Fiddling and fantasy in Casper

I shared the stage with a talented group of musicians from Casper on Monday night. We were all part of the Music & Poetry series at the Nicolaysen Art Museum which is sponsored by ARTCORE. This was the season finale, as we all get ready for September when things get serious.

Tyler Enders led the evening off on fiddle with his father, Dick on guitar. Tyler's a talented fiddler, winner of the 2007 competition sponsored by the Wyoming Fiddlers' Association. Dick's no slacker on guitar, ably backing up his 20-year-old son.

After The Enders' (not their band's name but they might consider it) first set, I read my new prose piece, "The History of Surfing in Wyoming." It's a bit of spec-fic, a bit of fantasy, about the rise of surfing in 31st century Wyoming. It's a about a time when global warming has pushed sea levels to record levels. The United States of America is now the United Islands of America ("U.I.A.! U.I.A.!"). The surf in Wyoming is bitchin'. I think I befuddled the crowd of about 40 with the piece, told from the persona of a writer-researcher talking to a museum crowd in 3007. My teen daughter, the critic, was in the audience and she told me afterwards that she saw many puzzled faces. "You need to explain things better at the beginning," she said, very kindly.

She's right. But I had fun, especially when I had the crowd rise to sing 31st-century Wyoming's state song, "Surfin' U.S.A.," rewritten to reflect life in the WYO islands. Everybody knows the old version of the Brian Wilson song, but I passed out song sheets with the new lyrics.

The Enders then returned to the stage, accompanied by Lila McConigley, who grew up singing in Casper and now lives in London. She has a gorgeous voice and sang a song about a wedding dress, which was appropriate because she just was engaged this past weekend to her London opera singer boyfriend. He was there, too, enjoying the ambience of her fiance's hometown. Love was in the air later as Tyler sang an original song to his girlfriend, who was parked with her family front-and-center.

Now it's on the the State Fair this weekend. Get more info at my web site.