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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
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We are your high-tech, hometown vet and we are here to help!
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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