The music festival revived. Fake news?

Peering from a south Sandpoint window on a September night I see bright lights and, with binoculars, osprey feathers above our spanking new athletic field. But hark! Do I hear a music festival in full voice? And then … reality. It's my record player and antique vinyl collection just doing their duty from the bookshelf.

Time for some acoustic imagination. If Sandpoint city fathers (or mothers) will invite me to revive our music festival I will create a mellow opening night featuring hip vocal groups: The King Cole Trio, The Mills Brothers, The Ink Spots, The Pied Pipers, The Modernaires, Bing Crosby and the original Rhythm Boys, Lambert Hendricks & Ross, the Andrews Sisters, The Four Freshmen. (Newbies like The Eagles, The Platters, The Temptations, The Beach Boys and The Beatles lack the required mellow vintage for inclusion).

Night Two will segue into folk music: Burl Ives, Woody Guthrie and his kid Arlo, Joni Mitchell, James Taylor and Carole King. Peter, Paul & Mary. The Brothers Four. The New Christy Minstrels. John Prine, tragic early victim of the pandemic. Pete Seeger. The Weavers. (Also, youngsters Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Simon and Garfunkel, and The Kingston Trio; but we'll need to I.D. them).

Night Three will attract jitterbuggers like moths to a flame. Duke Ellington will play "Take The A Train". Glenn Miller will follow with "In The Mood". The Stan Kenton brass will boom out "Tampico", with misty June Christy and the pastels. Tommy Dorsey will move on stage with skinny young Frankie from Hoboken, Jo Stafford and the Pied Pipers. They'll slow things down with "I'll Never Smile Again". Then Harry James with cute Kitty Kallen crooning the melancholy World War II anthem, "It's Been A Long, Long Time". If Les Brown and 22-year-old unknown Doris Day are available, they'll perform "Sentimental Journey", from 1945.

The Jimmie Lunceford band will bring the jitterbuggers back with "It Ain't Whatcha Do It's The Way How'cha Do It". And the evening will end with the big beat of Count Basie and the blues vocals of bigger Jimmie Rushing -- "Mr. Five by Five" to fans. Jimmie will sing, "We Gonna Move, Way Out On The Outskirts Of Town". ("It may seem funny, honey, as funny as can be … but if we have any children I want 'em all to look like me.")

It might be considered curious that one reared in citified Southern Cal and who led a corporate life based largely in NYC would include country music in a fantasy festival. Fact is, my record library contains as much Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, John Denver, Martina McBride, Emmylou Harris, Bob Wills and The Texas Playboys, Patsy Cline, George Straight, Johnny Cash, Bonnie Raitt, Merle Haggard and Hank Williams as any musical genre. Good country is like comfort food. Often humorous, it can lift spirits. "Try All My Ex’s Live in Texas", by George Straight and Martina McBride. Or "A Boy Named Sue" by Johnny Cash.

Some country vocalists wouldn't know a saddle from a sleeping bag. Pop legend Ray Charles, for instance. It doesn't get much better than his emotional "I Can't Stop Loving You", or "Seven Spanish Angels", with Willie. And young Nora Jones' "Cold Cold Heart", a Hank Williams original, is beautiful. "Lord willing and the creek don't rise," as Hank would say, my fantasy festival l will feature a Sandpoint-style Grand Old Opry. Boots and Stetsons will be welcome. (No swaggering Festival gun folks, though, elected or otherwise. They've already done enough damage).

The fifth and final festival night will be for sentimental romantics. Fabled pop singers and some memorable hits from the Broadway musical theater. I’ll start with the chorus line from Chorus Line, singing "One", in praise of elegant lead dancer, Cassie. Stubby Kaye will belt out "Jubilation T. Cornpone", from Lil’ Abner, and as an encore, "Sit Down You’re Rockin’ The Boat", from Guys And Dolls. I’ll ask Carol Channing to sing "Just A Little Girl From Little Rock", from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Then move deftly to romance: "Try To Remember", from Off-Broadway’s most successful musical, The Fantasticks. And Rex Harrison with "I've Grown Accustomed To Her Face", from My Fair Lady.

Shifting from Broadway to caberet, the festival audience will hear Billy Eckstine ballads like "Fools Rush In", and duets with sassy Sarah Vaughan, like "I'll Be Loving You, Always". Peggy Lee, Buddy Clark, Dinah Washington, Nat King Cole and Rosy Clooney will show up. As will Helen Forrest, Helen O’Connell, Johnny Mercer, Ella Fitzgerald and Spokane's own beloved Bing. Billie Holiday and Fats Waller will strut their stuff. So will Liltin' Martha Tilton of Benny Goodman big band fame. We'll applaud Keeley Smith, Dick Haymes and Satchmo. Maybe lead off with Nat's huge 1947 hit, Nature Boy because we desperately need its essence today: "The greatest thing you'll ever learn, is just to love, and be loved in return."

Youngsters like Neil Young, Linda Ronstadt, Eric Clapton, Diana Kral, Bruce Springsteen and Sheryl Crow, in case you're wondering, lack sufficient experience to appear in this fantasy festival. This show is not for amateurs. As you've noticed, most invited performers have long since departed for that great stage in the sky. The few still here have faded into mellow memories.

But then, so has the Sandpoint Music Festival. Imagine that!

TIM H. HENNEY

Sandpoint