GHOST TOWN SOUND
featuring Midnight Dread ...

2010

GHOST TOWN SOUND's September Montana appearance:

• Live at the FREE First Friday Artwalk Reception for Deeling Gregory Friday September 3rd from 5-8pm outside Amazing Toy's Amazing Gallery, 515 Central Avenue, Great Falls performing "Ohtahku" plus other select & original songs with Steven Powell & Doug Sternberg
  

Duppy Doug & GHOST TOWN SOUND's July Northern California appearances:

• Live at the FREE 12th Annual World One Festival Saturday July 3rd from 5-7pm at Cerrito Vista Park, 950 Pomona Avenue, El Cerrito, where we debuted a new set of material.  Doug, Steve & Doug were joined by Jimmy Foot, Marc Wendt, Steve Galan, & Jake The Drummer. Gone clear!
  

• Opened for FEMI KUTI at The Fillmore Saturday July 3rd 9pm-1am, 1805 Geary, San Francisco
  

• DJ banded throughout the day at the FREE 12th Annual World One Festival Sunday July 4th from 10am-7pm at Cerrito Vista Park, 950 Pomona Avenue, El Cerrito
  

• Live at Ashkenaz with David Gans' project DEAD DREAMS, Thursday July 8th 9-9:45pm, 1317 San Pablo, Berkeley where the coming together of two former KFOG Adventure Hour DJs ("Midnight Dread" & "The Grateful Dead Hour") with their live bands provided a night of wonderful sonic adventures. It was a gas!

2009

Otahku, the first song and video from GHOST TOWN SOUND, was released on YouTube December 18th.

GHOST TOWN SOUND made a brief appearance for free Saturday October 3rd at the Dorothy Gopher Memorial Round Dance which took place in the Family Living Center, Montana Expo Park. A hearty complimentary dinner provided by the Gopher family followed just before the Round Dance that evening which included several groups of players.  MC Gary Fox joined the Gopher family and several hundred others, singing and chanting until midnight.  An Owl Dance, children's circle and a speech from recently announced MT US Congressional candidate Melinda Gopher, Dorothy's daughter, were among the many highlights. Elder spokesman Slim John expressed appreciation for our "Who Killed The Buffalo" song reminding us Buffalo Bill did not get them all.

Its local premiere was June 5th at the Alley Galleria, Great Falls, Montana. Poet Paul Zarzyski opened. Deeling Gregory & Steve Powell preceded the live concert with an Art Walk show and reception. Doug Wendt also did a GHOST TOWN DJ mix for the first time anywhere that same night (from the Events press release):

GHOST TOWN SOUND is a new, live performance creation comprised of an eclectic mix of Western, Native American and Reggae Dub Poetry. It made its debut last July 4th at the Tenth Annual World One Festival in the San Francisco bay area and its Montana debut June 5th at Alley Galleria. GTS is fronted by Great Falls native Doug Wendt, who has been working in arts and music since producing radio shows on KUDI in GF in the 1960s. Doug received a Masters Degree in Filmmaking from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1973. One of his shorts was shown on SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE. He's worked on the Oscar nominated documentary MANDELA-Son Of Africa, Father Of A Nation and many other films.

Doug is most known internationally for his popular worldbeat dance parties which feature world music videos and custom edited images compiled by Doug projected onto large screens. DETAILS MAGAZINE hailed them as "Best Night Out In America". His video set-up at 1997's ARTI GRAS, a fund-raiser for Paris Gibson Square's Museum Of Art at the Civic Center helped make that event a success. He was Station Manager /Program Director at KGPR from 1998-2002. His latest radio production, NATIVE SON RISING with music by and for indigenous peoples, is broadcast every weekday morning in the bay area by WORLD ONE RADIO. KGPR also regularly broadcasts NATIVE SON RISING, now in its tenth year.

Paul Zarzyski , recipient of the 2005 Montana Governor's Arts Award for Literature, has been spurring the words wild across the open range of the page and calling it Poetry for over 35 years, a dozen or so during which he complemented the writing with bareback bronc riding on the rodeo circuit. He has been a featured performer at the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering, the National Storytelling Festival, the National Folk Festival, and has recited at The Library of Congress, Festival Hall in London, as well as on Garrison Keillor's A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION. Since receiving an M.F.A. degree in creative writing from the University of Montana in 1976, Paul has authored 10 collections and has recorded 4 spoken-word CDs- WORDS GROWING WILD, THE GLORIOUS COMMOTION OF IT ALL, ROCK 'n' ROWEL, and COLLISIONS OF RECKLESS LOVE. His most recent publication, from OreanaBooks, titled WOLF TRACKS ON THE WELCOME MAT, received the 2004 Spur Award from The Western Writers of America.

Most recently, he co-wrote 7 of the 13 tracks, and performs a spoken-word 14th/hidden track (titled Bob Dylan Bronc Song), on singer-songwriter Wylie Gustafson's 2009 CD, HANG-n-RATTLE!, recorded at the Cash Cabin Studio and produced by John Carter-Cash. Born and raised in Hurley, Wisconsin, Paul has called Montana home since 1973.

Deeling Gregory, who was born in Hawaii, honed her artistic technique at both Stanford University and the San Francisco Art Institute, living for many years in the bay area before moving to Great Falls ten years ago. She has exhibited her work locally and in California, with many of her paintings in private collections all over the world. Gregory previously opened her studio for various First Friday Art Walks. This will be her first major gallery show in GF. Deeling will be featuring large paintings that were influenced by the West and GHOST TOWN SOUND as well as recent works of scenes along the River's Edge Trail and the White Cliffs of the Missouri.

Steve Powell, a Great Falls native, has been making art all his life, having been seen on the silver screen, national television, coffee shop walls, and at GHOST TOWN SOUND concerts where he sings, plays congas, and other instruments. Currently, he is a non-traditional student of art at Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana. He was formerly with the 4West Art League and has participated in many Art Walks.

Local DJ and soundman Tim Green also assisted.

"Thanks to the internet a stranger, Daniel Orlick, rode into my virtual town when he found my website two years ago. He told me he spent a couple days there looking around and listening before sending me an email telling me I was unknowingly part of this new musical movement in England he was involved with called Country Dub, or C-Dub for short. He sent me several instrumental dub tracks to put vocals over and within a week I was improving over them at the Gibson Park Bandshell summer DJ's of Relativity series. I spent that winter in Great Falls writing more material, preparing for our debut, which was booked for the following July 4th's World One Festival in Northern California. Steve Powell from GF accompanied me on that trip where we linked up with several top bay area musicians including Jimmy Foot from REGGAE JACKSON and THE RHYTH-O-MATICS (who also arranged tracks for the project), as well as Duane Van Dieman of Warner Brothers' recording artists THE TAZMANIAN DEVILS (now known as TAZ), and a five other great players.

GHOST TOWN SOUND is conceived as a group that performs live yet also includes a strong DJ/VJ and dance element with dubplate rhythms on turntables plus projected moving images for ambience and emphasis. The GF debut will concentrate on the live set slightly expanded from what I did at World One with about a dozen or so selections. Local legend Dan Lewis, formerly of COLD HARD CASH, plays drums, bass and keyboards. Steve Powell adds vocals, guitar, congas, juice harp, and many other unusual sounds. I do the vocals and play percussion, guitar and turntables. We're planning on having other top flight musicians as well. GHOST TOWN SOUND adds wide-eyed cowboy optimism to Indian spirituality and democratic traditions, grounding them with the heartbeat and social analysis of rastas. The lyrics are often about this place, Ohtahkoo, its history, Montana, the modern west and all kinds of ghost towns." -Doug Wendt

Click the photo below for more images from the performance:

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2008

GHOST TOWN SOUND world premiere July 4, 2008 at the World One Festival, El Cerrito, California. DJ Doug Wendt's WORLD BEAT also appeared Thursday July 3, 2008 & at Club 33 Revolutions that same night.

Click the photo below for more images from the performance: