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About Wallowa County chieftain. (Enterprise, Wallowa County, Or.) 1943-current | View Entire Issue (March 29, 2017)
A8 Community wallowa.com Welcome home ‘Wally’ March 29, 2017 Budwig records thinking man’s album By Steve Tool By Kathleen Ellyn Wallowa County Chieftain Wallowa County Chieftain The Dragons in the Wal- lowas Paddling Club will be riding their own version of the legendary Lake Monster this spring and summer. Earlier this week the club welcomed a Kaohsiung-style boat to Wallowa County. The club normally races on Wallowa Lake in the smaller Hong-Kong style racing boats and can be seen practicing (with decorative head and tail removed) from May through mid-September. The Kaohsi- ung boat is much larger and the head and tail are not re- moved for practice. The 20-person, drag- on-headed, ceremonial drag- on boat is the boat most asso- ciated with the Portland Rose Festival Dragon Boat Races, an annual cultural event host- ed by the Portland-Kaohsi- ung Sister City Association. The Portland event — held in conjunction with the Rose Festival — features as many as 96 dragon boat teams from all over the world who race on the Willamette River at Tom McCall Waterfront Park in downtown Portland. The Kaohsiung boats used in Portland are slight- ly smaller than those used in Taiwan so that they will fi t Kathleen Ellyn/Chieftain Mike Lockhart and Jea Oh pose with the striking Kaohsiung- style dragon boat recently acquired by the Dragons in the Wallowas Paddling Club. in shipping containers. They are 40-feet 6-inches long and 5-feet 4-inches wide, and each weighs 1,760 lb. They hold 20 paddlers, a caller, a tiller and a fl ag catcher. “I think the boat will be an icon on the lake,” said Mike Lockhart, organizer of the Wallowa Lake Dragon Boat race event. Local Dragons were en- couraged to participate in the Portland Race from the moment the Portland clubs heard of the Wallowa club. Wallowa’s fi rst dragon boat race held last August featured the sleeker Hong Kong racing boats and will continue to do so. Portland and Vancouver teams came to race at Wal- lowa Lake both for the beauti- ful event and in support of the local team. By acquiring the very stable Kaohsiung boat local Dragons can also attend the Portland races and manage the rough waters of the Willa- mette River. The Dragons in the Wal- lowas Paddling Club has named their Kaohsiung boat “Wally” after the fabled Wal- lowa Lake monster. To keep up to date on the dragons visit their “Dragons in the Wallowas” Facebook page. Wallowa County Chieftain Local musician Bart Bud- wig is thinking a lot about Jesus. So much so that he recorded an album “Paint by numbers Jesus.” The album title refers to a painting giv- en to him by a friend while Budwig lived in Moscow, Idaho. The painting is in fact a-paint-by-numbers work of art that hangs on the wall in Budwig’s apartment. The painting is featured on the album’s cover al- though in a psychedelic graphics altered version done by San Francisco artist Gillian Keller. It somewhat resembles a 1960s-themed stained glass window. “It’s over-the-top gild- ed, and I think it’s cool and beautiful and fun. It has a real ‘fi nish’ to it, which is part of the inspiration,” Bud- wig said. Unlike Budwig’s earlier efforts, this album, which took two days to record and three weeks of production, features eight songwriters. “There’s seven covers and three originals. Part of the concept was mixing those together, because if I wrote all the songs it would all be just my thoughts, you know, I wanted it to be broader and have more writing styles.” he Contributed art The cover art for Bart Budwig’s album, “Paint by Numbers Jesus” which is scheduled for release on April 1. said. The originals were all written recently. Included on the album are such staples as “Choco- late Jesus,” “Saturday Satan, Sunday Saint” and “Drop- kick me, Jesus.” I just picked songs that resonated with me and had some portrayal of Jesus in them. They’re more personal and help me to make sense of it in my own way. The point of this isn’t to be disrespect- ful — not at all. It’s more about me exploring ideas and also wanting to bring people together with music and hop- ing my ideas will get people to thinking and having con- versations about Jesus or religion,” Budwig said. He added that although he hopes to provoke discussion among friends, that most of the songs are funny or fun. Although the album is in Budwig’s neo-tradition country style, his vocals have a harder edge and the guitar work is particularly inventive. “I wanted this to be more of a rock’n’roll/groovy al- bum, which is why I call it ‘Swamp County.’ The band was really groovy, and we cut the album live. On some of the faster songs I was having fun. I was dancing and singing, the band was so fun.” As a working musician and sound man, Budwig isn’t exactly overfl owing with cash. This recording is only available through cassette tape and digitally online be- cause a vinyl record gener- ally takes about $2,000 to produce and about $1,000 for professional mastering. He didn’t have the money for a CD release either. The album is available on Spotify as well as Google Play and iTunes. Regardless of the avail- able formats, Budwig is hav- ing an album release party at 7 p.m. May 11 at the OK The- atre as part of the album re- lease tour. Local pianist Seth Kinzie, who is featured on the album, will also appear at the party. Admission is $15. Wallowa Valley Chorale Spring Concert approaches By Kathleen Ellyn Wallowa County Chieftain Randy Morgan never gets tired of hearing Wallowa County folks make music. And at 7 p.m., April 5, all the fans of the Wallowa Val- ley Chorale will join him in enjoying the voices of their neighbors raised in song as Morgan directs the local cho- rale in the Spring Concert to be held in the Enterprise Christian Church, 85035 Joseph High- way. Morgan taught music at Enterprise Schools for 38 years before “retiring” to keep right on conducting singers and helping organize musi- cal events. That makes him as dedicated as singers in the chorale, some of who have been singing with the group since the 60s. The chorale boasts from 24- 30 members (depending on the time of year) who range in ages from 13 to 91 years of age. The Wallowa Valley Cho- rale as an entity is historic as well – Chieftain archives show performances by the chorale in the 1950s. Programs presented by the chorale continue in pop- ularity, with the 2016 Spring Concert crowd swelling to nearly 300 attendees. A large crowd is expected again this year as a 13-song collection of Folk, Classic Rock and Christian music fi lls the church sanctuary. Special features include Casey and Danny Lawson of Enterprise performing a four- hand piano piece of sacred mu- sic, a compilation of Beatles tunes sung by the chorale, and two solo pieces: A spiritual by Courtesy photo The Wallowa Valley Chorale at a recent performance. Cindy Parks and a Tanzanian song for peace and hope sung by Denny Kolb. Admission is by donation and the program is funded en- tirely from those donations. Call Randy Morgan at 542- 263-0327, if you have ques- tions Initial exams are always complimentary for any new companion animal Come see what 39 years of experience looks like! We are your high-tech, hometown vet and we are here to help! 541.426.4470 | 66260 Lewiston Hwy | doublearrowvet.com ENTERPRISE EDUCATION FOUNDATION 13th Annual We Love Our Kids April 7, 2017 Auction & Dinner at the Cloverleaf Hall. Doors open at 5 pm Dinner at 6 pm All proceeds benefit Enterprise Schools’ arts and music programs To donate auction items or purchase tickets contact Sandy at 541-426-3812 FUNDRAISER AUCTION & KARAOKE for Wallowa County Project Heartbeat p g Imnaha Responders Program Medical supplies and training are needed for volunteer responders Auction & Karaoke will be held at the Imnaha Store & Tavern | Saturday, April 1st Locally homemade desserts A variety of items donated by Wallowa County businesses CASH OR CHECK ONLY For a list of current items donated, call Kendra @ 541-577-3158 or Bertie @ 541-577-3191 Viewing of items at 1pm | Auction at 2pm Karaoke by DAVE & KENDRA 5-9pm