The Folk Sessions

Helping Joe Bethancourt

Valley Musical Community Gets it Right
There comes a time when the music community needs to drop everything and come to the aid of a friend. In late April, the home of Phoenix area musician Joe Bethancourt was heavily damaged by fire. AMAZ Radio put out a call to all area musicians and within ten days put together a benefit concert for Joe and his wife to help them with living expenses while their home is rebuilt. Over twenty-six members of the Arizona music community helped with the effort with donations and a music performance on May 14, 2011 at Fiddler's Dream in Phoenix. AMAZ Radio wants to thank everyone who participated including members of the Kingston Trio and the Limeliters. The concert concluded with a sing-a-long of "Will the Circle Be Unbroken". Thanks to Wally Bormann for suggesting the song. Joe and his wife are still overwhelmed and thankful for the love and friendship expressed. AMAZ Radio is proud we were able to help make this benefit effort a success.

reprinted from AMAZ Radio Newsletter

Joe will be appearing with the AMAZ Radio All Star Revue
on Saturday, July 16 at the Highlands Center.

Chaparral MusicFest 2011

Chaparral MusicFest (June 3 - 12) brings in stellar musicians from Arizona and across the country to mix it up with the great number of dynamite musicians in Prescott. Add exceptional audience care, and you have a recipe for a unique series of concerts and educational experiences that will delight and benefit the entire community! Whether you are an audience member who wants to listen to good music, a child who wants to learn about music and have a chance to perform, or a budding professional or music enthusiast who wants a chance to study with master teachers, Chaparral MusicFest has something for you.

www.chaparralmusicfest.org

Summer F.U.N Camp at Highlands Center   
Now for ages 4 - 16! Scholarships available!

PACKED with outdoor fun and discovery ..... what better way for youngsters to spend part of the summer? Our 80 acres of the Prescott National Forest are the perfect place for small groups of kids of all ages to play, explore, and study the natural world! Pre-registration required, fills fast!

LITTLES (ages 4-6): Date: June 6 - 10  
Time: 8am - 12pm Tuition: $70 members; $115 nonmembers

MIDDLES (ages 6-12): Time: 8am - 4pm
Session 1 (ages 10-12): June 6-9 AND June 13-16
Session 2 (ages 8-10): June 27-30 AND July 5-8
  Tuition for Sessions 1 & 2: $215 member; $295 nonmember
Sleepover (for Middles ONLY): July 23/24; $25;

BIGS (ages 13-16): Date: July 11-14 AND 18-21
  Time: 8am - 4pm Tuition: $215 member; $295 nonmember

"Ladies of the Garden: The Campfire"

Friday, June 17, 7:30 pm
Saturday, June 18, 2 and 7:30 pm
Thursday, June 23, 6:30 pm
Friday, June 24, 7:30 pm
Saturday, June 25, 2 and 7:30 pm

Sharlot Hall Museums Blue Rose Theater presents an original historical play written by Randi Wise and Jody Drake. The play tells the tale of Yavapai County in the 1920s and the trials and tribulations locals faced when water issues affected the city and all who lived here.
Original Songs by Tom Agostino

Tickets are $10 ($8 for Museum members) in advance and $14 at the door. Call 928-445-3122 for tickets and info.

Jim Sallis, A Dog Apart

A man of many talents, and instruments

That nattily-dressed, professorial musician ably switching from dobro to fiddle to banjo to well, anything w/ strings, including rumor has it - sitar, has had a good year so far. Jim Sallis, one leg of the Valley's best string band, Three-Legged Dog

has seen a movie based on his novel, "Drive" open to raves at Cannes, the Dog has released a fine new CD, and the author who "may be one of the best mystery read more writers that most readers have never heard of" (Knight Ridder Tribune) is getting his literary due. James Sallis is a prolific man of letters. Author of the popular Lew Griffin novels and the recent novel Cypress Grove, he has also written an avant-garde novel, Renderings, and a spy novel, Death Will Have Your Eyes, as well as countless short stories, poems, and essays.

In addition, he has written and edited a number of musicological studies and works of literary criticism, including The Guitar Players, Difficult Lives, a study of noir writers, and Chester Himes: A Life, a biography of one of his literary heroes. Jim has even turned his hand to writing screenplays, and he pens regular columns for the Boston Globe, Fantasy and Science Fiction, and Web Del Sol.

"As a child I began telling stories daily to classmates and, at home, filled page after page with plots, conversations, beginnings I could never continue, never go on with. More and more, with age, my life seems to exist to be turned into these quiet pages, into literature. People I have loved are put to rest in one or another novel or story; relationships are sorted out in poems, then abandoned, or the other way around; the deepest, most engaging and damaging moments of my life become notes, then pages and, finally, books. This is the purpose my life has taken. Maybe in the end it's only that I want to leave a mark, something to show that I've been here."
James Sallis, 'Standing by Death'.

Sallis is often considered a Southern writer, as many of his works are set in New Orleans and the rural South of the United States, but his peripatetic nature has also colored his writing.

Born in Helena, Arkansas in 1944, Jim spent his childhood on the banks of the Mississippi River, along with his older brother John, now a philosopher and also an author. Jim attended Tulane University in New Orleans, where he first began to sell his writing and where he has lived during several periods of his life. He subsequently moved to Iowa and then to London, where he wrote much of his first book of prose and poetry, A Few Last Words.

In London, too, he edited the celebrated science fiction magazine New Worlds with his friend Michael Moorcock. Jim has spent portions of his life as a resident of New York City, Boston, Paris, Pennsylvania and Texas. At present he lives in Phoenix, Arizona, with his wife, Karyn and their cat, Grace.

Grace (photograph by Karyn Sallis) So many years I did not write. / So many years I did not live.
James Sallis, 'To a Friend with Good Counsel'.

A multi-faceted man of many talents, Jim has worked as a creative writing teacher, respiratory therapist, musician, music teacher, screenwriter, periodical editor, book reviewer, and translator, winning acclaim for his 1993 version of Raymond Queneau's Saint Glinglin.

Jim plays several musical instruments, including the guitar, french horn, fiddle, Hawaiian guitar, mandolin, sitar and dobro. He's also had an acting role in an independent film.

James Sallis (circa 2000) Trained as a respiratory therapist, Jim has worked in intensive care for both adults and newborns at many hospitals. Currently he teaches writing classes at Phoenix College in Arizona and at Otis College in Los Angeles.

Jim Sallis and pet cat, Dragon. A former Tulane Scholar and Fellow, Jim donated his personal papers to the New Orleans university's special collections in 1999.

Jim has been shortlisted for the Anthony, Nebula, Edgar, Shamus, and Gold Dagger awards.

For More Info

Center Website

Museum Website