An amateur musician and historical interpreter of Springfield will present a talk on "Roads and Rivers: Minstrels, Waggoners and the Music of the Old Northwest" at a meeting of the Sangamon County Historical Society at 5:30 p.m., Tuesday, Jan. 17, at Lincoln Library, Carnegie Room North. A volunteer interpreter at Lincoln's New Salem State Historic Site and guide at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum, Pete Ellertsen will will share 19th-century tunes and accompany himself on the Appalachian dulcimer.
As soon as the first (and last) steamboat made it up the Sangamon River to Springfield in 1832, it was greeted by a parody of a newly popular minstrel show tune. American popular music, like almost everything else in the popular culture of the day, followed the roads and rivers. Ellertsen is author of "'Clar de Steamboat': A Minstrel Show Tune, Springfield's Small-Beer Poets and the Voyage of the Talisman" and other articles on music history in Illinois Heritage and other magazines. He is an adjunct instructor at Benedictine University Springfield.
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