Author Visit - Christopher Vondracek - Dancing with Welk
Date and Time for this Past Event
- Saturday, Mar 11, 2023 4:30pm - 5:30pm
Location
Francie & Finch Bookshop
130 S. 13th St.
Category
Details
Join us in welcoming Christopher Vondracek on Saturday, March 11th at 4:30 PM at Francie & Finch Bookshop
About the Book:
The next book from the South Dakota State Historical Society follows the footsteps of Lawrence Welk as the early 2000s band, the Brickhouse Boys, attempts to become famous, in the middle of nowhere. Over fifty years prior, Welk, a young accordionist, and bandleader from Strasburg, North Dakota, whose brand of “champagne music” garnered him legions of dedicated fans and a long-running television series, had managed to do just that. “Dancing with Welk: Music, Memory, and Prairie Troubadours” by Christopher Vondracek blends memoir, travelogue, and cultural history to create a nuanced and often hilarious ode to the landscapes and musical traditions of the Northern Great Plains.
About the Author:
Christopher Vondracek is the author of Dancing with Welk (2022), a memoir about his travels in a rural indie band while reading the autobiography of Lawrence Welk. He also has authored a collection of poetry, Rattlesnake Summer (2020), which pulls from his work as a journalist in South Dakota. He has a M.A. in English from the University of South Dakota and a MFA from Hamline University in St. Paul. He covers agriculture for the Star Tribune in Minneapolis, where he lives with his wife and baby daughter.
Book Review:
"Vondracek writes with a poet’s eye and a musician’s ear and manages to be both convivial and erudite as a welcome companion on this unique trip." - J. Kemper Campbell
Books available for purchase with book signing to follow.
Books can be pre-ordered at https://francieandfinch.indielite.org/book/9781941813416
