Anchorage Daily News

When Dar Williams steps onto the Discovery Theatre stage on Saturday night, it will mark 15 years that Whistling Swan Productions has presented nationally known folk, jazz and alternative musicians to Anchorage fans. We caught up with Mike McCormick, who runs the outfit -- no easy task in that he's also UAA's assistant director of Student Activities -- and asked a few questions.

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Dar Williams

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Q. Dar Williams has been one of your regularly presented artists since 1997. How do you determine which performers you'll book again?

A. Many artists we have invited back have songs that are close to people's hearts and are in a real sense, a part of people's lives. People want to maintain a connection to these artists. Dar's "You're Aging Well" means something different to me now than it did when I first heard it 15-plus years ago. Plus, Dar has released three albums since she last visited and, in addition to hearing favorites, we're curious to hear her new material.

On the other side of the coin are artists such as Dan Bern who people gravitate to in large part because they continue to surprise with new songs, some which are never recorded commercially.

Another case is someone like John Jorgenson (coming up on March 6) who blew people away with his show last fall and lots of people requested his prompt return before they even left the building.

Q. In Anchorage your performers play at our larger venues, often at the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts. But many also play in the cramped quarters of Vagabond Blues in Palmer. What adjustments do they need to make?

A. At Vagabond the performers have to deal with cramped stage space and walk the tight rope between casually interacting with an audience that they can literally reach out and touch and maintaining a show's momentum. I've seen artists get so casual that they've destroyed their set's momentum and ended up boring listeners. I've seen others who didn't attempt to deal with the intimacy and just marched through a set of best known numbers. Sometimes -- as in the case of a Ruthie Foster and Eric Bibb show last fall -- the artist walks the line perfectly and the result is magical. Overall though I'd say that two thirds of the artists we hire do better shows on the larger stage.

Q. Leo Kottke's Anchorage shows have sold out in the past. How do you feel when that happens?

A. We hate to turn people away and so we work with the venues to maximize the capacity of each room. There is a good chance that Leo Kottke (coming Oct. 11) will sell out this year. Tickets have been on sale since August and we hope his biggest fans have bought, or will soon buy, tickets to avoid disappointment.

Q. The local bluegrass band Bearfoot (coming Nov. 20) is among this season's offerings. What's the mix of national and local artists that you sponsor over time?

A. Whistling Swan's mission is to present nationally and internationally touring artists with a strong emphasis on acoustic based material. Bearfoot is an Alaska-based act that maintains a national and occasionally international schedule, so they fall within our mission. That said, we have hired many local artists to open shows for the headliners. We also have worked with our sound tech team Rick and Sheila Miller to put together song camps and occasional workshops where local musicians work directly with nationally touring acts. There are many talented artists here in Anchorage and the number is growing all the time.

Q. Looking back are there any shows or acts you wish you hadn't booked?

A. There are two or three shows -- out of the hundreds -- where we might have chosen a different performer. But even these had their redeeming features and the majority of concertgoers we talked to enjoyed the performances. We had one performer hit the bottle after being on the wagon for a decade when he arrived here on the heels of his mother's death and a brutal tour of the Northwest. That was certainly a difficult evening. And two or three performers were so arrogant, needy or otherwise hard to work with that we won't invite them back.

Q. What are you most excited about in this upcoming season?

A. I'll mention two shows -- though since we hire people who we want to hear, we're excited about all our shows. One is The Refugees (coming Oct. 17), a trio of female music veterans with over 90 years combined experience and hundreds of songs. We're also psyched for Chris Hillman and Herb Pederson (coming Jan. 16). Chris was a founder The Byrds of "Mr. Tambourine Man" fame and then, with Gram Parsons, started the Flying Burrito Brothers. Pederson is a monster multi-instrumentalist who has performed on countless recordings in Nashville. This will be a great show!

Dar Williams will perform at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 26 in the Discovery Theatre and at 6 p.m. on Sept. 27 at Vagabond Blues in Palmer. Tickets are available at centertix.net.

More concerts are listed in today's 2009-10 Arts Guide.

For more information about Whistling Swan, including season subscriptions, go to whistlingswan.net.

Happy birthday KLEF

Take a nip to toast Anchorage's classical music radio station, KLEF, which is now old enough to legally drink with you. The station celebrated 21 years on the air at a party held at Pyramid Audio on Wednesday.

Quite an achievement in light of the fact that classical music stations in major cities have switched formats, gone dark or reduced power. In the meantime, KLEF has maintained overall good ratings in the Anchorage market and is even expanding its audience nationwide via iPhone.

Civil Rights documentary debuts

"For the Rights of All: Ending Jim Crow in Alaska," a one-hour film by Jeffry Silverman of Blueberry Productions in Anchorage, will debut at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., in a screening for members of Congress.

The documentary about the Alaska Native civil rights movement will air nationally on PBS this fall and be seen in Anchorage during the Alaska Federation of Natives Convention Oct. 22. For more information, visit www.alaskacivilrights.org.

Arts educators meet

The Alaska Art Education Association Fall Conference will take place in Homer, Oct. 2-4. For details and a registration form, go to alaska-aaea.org.

Find Mike Dunham online at adn.com/contact/mdunham or call 257-4332.

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