/environmentalist Ed Begley, Jr., Senator George McGovern, Pete Seeger, activist Julia Butterfly Hill, climber/author Erik Weihenmayer, and columnist/reporter Amy Goodman.
In 2012, eTown celebrated its 21st anniversary and moved into the renovated eTown Hall building, its new permanent home. Purchased by the organization in 2008, this 1925 former church (located at 16th and Spruce Streets, right in the heart of downtown Boulder, Colorado) was converted into a performance hall, recording and production studios, eTown offices, and shared community space. The Denver Post wrote, "The completed eTown Hall will generate more than half of its own power with solar panels and an experimental heating and cooling system." [3] [ full citation needed ] [4]
eTown Hall is located at 1535 Spruce St. in downtown Boulder, Colorado 80302. [5]
Boulder is a home rule city and the county seat of Boulder County, Colorado, United States. It is the largest city in Boulder County, with a population of 108,250 at the 2020 United States census, making it the 12th-most populous city in Colorado. Boulder is the principal city of the Boulder, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area and part of the Front Range Urban Corridor.
The University of Colorado Boulder is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University of Colorado system. CU Boulder is a member of the Association of American Universities and is classified among R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity.
Austin's official motto is the "Live Music Capital of the World" due to the high volume of live music venues in the city. Austin is known internationally for the South by Southwest (SXSW) and the Austin City Limits (ACL) Music Festivals which feature eclectic international lineups. The greatest concentrations of music venues in Austin are around 6th Street, Central East Austin, the Red River Cultural District, the Warehouse District, the University of Texas, South Congress, and South Lamar.
Tim O'Brien is an American country and bluegrass musician. In addition to singing, he plays guitar, fiddle, mandolin, banjo, bouzouki and mandocello. He has released more than ten studio albums, in addition to charting a duet with Kathy Mattea entitled "The Battle Hymn of Love", a No. 9 hit on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks charts in 1990. In November 2013 he was inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame.
Ryman Auditorium is a historic 2,362-seat live-performance venue located at 116 Rep. John Lewis Way North, in the downtown core of Nashville, Tennessee, United States. A Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Landmark, National Historic Landmark, and the former home of the Grand Ole Opry, it is one of the most influential and revered concert halls in the world. It is best known as the home of the Grand Ole Opry from 1943 to 1974. It is owned and operated by Ryman Hospitality Properties, Inc. Ryman Auditorium was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971 and was later designated as a National Historic Landmark on June 25, 2001, for its pivotal role in the popularization of country music. A storied stage for Rock & Roll artists for decades, the Ryman was named a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Landmark in 2022.
Pete Wernick, also known as "Dr. Banjo", is an American musician.
KBCO is a radio station in Boulder, Colorado. It serves Boulder, the Denver metropolitan area, and Northern Colorado. Owned by iHeartMedia, it broadcasts an adult album alternative (AAA) format.
Hot Rize is an American bluegrass band that rose to prominence in the early 1980s. Established in 1978, Hot Rize has appeared on national radio and TV shows, and has toured most of the United States, as well as Japan, Europe and Australia.
The Colorado Chautauqua, located in Boulder, Colorado, United States, and started in 1898, is the only Chautauqua west of the Mississippi River still continuing in unbroken operation since the heyday of the Chautauqua Movement in the 1920s. It is one of the few such continuously operating Chautauquas remaining in the United States, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2006. According to its governing body, the Colorado Chautauqua Association, it is also unique in that it is the only year-round Chautauqua.
Telluride Bluegrass Festival is an annual music festival in Telluride, Colorado hosted by Planet Bluegrass. Although traditionally the festival focuses on bluegrass music, it often features music from a variety of related genres.
James Bryan Sutton is an American musician. Primarily known as a flatpicking acoustic guitar player, Sutton also plays mandolin, banjo, ukulele, and electric guitar. He also sings and writes songs.
Jeff Austin was an American mandolinist and singer best known for being a founding member of the Yonder Mountain String Band.
Wendell Woods Hall was an American country singer, vaudeville artist, songwriter, pioneer radio performer, Victor recording artist and ukulele player.
The Boulder International Film Festival (BIFF), sponsored by the Colorado Film Society, is held annually on Presidents Day Weekend in Boulder, Colorado USA, and has developed a reputation as one of the most compelling young film festivals in the U.S., exhibiting a number of new-but-unknown feature films, documentaries, animations, and shorts that have gone on to significant box-office success and multiple Oscar nominations, including Monsieur Lazhar, Burma VJ, Revanche, Wasp, Miracle Fish, The Conscience of Nhem Eh, Waste Land, Incident in New Baghdad, Instead of Abracadabra, Raju, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, West Bank Story, The Secret of Kells, 5 Broken Cameras, Chasing Ice, Curfew, Asad,The Missing Picture, and The Wind Rises. More than 23,600 filmmakers, national media, special guests and film enthusiasts attended the four-day BIFF 2014.
Traditional Ties is a third album by the progressive bluegrass band Hot Rize. It was the first Hot Rize album released by Sugar Hill Records, following the band's earlier releases with Flying fish records. Critic Thom Owens called the album "arguably their best effort ever".
Mollie O'Brien is an Americana, bluegrass, R&B, and folk singer from Wheeling, West Virginia. She has released a number of Americana albums with her brother, Grammy-winner Tim O'Brien. She has also released five positively received solo albums. She is currently based in Denver, and regularly tours and performs with her husband, guitarist Rich Moore, as a duo. Together they have released one studio album, Saints and Sinners and a live CD, 900 Baseline. She has regularly appeared on shows such as A Prairie Home Companion, Mountain Stage, and contributed vocals to the Grammy-winning album True Life Blues: The Songs of Bill Monroe. She is known for her interpretations of classic songs by artists such as Tom Waits, Memphis Minnie, Willie Dixon, Chuck Berry, Si Kahn, Terence Trent D'Arby, and Kate MacLeod.
Chris "Spoons" Daniels is an American bandleader, singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. A member of the Colorado Music Hall of Fame, he is best known for his work with Chris Daniels & the Kings, a band he has led since 1984. He is considered an "icon of Colorado music" and is recognized for his role as a member of Magic Music, frequently described as Colorado's first jam band.
Charles Sawtelle was an American bluegrass musician and a member of the band Hot Rize. Sawtelle died on March 20, 1999, from leukaemia.
Tim O'Brien is an American country and bluegrass musician. In addition to his 22 solo albums and his recordings with Hot Rize, he has been featured as a performer on many albums by other artists.