by Gary Schenkel | Sep 15, 2011 | Events, History, Music
Ever wonder what it would be like to crash a reunion of the family von Trapp?
OK, probably not.
Daniel Dye and his niece Carrie Miller, nephews Thomas and Andrew Miller and sister Sarah Kelly help bring the first Madden Road MusicFest to a close.
But if you’d had the pleasure, as I did, to attend the Madden Road MusicFest Saturday, September 3, the thought may have at least fleetingly entered your mind as Mutual, Ohio’s one-time town hall and schoolhouse was brought back from decades of suspended animation, alive with the sound of music—thanks in large measure to a very talented family.
Local singer-songwriter Daniel Dye orchestrated the festival with a chorus of family members. His mother, Janet Dye, owns the Town Hall Emporium on the building’s first floor. He credits his sister Sarah Kelly, visiting from Massachusetts (check out her blog about her happy reacquaintance with Urbana), as the driving force behind the festival. She had the vision of a music festival as a way to begin raising money to restore the building and turn it into the Madden Road Music Hall, a permanent music venue.
The Dye Family Singers, with Daniel and sisters Jenny, Amy and Kelly, brother Steve and father David continue a tradition of singing together.
Between bands at the MusicFest, Daniel, Sarah and other members of the Dye Family Singers – father David, sisters Amy Blanton and Jenny Miller, and brother Steve – harmonized gospel arrangements.
The next generation of the Dye clan got in on the act, too, as Andrew, Carrie and Thomas Miller (children of Jenny) joined their Uncle Daniel, backing up his vocals, guitar and harmonica with fiddle, cello, banjo, mandolin and accordion as the Miller Road Band*. Here’s a video of them performing “I’m Gonna Let You Go” as the final act of the Madden Road MusicFest.
The second floor of the old Mutual town hall—used in recent years to hold an overflow of antiques from the downstairs emporium—formed the perfect backdrop for the day’s celebration of roots music—from folk and Americana, to bluegrass and gospel, and even some acoustic indie rock.
The Muleskinner Band opened the festival. Other performers included The Kurtz Trio, Dr. Chris Bingman, Like A Child and Andolino.
The scene could have been lifted from the brittle, curled page of an album found in a trunk in the attic: bare, sepia-toned plaster walls, sunlight streaming through tall arched windows, four ceiling fans churning through the hot, damp late summer air.
In restoring the building, the Dyes hope to preserve much of its frozen-in-time charm – maybe even down to this scrawled notation they found when cleaning years of grime from a wall: “Lewis Rodman … Mutual Ohio … Jan. 5, 1901 at the Show.”
Fast forward a century and decade later … from babies to grandpas and grandmas, people filled the hall again on wooden chairs and benches, feet tapping the worn floorboards.
Guitarist Johnny O of Urbana, far right foreground, was joined by several other musicians for an impressive jam session outside the town hall.
And the feeling of a bygone era before the age of social media, a traditional family reunion, a church gathering, spilled outside the old brick hall to a tent where people conversed over food and musicians gathered, one calling out a song title and all joining beautifully, in community.
* You have two chances to see Daniel Dye and the Miller Road Band live this weekend at the Ohio Fish and Shrimp Festival at Freshwater Farms of Ohio, north of Urbana – at 6 p.m. Friday, September 16 and 2:15 p.m. Saturday, September 17.
by Gary Schenkel | Aug 31, 2011 | Events, Tourism
In my last post I divulged my Labor Day weekend plans: to stay in Champaign County, Ohio, and enjoy a day of homegrown music at the Madden Road MusicFest in Mutual, Ohio, on Saturday, September 3. (There’s still time to visit the site and buy tickets.)
Seems I won’t be alone in limiting my travel, according to the AAA.
Considering all that we have going on in Champaign County in the next few weeks, I figure why go elsewhere. Of course, if you’re reading this blog from outside Champaign County, Ohio, I –as a friend of the Champaign County Visitors Bureau – encourage you to do a little traveling in this direction.
Here’s a sampling of what’s on tap:
September 10-11 – The Mid-Eastern Regional Fly-in, one of the nation’s leading fly-ins of experimental aircraft, at Urbana’s municipal airport, Grimes Field.
Simon Kenton Pathfinders Bike Ride
September 11 — The 12th annual Simon Kenton Pathfinders Bike Ride to raise funds to extend the Simon Kenton Trail bike path. Registration 8-10 a.m. at the Urbana Station Depot, 644 Miami St., Urbana. Your choice of a 15-mile ride on the bike trail or 31- or 62-mile rides on country roads in beautiful Champaign County.
September 11 – Dedication of a new World Trade Center memorial—in commemoration of the 10th anniversary of 9/11—at Freedom Grove, a memorial park developed by the Urbana Rotary Club through private donations. The memorial, designed by renowned local artist Mike Major, features a beam from the World Trade Center.
September 16-18 – The Ohio Fish and Shrimp Festival, three days of mouth-watering, locally-grown seafood and other fare, live music, games, carnival rides, a shrimp peeling and eating contest and tours of Freshwater Farms of Ohio, the state’s largest indoor fish hatchery, just north of Urbana.
October 8-9 – The Champaign County Barn Quilt Tour, one of the largest such tours in the country, creatively weaves together a celebration of Champaign County’s agricultural heritage and the folk art of quilting. Eight tour stops are planned this year including the historic Piatt Castles, a dairy farm, maple sugar camp, the Mad River Farm Market and Robert Rothschild Farm. The stops feature everything from displays of quilts and antique farm machinery, kids’ activities, a wine tasting, an antique car show, farm and garden tours, artists, a farmers’ market and more. Year round visitors can take a driving tour of the county to see more than 70 vibrant quilt squares mounted on barns and other structures.
And off in the horizon… I see a squadron or more of B-25s approaching. I’ll leave that for another time.
by Gary Schenkel | Aug 20, 2011 | Events, History, Music, Tourism
I was looking forward to hearing my favorite living musical legend over the Labor Day weekend, at the Detroit Jazz Festival. But then I read online that Dave Brubeck’s “medical team” (mere mortals have doctors) advised him to cancel. Although still a virtuoso of the keyboard, he is, after all, a few months shy of 91.
While concerned for him, I’ve overcome my disappointment. Now I’m looking forward to my new Labor Day weekend destination: Mutual, Ohio (population 129).
More specifically, I’m looking forward to a brand new music festival, the Madden Road MusicFest, which will debut in Mutual’s old town hall (5854 E. St. Rt. 29, at the corner of S. Mutual-Union Road), Saturday, September 3, noon to 9 p.m.
Mutual, situated at the intersection of State Routes 29 and 161 and surrounded by farmland, is a mere six and a half miles from my house in Urbana and 170 miles or so separated from the distractions of the Motor City (though just 40 miles from Columbus or 45 from Dayton).
For the old town hall of Mutual, Ohio, the writing's on the floor, marked in dust: The building will debut in its new role, music hall, September 3 at the Madden Road MusicFest. Daniel Dye, at right, with his wife, Yasmin, and brother-in-law Scott Blanton take a break from getting the building ready for showtime.
The Madden Road MusicFest is all about the music—a mix of folk, bluegrass, rock, gospel and Americana, performed by talented central Ohio musicians, including the coordinator and headliner of the whole affair, local singer/songwriter Daniel Dye. Dye, who recently completed a solo European tour, wants to restore the building to become a regular, intimate concert venue.
Tickets for the Madden Road MusicFest (at a reasonable $10 for the day or $6 for a half day) will support the restoration.
Performances will be on the second floor, above the Town Hall Emporium, an antique shop that Dye’s mother, Janet Dye, has run for the last several years. The building also served as a school with a scaled-down basketball court (a slate scoreboard, marked “Mutual” and “Visitors,” still hangs on a wall on the second floor).
On September 3, the lineup will be The Muleskinner Band, Andolino, Rockin’ Chairs, Like A Child, the Kurtz Trio, and Daniel Dye’s own band featuring two nephews and a niece, Daniel Dye and the Miller Road Band. Also featured is jazz guitarist Johnny O, who will be holding court outside the old town hall, inviting guests to bring instruments and join him in some pickin’ and grinnin’.
If you like your music up close and personal and want to have a part in preserving history, the Madden Road MusicFest is the place to be. See you there!
One more thing: food will be available for purchase – also to help support the cause – along with coffee from Hemisphere Coffee Roasters, the subject of a previous Champaign Uncorked! post.
For more, visit the Madden Road MusicFest website and Facebook page (and “like” it).
And here’s a little bonus: a bit of Mutual history that parallels my abbreviated Labor Day journey, more or less….
Mutual, incorporated as a village in 1869, traces its roots back to William Lafferty, a Union Township farmer. In 1840, he told his neighbors he was leaving for Texas. A few miles into his journey, at Old Post Road, now State Route 161, one of his wagon wheels snapped. Near that spot he built a cabin. Others settled around him. They named their new haven Little Texas, a name that was ultimately rejected, apparently by mutual agreement. (Never fear, citizens of Mutual. I will never refer to your home as Little Detroit.)
by Gary Schenkel | Apr 19, 2011 | Agriculture, Business
At a roadside stand or farmers’ market, you buy direct from the farmer. Middlemen are left out of the exchange, the farmer nets more from his toil, and you benefit from eating fresher food—and knowing where it came from.
Paul Kurtz and his son-in-law Hans Hochstedler display a bag of Cafe Diego, coffee they purchased directly from a farmer in Nicaragua.
You can experience similar advantages at Hemisphere Coffee Roasters (HCR) at 22 S. Main Street (State Route 29) in Mechanicsburg, Ohio. Obviously, the coffee that owners Paul and Grace Kurtz sell isn’t locally grown. Yet, in Hemisphere’s inviting, aromatic coffee shop and roastery, you’re much less removed from the people who grow and harvest the coffee than you typically are at the supermarket.
Shake hands with Paul Kurtz and you’re in the clasp of the man who shakes hands with Latin American and African coffee growers as they agree on fair, direct purchases of the many varieties that HCR sells.
Coffee with a Mission
“Coffee with a mission,” HCR’s slogan, is much less a marketing mantra than pithy creed. In 2004, HCR blossomed from Paul’s service as director of global mission for Rosedale Mennonite Missions in Irwin, Ohio.
Hans roasts coffee at Hemisphere Coffee Roasters.
In his extensive travels through Central and South America and East Africa, Paul witnessed struggling people and communities.
The economies of many of the communities had coffee in common, so Paul recognized an opportunity to offer the people a “hand up,” instead of a “hand out.” Since then he’s been shaking hands with coffee growers, offering them a direct, fair price—considerably higher than customary—to sustain their farms, their families, their employees and their communities.
“We’re now seeing new roofs on houses and cement floors that were once dirt—and growers who are better able to support their workers and their families,” Paul says.
The direct trade relationships that the Kurtzes cultivate with coffee growers also benefit HCR’s customers. Before making any purchase, Paul “cups,” or taste tests the coffee to assure its quality.
Last year HCR roasted and sold 57,000 pounds of coffee, retail and wholesale, and is continually expanding its market.
HCR coffee is available in Champaign County, Ohio, at Everyday Organics, Freshwater Farms of Ohio and Yutzy’s Cheese House in Urbana, Mad River Farm Market, near West Liberty, and Preston’s IGA in Mechanicsburg. For more retail locations, a list of churches that serve HCR coffee, and online sales, visit HCR’s website.
HCR coffee shop, retail store and roastery
22 S. Main St., Mechanicsburg
937-834-3230
www.hemispherecoffeeroasters.com
Facebook: Hemisphere Coffee Roasters
Hours: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Monday, 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, and 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday.
Bible study: 10 a.m. to noon on Sunday. All are welcome!
by Gary Schenkel | Apr 10, 2011 | General, History
This Tuesday, April 12, marks the 150th anniversary of the Confederates’ first shots on Fort Sumter, the start of the Civil War.
In God’s grand scheme 150 years is but a day (actually, a little more than three and a half hours, if you calculate by 2 Peter 3:8). Even from our limited perspective it’s less than twice the average American’s life span.
It’s difficult, at least for me, to believe that we’re quickly approaching the 10th anniversary of the tragic 9/11 terrorist attacks on American civilians. The memory of the moment I first heard the news is still fresh, as it probably is for you.
The Man on the Monument, downtown Urbana, Ohio.
But time marches on. Memory fades.
Even so, reminders of the War Between the States still stand among us. In Urbana, Ohio, every time we navigate the roundabout on Monument Square we see the iconic Man on the Monument. He’s an unnamed Union cavalryman preserved in bronze, head poignantly bowed for his fallen comrades—a testament to the 578 Champaign County men who gave their lives to preserve the Union and the principles and freedoms it was founded on.
Urbana firefighters and paramedics stand in front of the World Trade Center steel on Saturday.
In this same spirit, the Urbana Rotary Club stirred our memories and emotions on Saturday. The Rotarians coordinated a caravan of emergency vehicles and motorcycles, which escorted through the county a flatbed truck bearing a flag-draped, twisted and bent steel beam—a testament to the violence of 9/11 that brought down the World Trade Center and with it the lives of 3,000 innocent victims, including one of Champaign County’s own, Alicia Titus, a United Airlines flight attendant.
The caravan, witnessed by hundreds of Champaign County residents, came to a stop at Freedom Grove, where the twisted steel will become the centerpiece of a memorial to 9/11. To be designed by local artist Mike Major, the memorial will be dedicated this September 11, the 10th anniversary of 9/11, reminding future generations of the terrorist attacks, just as the Man on the Monument reminds us of the sacrifices that saved our country from destruction.
Fred Maine, who transported the WTC beam from New York, speaks Saturday at Freedom Grove.
Freedom Grove, at U.S. 68 and State Route 55 on the south end of Urbana, sits on land leased by the Rotary Club for a dollar a year from the Champaign County Board of Commissioners. The Rotary Club is developing the six-acre park through a countywide collaboration of organizations and citizens. It already includes:
- Monuments dedicated to Americans who have sacrificed their lives for freedom, from the Revolutionary War to the War on Terror
- A bell tower that houses Champaign County’s Bicentennial bell
- A one and a half mile walking path
Click here to find out how you can support the development of Freedom Grove, the 9/11 memorial and pay tribute to loved ones.
Watch a WHIO-TV report on the 9/11 memorial.
Read an Urbana Daily Citizen article about the WTC steel procession.
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