Chris Vallillo: “Forgottonia" at the Orpheum Theatre -- November 23.
Saturday, November 23, 7:30 p.m.
Orpheum Theatre, 57 South Kellogg Street, Galesburg IL
Performing his multi-media love letter to rural America Fogottttonia, a show that former Quad City Arts executive director Kevin Maynard said "felt like being in the audience of Prairie Home Companion," singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and storyteller Chris Vallillo plays Galesburg's Orpheum Theatre on November 23. The musician was the recipient of a 1986 Illinois Arts Council Artist Fellowship Award for music composition and nominee for the Illinois Arts Council’s 1987 Governor’s Award for Individual Artist.
Vallillo is a roots musician who makes the people and places of “unmetropolitan” America come to life in song. Having spent the last 30 years in the rural Midwest, he has a natural affinity for American roots music. A master of finger style and bottleneck slide guitar, Vallillo weaves original, contemporary, and traditional songs and narratives into a compelling and entertaining portrait of the history and lifestyles of the Midwest. Dirty Linen magazine described the music as “vivid, original story songs” delivered with an “eye for detail and a sense of history," while Folk Wax Magazine editor Arthur Wood said, “Vallillo’s guitar playing flows like warm honey and is a true aural delight.”
The name of Vallillo's touring production, “Forgottonia,” first came to Western Illinois in 1972 when 16 counties declared the creation of the independent nation of Forgottonia in protest of the lack of tax dollars returning to the region. “The plan was to secede from the Union, declare war on the United States, immediately surrender, and then apply for foreign aid," said Vallillo. "It was nothing but political theater, but to everyone’s surprise, the story was picked up by the national media and to everyone’s surprise, it worked! I first came to this region in 1976 as an archaeologist on the first wave of funding to come from that action and was like stepping back in time 40 years. I was just enchanted by the region and it would become the focus of my music for the next 40 years."
Subsequently, Forgottonia is a musical journey though the people and places of rural Illinois just as the last vestiges of the old “Forgottonia" slowly eroded away. The show combines storytelling and live music with the images of award winning rural photographer Tim Schroll, long known for his striking black-and-white images of rural Illinois. “Tim is doing visually, what I am trying to do musically,” said Vallillo. “It seemed like a perfect combination." Vallillo shares the history and backstories of these songs that document, reflect, and validate people, places and characters of rural Illinois, reinforcing these communities’ sense of commitment and worth.
Chris Vallillo's Forgottonia will be performed in Galesburg on November 23 at 7:30 p.m., and more information and tickets are available by calling (309)342-2299 and visiting GalesburgOrpheum.org.
