Waukesha Daily Freeman from Waukesha, Wisconsin • Page 16

Ballads Note of Written About flappenings Country Western Music Has Gone to the City By CINDY BORDEN Freeman Staff music has to and that just a- whistling Dixie! a tremendous demand for country music asserted Bill Hockett, director and lead guitar of a country western foursome, Anne and the Country The popularity of this type music is becoming so wide-spread that membership of organizations such as the New Berlin based Big Western Club of Wisconsin, which began a year and a half ago with just 30 people (and now has over 250 members), is spreading like wild-fire. music used to be about make-believe events the hanging of Ton; Dooley or prison blues. Today, western music is explained Hockett, adding that subject matter revolves around things like Gonna Mow Your The 31-year-old guitarist and singer said much of popular music, such as the songs of Glen Campbell, are The young people just realize hearing western In fact, he continued, country music is almost identical to what popular music was 10 years ago. Net only the subject matter, but the whole structure of country music has changed from the traditional he feels. ago, country western was straight you knew as soon as you heard it.

Today the song writers have a knowledge of music, and a great Hockett and his group have been stamping the country beat for five years but not so easy making tracks. write a best-seller by sitting on the back porch on yer gee tar spoofed Hockett. of the tunes have been written, and just retrace somebody His group has made some however. Aside from having ed at about 15 different night spots in the area (they average three shows a week), the group has cut three 45 New York for five days to audition with CBS and Columbia. a bit of a sore spot, Hockett admitted.

until we wert already therd that we discovered you sell country western in New Where you DO sell country western music is Nashville, Tenn. another stone the group is attempting to overturn. heading for Nashville this summer, and with the help of manager Richard Hess, 1106 E. Main hope to be picked up by a major label there. The story behind each of the Rogues is as colorful as the country music they sing.

Twenty-six-year-old who is Bill wife, says always loved to sing and practically grew up singing with her sister, Rose West of Eagle. (Miss West wrote the words to one of the records, When she married Hockett 12 years ago, he taught her how to play guitar and soon realized they His young vibrant voice was perfect for country singing. Friends began asking them to perform at gatherings, and before they knew it, they were performing professionally. A drum and bass guitar to complete the group were usually obtained through the Big Western Club, of which they are members. The Hocxetts live at Dousman Rt.

1, box 121, with their three children, Susanne, Jo Anne, eight and Billy, 10. As a romantic note of interest, the words to another of the records, were taken from a poem Shirley Anne wrote to her husband some years ago. was perfect to be set to he said. Mustached Kenny Christensen, 39, of Watt-rford, came to the group last July more out of a love for than used to have horses this just kino of goes along with he ed. Busy with the farm he and hia wife, Lois, and their four children run, he had little time to spend a guitar.

But when he heard the Rogues had an opening for bass guitar last summer, he decided to grab the char.ce. A singer as well, his is yodeling. know where I picked it he grinned. just always been able to do it, ever since I was a He is employed as a sheet metal worker at Hamischfeger Milwaukee, and has a quartet of smallfry: Clint, six; Luke, seven; Shelly, eight and Patti, nine. The drummer, Carl Jacobson, the group just five weeks ago, after a dramalic prelude.

He knew and admired group since their start, but never con- side, ed himself talented enough to even ask to be part of them. Then, two years ago, a car accident left his legs seriously injured. He began drum lessons in his home at 7719 N. Cape Road, Franklin, for rehabilitation purposes and pass the When the drummer quit five weeks ago, Hockett asked Jacobson if like to join the group. The rest of the story is history.

The beaming drummer has already gotten the country and is even belting out a song or two. He works as a chauffeur for the Milwaukee Road. Trie previously mentioned Big Western Club is dedicated to the support of country and western music, promoting groups such as Anne and the Country Much of the activities involve benefits for people faced with misfortune. Member musicians volunteer their time and talent to raise funds. In January of 1968 the club raised almost $2,000 with a benefit held at the New Berlin VFW hall for dbnation to tnree Mukwonago children orphaned by a fire in the home of their parents, the late Mr.

and Mrs. Billy L. Hall. Lost March a benefit yielded $400 in donations for Muskego High school, mfi- Members of the Big Western Club of Wisconsin are (from left) Dan Mass, Danny Goodman and Hank Sehnla, all of Milwaukee. The New Berlin based (PrMman Staff Wwtaa) organisation has over 250 members and is dedicated to the support of country and western music, Which has been reputed to he like where Dennis Marks, recently killed on the U.S.S.

Enterprise, went to schcol. In addition, the club has had floats in parades celebrating Muskego Memorial Day, New Berlin Fourth of July, West Allis County Days and Milwaukee Loyalty Day and took part in the Muskego county fair. Members give gratis performances regularly at old homes and hospitals such as Wood veterans hospital. play for anybody who needs explained club president Bill Baker of Milwaukee. have a committee that constantly seeks areas we can help The club is non-profit, and operating capital is earned through minimal membership dues.

The club has a the firsjt Sunday of each month. There, not only professional groups, but people who think of performing elsewhere feel at home taking their place on the bandstand. a chance for everyone who enjoys country music to get together and have explained Baker. "We all have something in On the light side, the club chartered a bus to Nashville last year, and 20 couples attended the "Grand Old Opry. 1984 Be Too Bad NEW YORK 1984 is only 15 years away.

What will it be like? George vision of a drab, uniform and overwhelmingly technological society has made 1984 a synonym for controlled misery. says Dr. John N. Dempsey, chief scientist at Honeywell who believes that technology will physically enrich all our lives. Dr.

Dempsey has made some educated guesses about our home lives 15 years from now. Many, many more housing units cither entire dwellings or prefurnished kitchens and bathrooms will be built right at the factory. This will cut the cost while increasing efficiency and uniformity. These dwellings will be more fireproof. Better fire and smoke detectors will be built in, as will such security devices as radar-like systems.

Homes will have far better air conditioning ajid humidity control systems. And builders will make better use of such materials as glass, plastics and even paper. Today we know that certain music relaxes, certain colors stimulate and certain views (or lack of them) can alter a mood. 1984, there will be many more subtle but quite effective methods of mood and attitude believes Dr. Dempsey.

be using odors, sound control, ions and perhaps even chemicals not to create the horror of 1984 but to recreate the exhilaration of a balmy June day or the relaxation of a Debussy In our checkless and bill less society (because of datarcommunications equipment in each home) we will be able to look at the sky through photochromic glass windows, select a satisfying temperature, sniff our favorite odor and contemplate Thoreau. Man can alter nature, can even improve on it but can never recreate it. man-made environment is an artificial environment and no matter how closely it may resemble the original, it is at best a machine-madfe Some of us will miss Walden Pond. Historical Play to Be Presented ELM GROVE Man For All by Robert Bolt will be presented Friday at the Sunset Playhouse, 850 Elm Grove Road. The curtains will open at 8:30 p.m.

Friday. Other playing dates will be Saturday and Sunday and April 17, 18, 19, 20, 24, 25, 26 and 27. Curtain time will oe at 8:30 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday and 7:30 p.m. Sunday.

The play is about the last years of Sir Thomas More as Lord Chancellor of England, during the reign of Henry VIII when Henry failed to obtain a divorce from Catherine of Aragon from the Pope in order to marry Ann Boleyn. Henry rebelled by requiring his subject to sign an Act of Supremacy making him both spiritual and temporal leader of England. More could not in conscience comply, and neither Thomas Cromwell nor Cardinal Wolsey, nor the King himself could get a commitment from him. More wanted only to maintain his integrety and belief in silence; but this was treason, and nis silence led him to his death. Cast members include Bennett Sargent, 16735 Ridgeview Drive, Brookfield, Sir Thomas More; Richard Heii.den, Wauwatosa, Cromwell; Bob Hanley, 16753 Mary Ross Drive, New Berlin, Henry VIII; Bill Regan, Milwaukee, Richard Rich and Lee WeicK, Cardinal Wolsey.

Also, Nancy Stiles, 1160 Lone Tree, Elm Grove, Lady Alice; John Lincoln, Milwaukee, Duke of Norfolk; Roberta Burkhardt, Wauwatosa, The Woman; James W. Drake, Milwaukee, The Common Man; Michael L. Frost, Wauwatosa, Chapuys; Stacey Fiandt, 222 Arcadian Margaret, ind Thomas Marlett, Wauwatosa, Roper. Country western group Anne and the Country has been stomping the circuit for five years. In the group are (from left) Bill Hockett, director, and his wife, Shirley Anne, Dousman Rt.

1, box 121, Carl Jacobson, 7719 N. Cape Road, Franklin, on drums, and Kenny Christensen, Waterford. The Quality of a Society fTHE quality of a social order may be gauged by several criteria: by how effectively it realizes its human resources; by how well it maintains its social plant; and, above all, by the quality of its people how self-respecting, benevolent, self-reliant, energetic, etc. The elimination of the profit motive in Communist countries has not made peoDle less greedy and selfish. The increased dependence of the many on the will and whim of the few has not made people more gentle, forebearing and carefree.

From all that I read it seems that the attitude of every-man- for-himself is more pronounced in a Communist than in a capitalist society. It was in Communist countries that wives sent their husbands and children, their parents, unhesitatingly, even smugly, to the prisons, the torture room and the gallows. The compact unity imposed from above has weakened the impulse toward mutual help and voluntary cooperation. Page 4 Saturday Review And yet, on the whole, there is less loneliness in a Communist than in a capitalist society. People do not feel abandoned and forgotten in a regi- mei ted society.

This perhaps keeps REFLECTIONS by Eric Hoffer (Syndicated Columnist) illMlillllllllMUIIilillimnHllltmiliitri'IHIIMIMMIIIIHimniltlltllMIIHtHIIIIIIIIIIIMIIlimHMffllMIIIIWIMIHli peopie from cutting loose from the Communist fatherland. The afterthought is that there is no loneliness in prison. Again and again I come across the assertion that a society cannot grow and thrive without a culturally superior stratum, which generates the impulses toward excellence and greatness. The axiomatic assumption is that left to themselves the common people will wallow in sloth or explode in anarchy. The happenings in this country refute this assertion.

In the rest of the world at present there is evidence on every hand that the vigor and health of a society are determined by the quality of the common people rather than that of the cultural elite. It may even be true that the cultural elite performs best when society begins to decay. It was so in Greece, and it seems to be so in contemporary Britain. The sickness of Britain is not that its cultural elite does not write, compose or invent brilliantly, but that the majority of the population are without a taste for strenuous effort. To produce a piece of machinery Britain needs twice as many men on the job as Sweden, and four times as many as the United States.

Finally, one ought not to equate social health with total harmony, with a lack of contradictions and strains. Actually, vigor and creative flow have their source in infernal strains and tensions. It is the pull of opposite poles that stretches souls. And only stretched souls make music. Rehearsing Unas from Man far All are (from left) Bennett Sargent, Brookfield, as Sir Thomas More; Mrs.

Ronald K. Fiandt, Waukesha, Margaret Mora, and Tom Marlett, Wauwatosa, Roper. The play will open Friday at Sunset Playhouse, 850 Elm Grove Road, Elm Grove. Saturday, April 5, 1969 s9 i.