Dub
Administrator
I'm gettin' so the past is the only thing I can remember.
Posts: 19,908
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Post by Dub on Feb 25, 2021 13:36:21 GMT -5
Very sad. As noted, we knew this was coming. Still, that doesn’t make it any easier..
Fiddlerina and I do one of Peter’s tunes, a thing called Christian’s Creek. He played it on mandolin but, of course, Fiddlerina players it on he fiddle.
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Post by Russell Letson on Feb 25, 2021 13:52:15 GMT -5
Another Peter outtake: [Garrison would] say, "You can go on and sing 'Red Dancing Shoes' because people want you to do it and they like it every time you do it. But if every Saturday I said, 'Why does the chicken cross the road,' I might get a chuckle the first time, but six weeks down the line, people aren't going to laugh." So he decided that one of the rules of being a musician on the show was to write new material every week. It didn't matter what it was, it didn't have to be a song--though he did like us to write topical songs, anything that might be happening that week. Or in my case, almost every week we'd start off with a fast fiddle tune or something like that, and rather than a traditional fiddle tune, he wanted me to write one. So every week, I had to write a new tune or a new song, or three new tunes. Actually, that was one of the best things that could have happened to me, because he really pushed us to come up with new stuff. My own songwriting skills improved 500 percent, because I had to. It became part of the job description.
I don't know if the guys working the show now are under the same rules we were. Particularly for Greg Brown and me, part of our job description was to come up with new original material every week. . . . A number of songs I perform today, even after almost twenty years, are songs that Greg and I wrote for the show.
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Post by billhammond on Feb 25, 2021 14:02:09 GMT -5
Russ, did Peter ever play Granite City shows?
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Post by TKennedy on Feb 25, 2021 14:11:06 GMT -5
I didn’t know he played an FT-79. In still have the one I bought used in college.
Man he must have been fun to hang out with. Every now and then I will hear an old PHC from the late 70’s or 80’s. Those were so funny and just great.
Once I saw him and his introduction to “Pennies From Heaven” was a long story about a WWII GI who had been overseas for two years and came home to see a new baby daughter. His wife said “her name’s Pennie”. The perplexed GI asked where she came from. You can guess the answer.
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Post by Russell Letson on Feb 25, 2021 14:18:45 GMT -5
Bill: Not that I recall--though we booked a bunch of people he gigged with--Dean Magraw, Dave Hull, Robin & Linda, Greg Brown, Dáithí Sproule, Pat D, Lonnie. . . . And after his stroke, we hosted a benefit concert for him, organized by local bandleader Douglas Wood.
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Post by casualplayerpaul on Feb 25, 2021 16:58:16 GMT -5
The first time I saw him he was playing in a duo with Dave Hull at the Coffeehouse Extempore around 1972. He was playing a lot more guitar back then if I recall. Although I loved folk music, this was my first live exposure to old-time and fiddle type stuff. "Billy in the Low Ground," "Over the Waterfall." Those types of tunes. And, Lord, they played them fast. It was mind blowing and jaw dropping.
A few years later I interviewed him for a local weekly. He was gracious and eloquent, but so soft-spoken. My inexpensive cassette recorder was barely up to the job of capturing his quiet speaking voice, though somehow I managed to assemble a few quotes and completed the profile.
The last time I saw him was at a county fairgrounds in Grand Rapids at a free festival just a few years ago. He was playing with Sam Militich. It was as impressive and jaw dropping as my Extempore' introduction those many decades ago, though totally different as well.
They may have pretty much improvised the entire set. They did not appear to be working from a list and didn't seem to consult much between tunes. The music was haunting, deep, beautiful. Two masters, perfectly in synch.
On top of all that talent, by all accounts, a real mensch.
Rest in peace, Peter O.
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Post by billhammond on Feb 25, 2021 17:06:05 GMT -5
The last time I saw him was at a county fairgrounds in Grand Rapids at a free festival just a few years ago. He was playing with Sam Miltich. It was as impressive and jaw dropping as my Extempore' introduction those many decades ago, though totally different as well. They may have pretty much improvised the entire set. They did not appear to be working from a list and didn't seem to consult much between tunes. The music was haunting, deep, beautiful. Two masters, perfectly in synch. There is a wonderful Miltich interview with Peter here, starting at the 10:44 mark (The Pines and Claudia Schmidt precede Peter and Sam): ampers.org/mn-art-culture-history/centerstage-minnesota-sam-miltich-interviews-peter-ostroushko/I particularly enjoyed Peter talking about "dumas."
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Post by dradtke on Feb 25, 2021 17:35:06 GMT -5
He provided music for a show we did at Actors Theatre sometime in the 80s. Background music and emphasis points during a one-actor monologue. I remember very little except that I had to build a large cut-out cow. I always planned on asking him if he remembered it, but never had the chance.
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Post by billhammond on Feb 25, 2021 17:41:57 GMT -5
Recently added to the Strib obit:
"Peter had a real calling and stayed true to it," Keillor said via e-mail. "To me, it was only a show, but to him it was church, and when he picked up a mandolin, he played for his folks, his people, for Marge [his wife] and Anna, the family, for northeast Minneapolis. He played the blues and made it Ukrainian. He could play 'I Saw Her Standing There,' and she was standing in the middle of Kiev. He never tried to find himself. He knew who he was the whole time."
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Post by Village Idiot on Feb 25, 2021 17:48:59 GMT -5
I love the stories all of you folks have put up here. I had a feeling that Ostroushko was a great guy, from listening to his music and hearing him on PHC.
I've always liked his music, but really grew to like it when you Minnesota folks started talking about him on the forum years ago. It's sad to hear of his passing.
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Post by billhammond on Mar 2, 2021 14:25:53 GMT -5
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