By James Reston, Jr. A Rift In The Earth: Art, Memory, And The Fight For A Vietnam War Memorial could be considered a biography of this national memorial. Having many times visited the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C., and having followed the controversy as it was built, I looked forward to reading this […]
CONCERT REVIEW – BILL ANDERSON The Performing Arts Center in Sisseton, South Dakota, hosted the Bill Anderson concert Saturday night. Bill invited me to come up from Sioux Falls for the evening, and I took sister Kayo and friend Perry with me. The folks at Coteau Entertainment Company treated us well, complete with a delicious […]
Edited by Nancy Tystad Koupal This is not a book for beginners. Pioneer Girl Perspectives; Exploring Laura Ingalls Wilder is a collection of essays for those with a scholarly appreciation of the life and work of Laura Ingalls Wilder. It follows an earlier book, Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography, which was an unexpected bestseller in […]
CONCERT REVIEW – TRAVIS TRITT The Sioux Empire Fair brought Travis Tritt to Sioux Falls last Friday evening. It was the first time I’d seen him in concert. There was no opening act, and he came on stage singing “Put Some Drive in Your Country.” He then traded his electric guitar for an acoustic one, […]
NEWS In 1997, Garth Brooks performed at the Sioux Falls Arena, after selling 41,183 tickets. Now, when ticket sales opened for one show at the new Denny Sanford Premier Center in September, he sold out six shows in half an hour. Ticket sales opened several days later for an additional show. Within 20 minutes, there […]
CONCERT REVIEW — JOHN ANDERSON AND TANYA TUCKER The Orpheum Theater in Sioux City, Iowa, was the place to be on Friday, July 7. John Anderson and Tanya Tucker both put on fantastic shows. A person forgets how many hits a singer has had, until listening to one recognizable song after another for over an […]
NEWS The last surviving member of Roy Acuff’s Smoky Mountain Boys has died. Alden Johnny “A. J.” Nelson, age 94, of Hendersonville passed away June 22. He had served in the US Navy during WWII, and he performed on many USO tours during the Vietnam war. In addition to being an entertainer, he was a […]
NEWS Norro Wilson, co-writer of “The Grand Tour,” “A Picture of Me (Without You),” and other classics, died June 8 at age 79. “Over the course of his career,” The Tennessean reports, “he was involved in nearly every aspect of the music business, working as a performer, a songwriter, a song plugger, a publisher, an […]
NEWS “All My Rowdy Friends” is returning to ESPN’s Monday Night Football on September 11. The Minnesota Vikings will be hosting the New Orleans Saints for the first Monday night game of the season. Hank Williams Jr. filmed a new video in Nashville with a new version of the song that calls out, “Are you […]
Memorial Day Speech by CAPT Diane Diekman, USN (ret) May 29, 2017 American Legion Post 13, Willow Lake, South Dakota If South Dakota hadn’t passed a law in the mid-1960s to allow only 12-year school districts, I wouldn’t be standing here today. I’d be a retired country schoolteacher instead of a retired U.S. Navy captain. […]