Concert For The Cranes Review

If you did not make it to the Concert For The Cranes yesterday, you missed a wonderful event. The Grasslands Quintette, the Old Time Country and Blues Revue, Cooper and Nelson, and Patti Ecker were the main acts. They played two sets each. Between each act were the 'tweeners (called that for obvious reasons) that played a song, including Commissioner Roger Kotecki and Yours Truly. We played a version of Bye, Bye Love as our first contribution. Later we did 'I Am A Pilgrim', with Roger on harmonica. (Samples of these songs below.)



The Grasslands Quartet (but only 3 were there) played bluegrass, folk, acoustic rock, etc. The Old Time Country and Blues Revue consisted of Forest Preserve District employee Pete Norman and his friend Dave 'DK' Kolars (sp?) with many songs you might have heard in 1920's, 30's, 40's, and even a few more current numbers. Cooper and Nelson played primarily Celtic Folk songs. Patti Ecker did mostly folk songs that she had written. It would have been well worth the suggested donation of $10.00 to see just one of the artists, but to get all four in a 3+ hour concert with no intermission was a real treat.



The fundraiser raised over $4,000 to give us a good start for paying for the enclosure for the Sandhill Cranes. This included the auction of a quilt of two flying cranes. The bidding for the quilt was won by Carolyn Finzer, who coincidentally was my art teacher in Jr. High School.