World Poetry Day

Today is World Poetry Day. I celebrated by lending my voice to The Long Island History Project's "Long Island Power Ballads" which features various people reading old Long Island poems & ballads from obscure/forgotten poets. My contribution was reading a couple poems by Si Tanhauser, a depression era poet who moonlighted as a LIRR Ticket agent.
The Long Island History Project is a joint effort of Dowling College and the Long Island Television & Radio Historical Society. Last year our band, The Homegrown String Band™, was featured in the series about Long Island music.

Long Island History Project - Homegrown String Band

The Homegrown String Band a Long Island Family Band

A couple months ago I was asked to do an interview for the Long Island History Project at Dowling College. The lady who asked me to do the interview was the president of the LI Radio and Television History Society. I thought the interview was going to be about the influence of radio on traditional music, but what they really wanted to hear about was the historical significance of our family band. The interview was supposed to be a half hour long, but Georgianne and I talked about our family and our music until the hard drive on the recorder was full, about 90 minutes, the discourse was then edited down to an hour. Our music was also used as the introduction for all the other interviews in the series. 

Listen to the interview here:
http://longislandhistoryproject.wordpress.com/2014/10/07/the-home-grown-string-band/