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Nov. 14, 2005
Country Music Hall Classics Return to WILL-TV
With Sunny, Pork and Jethro Burns
“From the farms and fields of the great Midwest . . . comes Country Music
Hall!” In 1980-81, WILL-TV began its local country music production with those words. WILL promoted the program as a showcase for the best of home-grown bands, who were stopping to perform in Urbana on their rise from grassroots artistry to national fame.
WILL-TV decided to re-create the intimate, sometimes bawdy atmosphere of country music hall in its studio after the success of “The Grand Ole Opry” and “Austin City Limits” on PBS, said Mark Kelley, who produced the 13 episodes of Country Music Hall at WILL-TV. “The goal was to make it seem like a hidden place somewhere in the Midwest where you could go on Saturday night and you never knew who might show up,” he said.
WILL-TV brings back three classic episodes of Country Music Hall for the Winterfest fund drive, and will offer a DVD containing all three shows as a gift for anyone who pledges at least $100. The episodes air back-to-back beginning at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 6, with repeats beginning at 5 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 11. The shows feature, in order, Sunny Norman and the Drifting Playboys, Pork and the Havana Ducks, and Jethro Burns (of Homer and Jethro fame) performing with the Iowa-based Warren County String Ticklers. The series aired on more than 36 public television stations around the nation.
“For the opening, we filmed the exterior of a milk barn north on Route 45,” Kelley said. “We lit it up like something big was going on inside. But actually everything took place back in our studio.”
“We knew we had a good show when the guy who owned the milk barn called me to say that for the past three weekends, he’d had people trying to buy tickets to get in his barn,” Kelley said.
Sunny Norman, who was asked to play in Nashville but opted to live in Urbana where he delighted country music audiences for years, performs “Red Neck, White Socks, and Blue Ribbon Beer,” “Ghost Riders in the Sky” and “Bar Stool Mountain,” among other songs.
Pork and Havana Ducks, charismatic, funny and named after the high school sports mascot in Havana, Ill., toured widely around the Midwest. They perform original compositions including “Pour Another Bottle in the Jukebox,” “Tennessee Whiskey and Crazy Women,” and other songs. They wrote and performed the
Country Music Hall theme song.
Jethro Burns performs “Sweet Georgia Brown,” “Beer Barrel Polka,” and the original composition, “Jethro’s Tune.” Dave Bunch, who played the banjo with the band, said performing on Country Music Hall was a highlight of his group’s career. “We’d never played with him before we came to do the show,” he said. “A lot of people know him for his hillbilly comedy, but he was one of the top jazz mandolinists around.”
Contact:
Mary Barrineau
Public Information Coordinator
WILL AM-FM-TV
(217) 333-1070
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