Posts

Celebrating songs of Leelanau: Chris Skellenger’s “Old Yellow Dog”

Singer-songwriter and guitarist Chris Skellenger, who has played nearly every music venue and hot mic in the County, wrote “Old Yellow Dog” about 30 years ago as an homage to small towns. The song was “inspired by trips I took from college back in the late ’70s, where—to a city kid—Leelanau looked like a place out of a Field & Stream magazine in a barber shop,” said Skellenger. “It was remote and wild. I expected to see a moose! “The roads and beaches were pretty much empty. If you’re too young to have experienced the old Leelanau, you missed something special.” This is part of our ongoing series featuring songs inspired by Leelanau and the Sleeping Bear Dunes.

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Leelanau locals plant seeds, grow cultural exchanges in Guatemala

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Twenty years ago, when Paul Sutherland joined the board of Safe Passage, which launched a school for the children of the Guatemala City garbage dump, he also helped kickstart what has become a dynamic and ongoing relationship between Leelanau County citizens and Guatemala. In the decades since then, local schools have sent students, and teams of volunteers have joined cultural exchange trips to the beautiful, yet economically unequal, Central American nation. Since the COVID-19 pandemic abated, Guatemalan nonprofit Planting Seeds has hosted “service learning” groups from Northwestern Michigan College as well as Leelanau Investing for Teens (LIFT) and Leland High School. Planting Seeds co-director and Illinois native Mac Philips will visit Leelanau County this weekend to raise awareness about the nonprofit and build support in northern Michigan. He’ll visit Grocer’s Daughter Chocolate on Saturday, Suttons Bay Congregational Church on Sunday, and students in Suttons Bay and Leland.

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Row-by-Row fundraiser supports local food security

A fundraising event is planned for long-time local non-profit Row-by-Row (formerly Buckets of Rain) at Broomstack Kitchen & Taphouse in Maple City on Sunday, Sept. 24. Festivities run from 3 to 6 pm and include food, a silent auction, live music by the Dune Brothers and a tribute to the music of Gordon Lightfoot by Paul Koss, Patrick Niemisto and Chris Skellenger. Row-by-Row has been involved in food security in northern Michigan, Detroit, Guatemala, and several parts of Africa since 2007. The majority of their efforts in recent years focus on providing fresh, locally grown vegetables to area pantries and shelters via Northern Michigan Food Rescue.

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Singer/Gardener Chris Skellenger helps Northwoods Hardware

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Local troubadour and gardener Chris Skellenger and former Buckets of Rain treasurer Mike Binsfeld have created a new nonprofit called Row by Row, which helps economically challenged Guatemala women establish community gardens on vacant public land. Buckets of Rain previously taught bucket drip irrigation to communities in Lesotho and Detroit. Skellenger also plays guitar and sings at Boonedocks, Little Traverse Inn, French Valley Vineyard, Cherry Republic, and Lake Ann Brewery with an assortment of his musical friends. And Skellenger is the new nursery manager at the expanded Northwood’s Hardware & Garden Center in Glen Arbor. “We are so happy to have Chris Skellenger to help us get this going,” said co-owner Jeff Gietzen. “He is a skilled, legitimate nursery person.”

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Food is medicine: Leelanau volunteers help Buckets of Rain supply fresh produce in Detroit

Buckets of Rain, a Leelanau-based nonprofit which aims to “support the rebuilding of Detroit by transforming blighted areas into agricultural oases” will hold a work bee on Wednesday, Jan. 23, at 8:30 a.m. at the Empire United Methodist Church. Volunteers will make smoothies using locally picked apples and produce donated by Kroger.

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Small farm agriculture and community building

“Creating Community: The Agriculture Connection,” a panel discussion with two local food and community activists who link local agriculture with the work of building strong, creative communities, takes place Sunday, Oct. 14, at 2 p.m. at the Glen Arbor Arts Center, 6031 S. Lake St., Glen Arbor.

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John Kumjian: a life revised

Singer-songwriter-instrumentalist John Kumjian’s new CD, “Vulnerable,” is particularly poignant in light of his recent health scare. The popular “Mr. K,” as he’s known to hundreds of kids he taught at Glen Lake School, nearly died on the operating table two years ago.

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Muslims approach Leelanau songster for help in Detroit

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Singer-songwriter Chris Skellenger, a longtime entertainer at local watering holes, recently posted this news flash on Facebook about his nonprofit. “I just heard that starting tomorrow, Buckets of Rain is working on an urban garden with a free Muslim health clinic in the heart of one of the most destroyed parts of Detroit, a predominantly African-American community. We’re all in this together, brothers in arms.”

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Buckets of Rain performs “This Land is Your Land” for 72 hours straight

Again, this year, local musicians and performers are donating their time and talent to perform the Woody Guthrie classic, “This Land is Your Land” over and over (and over …) on a street corner in downtown Traverse City. They will be there, rain or shine, day and night for three straight days, singing their hearts out to help the hungry. And you can help. Buckets of Rain, the nonprofit that organized this musical marathon, provides sustainable gardens and fresh vegetables to impoverished areas of the world, including overseas and in inner-city Detroit.

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Empire Emergency Fund Concert celebrates two years

Gerry Shiffman, president of the Empire Area Community Center, reports that last Sunday’s Empire Area Emergency Fund Concert was a blast — and marked the two-year anniversary of the unique, community supported effort. The performers at Art’s Tavern were folksinger Jim Crockett along with Chris Skellenger, Patrick Niemisto and the gifted Beach Bards including Norm Wheeler, Bronwyn Jones and Joe Vandermeulen, who played to a full house. The impromptu appearance of Louan Lechler, Sandy Blumenfeld and the Leelanau School’s budding musicians was icing on the cake.

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