Featured photo of John McEuen
The Morris Museum of Art has some fun artistic offerings in the coming weeks including two bluegrass
concerts, a classic country music-themed movie and a literary contest.
The next to last Budweiser True Music Southern Soul & Song 2022-2023 series concert, arranged by the Morris Museum of Art’s director Kevin Grogan, will be at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 13, in the Imperial Theatre with the featured artist being John McEuen and the Circle Band.
MORE: Circle remains unbroken with members of Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
He is best known for his work on the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s 1972 classic album Will The Circle Be
Unbroken and as the producer of Steve Martin’s The Crow: Songs For the Five-String Banjo which won the 2010 Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album. McEuen, who co-founded the Dirt Band in 1966, has
performed in more than 10,000 concerts and roughly 300 television shows. The Oakland, Calif., native just
turned 77 in December.
Marty Stuart and his band The Fabulous Superlatives will close out the current Southern Soul & Song series coming back to Imperial for a show at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 10.
The Morris Museum also is continuing its Films on Friday monthly series at noon on Friday, Feb. 3, with
the 1975-released Nashville, produced and directed by Robert Altman. Filmed in Music City U.S.A., the all-star cast includes Lily Tomlin, Ned Beatty, Henry Gibson, Ronee Blakley, Shelley Duvall, Jeff Goldblum, Scott Glenn, Timothy Brown, Barbara Harris, etc. The actors and actresses were encouraged by Altman
to improvise their own dialog and even write their own original songs. The result was Keith Carradine winning an Oscar for Best Original Song.
The Morris Friday on Films series is free and start at noon in the first floor Morris auditorium at One 10th
Street just across the plaza from the Augusta Marriott at the Convention Center. Bring your own lunch. Soft drinks will be furnished.
And the Morris Museum is now taking applications for the annual Porter Fleming Literary Competition with the deadline being Monday, Feb. 13. The contest is open to writers, ages 18 and older,
who reside in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.
Prizes in each of four categories are $1,000 for first place; $500 for second; $250 for third.
There is a charge of $15 for each entry: Fiction short story (2,500 words maximum); nonfiction article
or essay (2,500 words maximum); poetry (up to three poems count as one entry); one-act play (professional format, double spaced, maximum of 15 pages).
You can enter online at themorris.org/porterfleming or by mailing to Brenda Hall, Morris Museum of Art,
Porter Fleming Literary Competition, One Tenth Street, Augusta, GA 30901, or complete an entry form in person at the museum’s second floor reception desk during working hours.
SIGN LANGUAGE: As posted on the historical marker in downtown Waynesboro, Ga., at Sixth and Liberty
streets near the court house: “The ‘Munnerlyn House,’ built by Alexander Carter, was, by tradition, the
oldest house in Waynesboro. On May 17, 1791, in his Journal, George Washington wrote that he went six miles out of his way to spend the night there. President Woodrow Wilson, as a boy, was a visitor in this famous house on Liberty Street. In 1910 President William H. Taft visited Waynesboro.”
GOOD WORDS REPEATED: Augusta-born singer Amy Grant, who was honored at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 4, was recently quoted as posting on twitter.com: “Last night as I watched the [45th annual] Kennedy Center Honors [televised Dec. 28 on the CBS network], what I thought about was ALL the many people who have stood by my side, dreamed with me, encouraged me, written songs with me, recorded with me, performed with me and prayed for me. This moment was for all of us.”
Don Rhodes has been a by-line journalist since 1963 writing for his Chamblee, Ga., High School newspaper and two weeklies in Decatur. He has worked for Morris Communications Co. since joining the Savannah Evening Press in March of 1967. He also has authored four national books, four regional books, national magazine articles and album notes for several music artists.
