Two Irish folk singers
to play at Bleu Moon
By Mick Dyer
Senior Reporter
Two performers of Irish folk
music who perform regularly in
Lincoln say folk music’sappeal is in
its distinctive sound.
Jim Bryan, a doctoral student in
clinical psychology at the Univer
sity of Nebraska-Lincoln, and John
Baylor, a children’s counselor at the
Rivcndcll Children and Youth Cen
ter in Seward, perform every Thurs
day from noon to 1 p.m. at the
Gathering Place, 15th and E streets.
The pair will play Irish folk
music today at the Bleu Moon, 808
P St., where they will appear with
Rover’s Fancy.
Playing folk music also has
meditative benefits, they said.
“It’s a different mind set — it's
more of a form of concentration,”
Bryan said “It’s an emotional and
creative outlet.
It’s kind of an ad
venture. Nobody
seems to know
much about those
instruments,
they’re kind of
mysteries.'
—Baylor
music five years ago and has been
addicted to it ever since. He plays
guitar and mandolin.
“I began playing when I started
grad school because 1 needed a di
version,” Bryan said. “It’s some
thing that seems to grab you.”
Baylor began playing guitar
when he was 8 years old and became
interested in folk music in high
school.
‘When I started, my parents said
that I had to practice an hour a day
and take lessens for a year,” he said.
“That’s a considerable time invest
ment, especially for a kid, so when
the year was up, 1 didn’t stop.”
He also play s banjo, mandola and
penny whistle.
“There arc songs 1 could play for
hours on the banjo and just love it,”
Baylor said.
Baylor buill his mandola. He said
he looks forw ard tobuilding another
instrument soon.
“It’s kind of an adventure,” he
said. “Nobody seems to know much
about these instruments, they’re
kind of mysteries.”
Bryan said folk music's distinc
tive sound appeals to him.
“It’snon-commercial music,”he
said.
Baylor said he enjoys pushing
folk music as far as he can.
“The music lends itself well to
variation," he said. “I used to see
how strange I could get and still
make it fit the music, but now I en joy
playing the music in its traditional
form.”
Bryan said folk music helps
people who don’t know each other
become acquainted through a com
mon interest.
You can meet someone and
say,‘Hey, do you know...?’ If they
know it, you can play, if they don’t,
you can show them,” he said. “It’s
almost a cultural thing.”
Bryan and Baylor belong to the
Lincoln Association For Trad itional
Arts (LAFTA), an organization
dedicated to preserving many folk
traditions, including folk music.
A folk tradition, Nebraska folk
lorist Roger Wclsch says, can be any
common activity of anonymous
historical invention that many
people participate in and that is not
learned formally.
A folk musician’s instruments
range from the unusual to thccxotic.
The mandolin is shaped like a
guitar, except smaller, and is tuned
the same as a violin. The mandola
has four pairs of strings, like a
mandolin, but is tuned an octave
lower. The instruments, with their
distinctive and full sounds, have a
relationship like the violin and vi
ola.
The bousouki (pronounced “ba
zoo-key”) is a Greek instrument
with a lute-shaped body and a thin
neck. It has a hollow sound like the
cross between a guitar and a mando
lin.
These, and other instruments
such as the guitar, banjo and penny
whistle, arc folk musicians’ stan
dard tools.
‘The Nerd’ on stage in Omaha
By William Rudolph
Staff Reporter
In the tradition of his hit comedy
“The Foreigner,” Larry Shue’s new
est work, “The Nerd,” hopes to tickle
your funnybone.
Described by critic William A.
Raidy of The Star-Ledger as “sub
limely silly . .. hilarious ... prepos
terously funny,” “The Nerd” details a
host’s nightmare: the irritating guest
who stays and stays and stays.
After architect Willum Cubbcrt
has his life saved in Vietnam by a
fellow grunt he hardly knew, the
chalk inspector and supreme nerd
Rick Steadman shows up on his door
step.
Rick isn’t your average guest who
asks to borrow your toothbrush. He’s
a nightmare who disrupts Willum’s
personal and professional life, not to
mention seriously endangering
Willum’s sanity.
Now, Willum must find some way
to tell Rick to hit the road. But it’s not
going to be easy, especially since
Rick has printed business cards pro
claiming the two of them to be best
friends.
“Go ahead and laugh,” says “The
Nerd’s” advertisements, “He’s not
living in your house!”
“The Nerd” will be playing until
May 15 at Omaha’s Firehouse Dinner
Theatre.
From
Pickles and I.R.S.
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I 17th & P Downtown
3814 Normal
237 S. 70th
