I am out of town for the next couple weeks, but recently I got to check out the Chicago History Museum. There is a nice exhibit on Chicago music and television, including this photo of Win Stracke from the set of Studs Place. Studs Place was a mostly improvised show staring Studs Terkel and friends. It’s hard to find episodes these days but there are a few on the internet. The Chicago History Museum also has an excellent research library with a lot of materials on Chicago folk folks (including episodes of Studs Place).
Overall the museum is pretty good, though I thought they tended to gloss over the less sunny bits of Chicago history. The Pullman strike, haymarket riot and 68′ convention riot only get brief displays and in general a greater note of the contributions of Chicago workers to labor history would have been nice.
Dusty Grooves, Win Stracke’s Songs of Old Town
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Tags: Studs Terkel, Win Stracke
August Part 1 [40:17m]:
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August Part 2 [1:22:50m]:
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This week on the podcast we have another episode of the One Mike Stand series, Mike Alberts monthly residency at the Grafton Pub (Lincoln Ave) in Chicago. The theme this month is Duets. The first part contains Mike singing with several friends and the second part contains a set by GoodTimeTonight friends The Pickin Bubs and one by Mark Dvorak with Sue Strom. Music in small bars is some of the best stuff going on on right now. Come out to the One Mike Stand next month or see something in your area!
Performers on Part 1 include Danny Gasperut, Mike Alberts, Tony Polecastro, Simon Flory, Lizabeth MacDonald, Peggy Browning, and Maura Lally. Part 2 includes Amy Jarrett, Sue Strom, Mark Dvorak, Mary Lally, Maua Lally, Peggy Browing, Simon Flory, and Tony Polecastro.
Tags: Amy Jarrett, Danny Gasperut, Lizabeth MacDonald, Mark Dvorak, Mary Lally, Maura Lally, Mike Alberts, Peggy Browing, Simon Flory, Sue Strom, Tony Polecastro
I got the opportunity to go out to the Hideout last night to see Chicago musician Rachel Ries. Rachel’s has a wonderful voice and writes some great songs. She sings in a wonderfuly haunting blusey voice that seems to waver delicately around melodys. Kind of like a Jolie Holland or Laura Gibson (or Madeleine Peyroux if you’re in the Starbucks Set). She has an excellent album called Without a Bird. Everytime I go to the Hideout I wonder why I don’t go there more. Laura was introduced with a story about these nice Chicago days in July when it’s not too hot and there’s a breeze and you get off work early and walk up the lake and the skyscrapers look pretty even the bad one and you ride the train up to the Hideout in the early evening and get a cheap tallboy and stand in a room lit up by christmas lights in the and get to listen to Rachel Ries and you realize this is why you live in chicago. Maybe it is, Maybe it is…go see live music and check out Rachel Ries.
Tags: rachel ries, the hideout
The other half of the Chicago’s Old Town School from Frank Hamilton was a guy named Win Stracke. Frank and Win met while performing at The Gate of Horn club in Chicago. The two were unlikely partners, while Frank was a young kid, at the founding of the school in 1957 Win was already an institution In Chicago (and somewhat nationally).
In addition to the albums he cut he was a founding member of I Come For to Sing a sort of folk variety show with Studs Terkel, Big Bill Broonzy and Larry Lane. He was a pioneering member of the Chicago style of television as a cast member on Stud’s Terkel’s show Studs Place and as Uncle Win on NBC’s Animal Playtime and Time For Uncle Win. He too, like Pete Seeger, was hit pretty hard by the Hollywood Blacklist, after loosing his television shows he relied on commerical voice over work during this period.
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Tags: Win Stracke
