The sounds of fiddles, mandolins and banjos are once again in the air, as musicians from all over Juneau get together to practice for next week’s Alaska Folk Festival.
It’s been two years since they’ve been able to perform for a live audience at Centennial Hall, something performers like Taylor Vidic have really missed.
On Friday’s Juneau Afternoon, she’ll give us a preview of her set for the Folk Festival and talk about her new job booking musicians at the new Crystal Saloon downtown, which features a stage built for live performances. Ivan Night, a guitarist for Pumyua, will join her.
Also on Friday:
A new exhibit on the history of fish canneries in Alaska opens at the state museum, that tells the story of the crews who provided the essential labor.
Rhonda McBride hosts this Friday’s Juneau Afternoon, which airs Tuesday through Friday, live at 3:00 p.m. on KTOO Juneau 104.3. The show repeats at 7:00 p.m. You can also listen online at ktoo.org.
Part 1: Taylor Vidic and Ivan Night play a few tunes, as they look ahead to the 2020 Alaska Folk Festival.
Taylor Vidic talks about her music and her new job booking groups for the Crystal Saloon, which opened just in time for the Alaska Folk Festival. Taylor’s first AFF performance was when she was twelve years old. This is Ivan Night’s first time playing at the festival.
Part 2: New at the Alaska State Museum: Mug Up: The Language of Cannery Work.
Guests: Katie Ringsmuth, Alaska State Historian. Addison Field, Chief Curator, Alaska State Museum. Dave Thomas, Sentinel Coffee.The “Mug Up: The Language of Cannery Work” exhibit was years in the making — and brings pieces of equipment from one of Alaska’s oldest canneries in Bristol Bay to the State Museum. When the Diamond NN Cannery in South Naknek closed, key pieces of machinery were salvaged and selected for display. But even more important, stories from former cannery workers were collected, to find out what it was like to be a part of one of Alaska’s earliest multi-cultural work forces. The name of the exhibit, Mug Up, was a cannery term for coffee break, a time that brought all the diverse workers together. Mug Up will be on exhibit at the Alaska State Museum from April 1 through October 8, 2022.
