‘An Evening of Story & Song’

With Lange & Bluegrass Duo

"An Evening of Story & Song" with master storyteller Willem Lange, plus old-time music with The Sky Blue Boys, Banjo Dan and Willy Lindner, will take place Friday, July 25, beginning at 7 p.m. at Barrett Hall in South Strafford.

Lange, who has been called "one of the most beloved storytellers in northern New England," directed the Dartmouth Outward Bound Center from 1968-72, and from then, until his "retirement" in 2007, he was a building and remodeling contractor in Hanover. He’s an adopted member of the Dartmouth Class of 1957.

In 1981, Lange began writing a weekly column, "A Yankee Notebook," which appears in several New England newspapers. He’s a commentator or host for Vermont Public Radio and both Vermont and New Hampshire Public Television. His annual readings of Charles Dickens’ "A Christmas Carol" began in 1975 and continue unabated. He’s published several audio recordings and five books and received an Emmy nomination for one of his pieces on Vermont Public Television.

In 1973, Lange founded the Geriatric Adventure Society, a group of outdoor enthusiasts whose members have skied the 200-mile Alaska Marathon, climbed in Alaska, the Andes, and Himalayas, bushwhacked on skis through northern New England, and paddled rivers north of the Arctic Circle.

Lange and his wife, Ida, who is the proprietor of a kitchen design business, have been married since 1959 and have three children and four grandchildren. After 40 years in New Hampshire, they moved recently to East Montpelier.

The Sky Blue Boys, Banjo Dan and Willy Lindner, are two fellows with a mandolin and guitar, a musical teamwork built of habit, their voices fused in the special blend produced by kinship. Their type of music was called "brothers duets," and during the 1930s and ’40s, it was the predominant format in country music, practiced by now-legendary teams of brothers on radio stations and stage shows throughout the countryside.

The two Vermonters have revived the tradition. Following the example of old-time duos, they have built up a large repertoire of wonderful old ballads, parlor songs, heart songs and sacred numbers. Heeding their own musical instincts they have expanded the instrumentation to include a variety of acoustic instruments and added some newer songs, including their own compositions.

The two friends have played together for decades, forming the celebrated Vermont bluegrass band Banjo Dan and the Mid-nite Plowboys in 1972, and have toured and recorded extensively in that context, as well as sitting in on shows and recording sessions for many of the region’s top acoustic musicians.

Tickets for this event, which is sponsored by the Orange County Democratic Committee, will be available at the door.

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