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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 26, 1997)
Band plans energetic tribute to Berringer By David Wilson Senior Reporter Mark Miller will take the stage tonight wear ing Husker red. The lead singer of Sawyer Brown will pa> tribute to the late Brook Berringer in a 7:30 p.m concert at Bob Devaney Sports Center. Miller, who was a friend of Berringer, said he will wear Berringer’s game-worn jersey during the show. All proceeds from the concert will gc to a Nebraska football scholarship endowmeni in Berringer’s name and to the Brook Bemngei Memorial Fund, which provides financial sup port to youth sports programs and other causes. “We want it to be a celebration of a gooc friend,” Miller said. “It’s going to be pretty cool.’ The two met four years ago - the last time Sawyer Brown played in Lincoln. Berringei went backstage after the concert and the> became friends, Miller said. “We just talked and hit it off,” Miller said “Brook would come out to shows in the Iowa Nebraska and Kansas area. Anytime we were around, he’d drive to see us and hang out.” Berringer arranged a surprise appearance b> Sawyer Brown at the April 1996 celebration ol Nebraska’s second national championship Miller wrote a song for the occasion and playec part of it for Berringer over the phone the morn ing before the day Berringer was killed in a plane crash. “Brook introduced us to Nebraska football and just the Americana of Nebraska,” Millei said. “It’s very, very unique. In writing the song I was just imagining Brook growing up oui there, and Nebraska football being so big Bigger than anything. Then the university wants you to play for them - what that felt like. “Whenever he would talk about the games By Mary Campbell The Associated Press NEW YORK - Singer Carly Simon dressed up like a heroine from a dark and brooding old black and-white film to put her in the mood to record her new album, “Film Noir.” “I wore sunglasses and a wig. The wig was very much like my own hair, in fact. But because it was a wig, I felt different.” The American Movie Classics cable TV channel made a documen tary, “Songs in Shadow,” about Ms. C i »vi r\ n m n 1/ i n rt f Vi a ^ U i 1 rv i f’5 record. “I loved doing it with a whole orchestra,” she said. “I had them dress in film noir clothes, too,.as if they were in an orchestra of the '30s, '40s and '50s. “They started acting a part. The guys wore wide ties. I got a couple to wear Bogart-kind-of hats. Some of the women wore hats with veils and '40s jackets. It slightly impeded their playing but it got everybody into the mood.” The documentary will be aired Sept. 16 and 19. On Sept. 25, Ms. Simon will sing five songs from the album at a Los Angeles benefit for the Martin Scorcese Film Foundation's project to save old movies before they disin tegrate. That concert will air on the AMC channel on Oct. 5. Simon joins the dark side Simon, the writer-singer of such songs as “Haven't Got Time for the Pain,” “Anticipation” and “You're So Vain ” didn't start her “Film Noir” project to accommodate AMC. About a year ago she was work ing on an album of her own new songs, she said, when, “I got frus trated and bogged down and fell into a disenchanted state.” She told her friend, songwriter Jimmy Webb, she felt like dumping the project and doing an album of film music. “How about film noir,” Webb suggested. “You have a great voice for that; the smokiness would suit the genre.” She told Webb she would do it if ne would produce it. Film noir, a name given by the French to black-and-white American movies that evoke the lost and des perate side of life, is what Ms. Simon grew up on. “Other kids were watching ‘Tom and Jerry’ and ‘Howdy Doody’ and I was watching ‘One Touch of Venus’ and ‘The Big Sleep,”’ she said. “Film noir was a reaction to lush, fluffy Hollywood productions, with their even lighting, dancing boys and girls and actors perfectly placed. “Noir had strange camera angles, smoke, steam and slick city streets at night. “Its heroes were undone by their own lack of self-control or desire to experience their own excessive natures.” and the coaches, he was so excited. He once told me that he respected Coach Osborne more than any other man. That blew me away. I kind of got to see that through his eyes and through his enthusiasm. That’s how I was able to write the song.” After Berringer’s death, Miller said he sat down to finish the song numerous times before finally completing it. “I thought maybe it was just one of those songs that wasn’t meant to be finished,” Miller said. Miller recorded the song on his latest album, “Six Days On The Road,” and will perform the song before a live audience for the first time sing. Sawyer Brown concerts are always full of energy, he said, using an analogy to Berringer’s team. “I’d say we are to country music what Nebraska is to college football,” Miller said. Voted the Vocal Group of the Year in April by the Academy of Country Music, Sawyer Brown has been touring since May in support of its most recent album. The tour will end after Thanksgiving, when the group will release its first Christmas album. The recording will include 10 original songs and two traditional Christmas tunes. Miller, who began writing songs as a hobby in college, said he gets his songwriting inspira tions from first-hand experiences as well as sec ond-hand accounts. “I think you can write from your head as well as your heart,” Miller said. “I think you can relate to certain things in life you didn’t neces sarily do. I think that’s what writers do.” As a junior at the University of Central Florida, Miller headed for Nashville over spring break that year, when he caught the eye of a few producers. Miller later dropped out of school and moved to Nashville to be a songwriter. The “band thing just kind of happened,” Miller said, and 15 years and 14 albums later, Sawyer Brown is still pleasing country music fans across the country. Country music has changed over the years, and Sawyer Brown has office on the north side of Bob Devaney Sports Center. The fair’s $7 Superpasses won’t be accepted for the Sawyer Brown show. UViUp'lVV^ IfllUVl JU1V “It changes anc you’ll revert back. Miller said. “You are what you are. The M subject mat- Jm ter has changed t||| over the v years. The ** ‘Six Days m On The Road’ “*** album is h kind of a collage of —^ what we do - serious !§||j it’s both.” M Ticket prices for flHi the benefit are $32, $24 and $ 14. They MEMBERS OF SAWYER BROWN are (from left): Jim Scholten, Mark Miller, Gregg may bej “Hobie” Hubbard, Joe Smyth and Duncan Cameron. The group will perform a anhe state memorial concert for former Nebraska quarterback Brook Berringer tonight at the fair s ticket Bol> Bevaney Sports Center. Actors sweat auditions By Liza Holtmeier Senior Reporter They write down their ages, their weights, their heights and every part they have had in a play oi dance performance. Then they wait for their names to be called so they can stand alone on stage and deliv er five minutes of emotionally charged material for the directors, who sit out in the audience. Every semester during the first week of classes, theater majors and lovers put themselves through these auditions for the semester’s Main Stage shows. “Of course I’m nervous, bul you need to be nervous,” said interested in auditioning can sign up in the commons of the Temple Building for an audition time. Students who audition for “Misalliance” or “A Lie of the Mind” will have five minutes to perform a dramatic and a comedic monologue. Those auditioning for “Oklahoma!” will be given a piece to read and will have time to per form a song. Kate Eisenhour, a second-year theater graduate student, per formed a comedic piece by Jennifer Saunders, a dramatic piece by Terrence McNally and a song from her work or talent well. She said her worst fear is that she will stall or pause in the wrong place and dis rupt the pace of her pieces. “If I stall, then I won’t be able to give the directors anything to think about,” she said. “I want to keep on going and keep my flow.” With so many worries racing through their minds, Holmquist and Eisenhour said, the audition experi ence often can be unpredictable. “Once during an audition for a high school musical, I started my song off in the wrong key,” Eisenhour said, laughing. “I looked at the accompanist, and she looked at me, and then we decided to just start over.” “My friend had to drag me to an audition my freshman year of high school,” Holmquist added. “We had Kendra Holmquist, a freshman the ater arts major from Houston. “II you’re not nervous, that takes awa> part of your energy.” Students will try to maintair that energy throughout the week as they audition for the shows “Misalliance,” “A Lie of the Mind’ and “ Oklahoma!” “Oklahoma!” auditions foi singers and actors will be Wednesday from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m in Howell Theatre and auditions fot dancers will be from 3 p.m. to 5:3C p.m. in Mabel Lee Hall. The othei two shows will have auditions tonight from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ir Howell Theatre. Students who are . “Follies” for her auditions Monday night. She said that a year in the program has eased a lot of the ner vousness she felt last fall. “It’s more comfortable because you know all the people,” Eisenhour said. “You know the peo ple you are auditioning for; you know the people you are audition ing with. There’s a certain amount of grace because they know, to a certain extent, what you can do. It’s a little more comforting than audi tioning for complete and total strangers who don’t know you from a hole in the wall.” Holmquist, however, is audi tioning for people who do not know iv uu impiuviaauuii, anu uic pcibuii I had to improve with was 10 mil lion times better than I was. Afterwards, I just went into the back room and cried because I did n’t say two words the whole time.” Eisenhour said a good audition would be one where she exuded confidence and poise. “What makes me feel good about an audition is when I go in there, and I know what I’m doing,” she said. “I hit the emotional levels in both pieces and then come out with grace. That’s the most you can hope for.”