Sounds Good

Alissa Keller is with us next. She's the Executive Director of the Museums of Historic Hopkinsville-Christian County clustered around the Pennyroyal Area Museum at 217 East 9th Street, in the old post office building. The other museums across the street include the Charles Jackson Circus Museum and the Woody Winfree Fire-Transportation Museum. Today's conversation centers on what's happening at The Pennyroyal this month and next. Kate Lochte has the conversation. 

Murray State University Symphonic Wind Ensemble and the MSU Jazz Orchestra welcome guest trumpet virtuoso Allen Vizzutti Friday, Feb. 22 at 7 p.m. in Lovett Auditorium. The concert is part of the 66th annual Quad-State Senior High Band Festival. A highlight of the Wind Ensemble is the premiere of KY composer James Curnow's new work "A Moment in Time" exploring the writings of Matsuo Basho of 17th Century Japan and Henry David Thoreau of 19th Century Massachusetts. Dennis Johnson, Director of Bands at Murray State University, spoke with Tracy on Sounds Good about the upcoming performance.

Mark Twain comes to Muhlenberg County's Felix E. Martin Jr. Hall in Greenville tomorrow night (February 16) at 7. We speak with John Chappell who has toured with this actor's portrait of Samuel Clemens for over a decade, in a live, amusing recreation of the great 19th Century American author. Kate Lochte spoke with Chappell on Sounds Good.

Almost, Maine is a play composed of nine short plays that explore love and loss in a remote town called Almost, Maine. The play premiered in Portland in 2004 to much critical acclaim. The Wall Street Journal and the American National Theatre selected the play as "one of the most outstanding regional theatre productions of the 2004-05 season." And now, it comes to Murray's Playhouse in the Park. Director Darryl Phillipy stopped by the studios to speak with Kate Lochte about the production. See more at Playhouse in the Park's website.

Paducah resident Gerry Marshall has a degree in zoology from the University of Kentucky.  She’s published a number of books, as well as over 100 articles, stories and poems for both children and adults.  Her most recent work involves LBL’s Homeplace 1850 and documents recipes from the mid 19th century that have not been well-documented to date. The Homeplace History and Receipt Book:  History, Folklore, and Recipes from Life on an Upper Southern Farm a Decade before The Civil War is available at amazon.com.

On Highway 94 East of Murray there’s a garden center called Beans To Blossoms which is an outgrowth of the Cathey Family’s garden business they had run from their home.  They still feature produce and flowers from their home gardens during the growing season.  Just this last Saturday  Suzanne Cathey and her daughter Lindy McManus  cranked up one of their special projects at Beans to Blossoms:  The Little Sprouts Garden Club.

Dr. Charles Daughaday, long-time faculty member of the Department of English at Murray State University, visits Sounds Good to reflect on his writing life and the value of poetry today.  He shares one of his poems and attests to his strong belief in the value of the Humanities and literature.

Rubycat Lawson's Roadhouse Lounge starts at 7:30 next Thursday evening at the Glema Center for the Arts at Madisonville Community College.  We meet the originator of the show, Darryl Van Leer, in conversation with Kate Lochte.  He bills the show as "a  foot-stomping musical tale of redemption that follows the story of a once famous Blues and Rock & Roll juke joint whose owner recalls the glory days of the place in an effort to save it."

Terri Long is one of several volunteers with the Murray Lions Club who are trained to perform FREE vision screening tests for children ages 6 months to 6 years, catching vision problems that could impede education and worse, cause death. So far the Murray club has screened over 1,000 kids. Long says that she can make appointments for day care centers and schools who want to provide this FREE screening for their children upon parent notification and approval. Her phone number is 270-436-5588. Her e-mail address is:  tflong@wk.net.