{"id":887,"date":"2008-07-08T22:50:25","date_gmt":"2008-07-09T02:50:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/2008\/07\/08\/find-your-place-in-the-sun\/"},"modified":"2008-10-10T17:17:33","modified_gmt":"2008-10-10T21:17:33","slug":"find-your-place-in-the-sun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/archives\/887","title":{"rendered":"Find your place in the sun"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hey, look, I probably get a buzz seeing famous people as much as the average guy, but I take absolutely no interest in celebrities just because they happen to qualify for the description. On the other hand, I really do like the stars I respect, especially if my admiration for them is rooted in the \u201csilver age<\/a>\u201d of television, and I\u2019d probably step on my Yorkie to shake the hand of Peter Graves.markandlucas.jpg<\/p>\n

When I learned that Johnny Crawford was coming back to Danville<\/a>, I knew I had to meet him and experience his current style of entertainment. Like Kurt Russell and Ron Howard, he was a child star who kept himself on the rails, and he went forward to do an impressive range of cool things<\/a> in his life as an artist, athlete, and entrepreneur. Most of all, he held true to his earliest passion\u2014music.<\/p>\n

If Dana didn\u2019t fully appreciate how much I was looking forward to hearing Johnny\u2019s vintage dance band, it was because I tried my best to avoid behaving like a groupie beforehand, but I think she understood when I dug out one of Dadbo\u2019s old bow ties and taught myself how to tie it. It\u2019s been quite awhile since the two of us had a nice picture taken, so I was tickled when Joan and Caitlan agreed to document our night out. Thanks, ladies!<\/p>\n

danaandjohn.jpg<\/p>\n

The extra time for pictures cost us the opportunity to pick out a choice table at the Playhouse indoor theater, but I managed to discover an empty love seat near the stage. It was a fine spot to watch Crawford re-enact the period manners of a band leader from the 1920s and 1930s. We were treated to a superb group of musicians crawfordsinger.jpghired locally to become his vintage orchestra for the evening, including Miles Osland, Dave Henderson, and Rick Cook. Watching Crawford\u2019s seat-of-the-pants coordination was a delight, and the entire effect was a testament to the sheer professionalism of everyone on stage. On top of that, the \u201cCD Release Party\u201d aspect seemed to put the star of the show in a heightened mood, and his vocals and repartee at the microphone were thoroughly entertaining. I think Dana would agree the only way it could have been more enjoyable is if I\u2019d spent less time with the bow tie and a bit more with remembering how to do the fox trot. Maybe next time; I hope he\u2019s invited back for an encore performance<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Years ago, when I fell in love with Danville\u2019s brass band festival, I gained a new, profound regard for the quality of American band music from the mid nineteenth century to the era of The Great War. I also came to understand how much work it takes to resurrect all of the instrumentation to recreate a period sound. This summer, Johnny Crawford shared with our community the same preservationist spirit, and it makes me think he may be emerging as one of the country\u2019s most important historians of our popular music, salvaging lost orchestrations and discarded arrangements of favorite dance tunes from that unique period between two World Wars. As David McCullough<\/a> reminds us, Americans from a different period of our history were less similar to us than we like to believe. They lived differently, and they thought differently. It was the age of radio. Everyone aspired to be a musician, if they didn\u2019t already sing or play an instrument. All popular music was music meant for dancing, and if people didn\u2019t go out to dance, they probably were at a motion picture to watch others dance. There was a spirit in America that observers such as David Gelernter<\/a> have told us is all but lost. Well, perhaps so, but not if Johnny Crawford has anything to say about it.<\/p>\n

crawfordbandleader.jpg<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Don\u2019t go \u2019round moping, hoping happiness will come.
\nThat\u2019s not the way; it doesn\u2019t pay.
\nIf you want happiness, help yourself to some.
\nWhy don\u2019t you try to take life the way I do:<\/p>\n

Let the whole world sigh or cry,
\nI\u2019ll be high in the sky,
\nUp on top of a rainbow,
\nSweeping the clouds away.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t care what\u2019s down below.
\nLet it rain or let it snow.
\nI\u2019ll be up on a rainbow,
\nSweeping the clouds away.<\/p>\n

I have learned life\u2019s lesson: fighters who always win
\nAre those who can take it right on the chin\u2014and grin.<\/p>\n

So I shout to everyone:
\n\u201cFind your place in the sun,
\nUp on top of a rainbow,
\nSweeping the clouds away!\u201d\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hey, look, I probably get a buzz seeing famous people as much as the average guy, but I take absolutely no interest in celebrities just because they happen to qualify for the description. On the other hand, I really do like the stars I respect, especially if my admiration for them is rooted in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75,7,12,58,18,11,36,22,23,44,16,56,15,32],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}