Our story is an important one. We promote folk music. We didn't have an
audience when we started. We don't have the support of radio or television.
We've worked hard to get where we're at and you can too. If we can do what
we've done in Pryor Creek, Oklahoma, you should be able to do the same
where you're at. With the spotlight on folk music thanks to the recent
Grammy success of Shawn Colvin, Bob Dylan, Allison Krauss, and others, we
have the opportunity to re-build our community which was so strong just a
few years ago. Here's our story, please take time to read it.
Since November of 1996 a small group of volunteers, led by a young man
named David Gustafson, (me), have been presenting concerts featuring the
best singer/songwriters this planet has to offer in our hometown: Pryor,
Oklahoma.
We've presented shows with folks like David Wilcox, John Gorka, Ellis Paul,
Lucy Kaplansky, Jimmy LaFave, Pierce Pettis, Peter Keane, and many others.
Although some would argue, our shows have been extremely successful in that
since our beginning thousands of people have been introduced to the
wonderful world of "folk" music and hundreds more have seen their dreams
come true with the founding of our organization. We even had 3,000+
chanting for Don McLean to sing "American Pie" in our small city park. We
created an audience in our community of not even 8,000 persons and are
proud of it. See, Oklahoma isn't exactly a hotbed for folk music. I know
that may surprise some of you considering we're the home of the Godfather
of Folk, Woody Guthrie, but alas it's true.
Because of our success and because we want to introduce others to this
music, we've made a few changes. In January of this year, we incorporated
as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization and have expanded our vision.
We're proud to announce the formation of a new concert series called
FolkMasters to be held at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center. Our new home is
a beautiful 400 seat theatre in downtown Tulsa. Our inaugural season will
be announced soon, but early indications are that it will knock your
preverbial socks off.
We have a new website which can tell you more about us and our series at:
http://www.azalea.net/orphanage
You'll be hearing more about us in future days and weeks. Our season will
be announced soon and details regarding the 1st Annual Orphanange
Performing Songwriter contest will be released this week.
Thanks for listening,
David Gustafson, President
The Orphanage Society
Tulsa, Oklahoma
orphan@galstar.com