Cowboy Buck & Elizabeth Bring Comedy, Music and Ventriloquism to the County

One World, Many Stories, Newport Public Library's summer reading program, features Cowboy Buck & Elizabeth this week at 1:00 p.m. on Wednesday, June 22. All children and families are invited to attend this free program.

Cowboy Buck & Elizabeth promise to put on high energy shows that include interactive musical comedy with dancing, singing and ventriloquism. Cowboy Buck spent many years as a manager, singer and songwriter for the New Christie Minstrels. When he settled in the Pacific Northwest, he and his wife, Elizabeth, developed music education programs that let children write, sing and record their own songs. Their shows engage audiences, letting everyone sing, make jokes and wonder at Elizabeth's ventriloquist magic. Click here for a medley of their tunes.

Wednesday, June 22, the music, comedy and ventriloquism show will be at Waldport Public Library (10 a.m.), Newport Public Library (1 p.m.), and Driftwood Public Library in Lincoln City (6:30 p.m.). On Thursday, June 23, they will be at Toledo Public Library (11 a.m.) and Siletz Public Library (1 p.m.).

Their Lincoln County shows are funded by Ready to Read grants from the Oregon State Library and the Lincoln County Library District. Their lodging is provided by the Sylvia Beach Hotel in Newport and the D Sands Condominium Motel in Lincoln City.

For more information about Cowboy Buck and Elizabeth’s performances or other summer reading presentations, please contact your local library.

Music in the Wind

I remember finding a dime on the sidewalk, walking to the corner market, and buying candy. A nickel would buy a chocolate bar, a pack of gum, or a box of candy—I especially liked Bit-O Honey, Milk Duds, and Hershey bars. Anticipating what to pick was almost as much fun as eating it!

A similar thrill of anticipation surges through me when I log in to Freegal, the music database offered by the library. I can download three free songs a week, and oh, it can be so fun deciding which ones to select! To get to Freegal, go to our library’s homepage, and click on the icon for Freegal.

As a person who likes things neat and logical, I have to admit, Freegal could use a few good librarians to bring order to their site. I like to search by genre, but if you click on the link to “See All” genres, the chaotic organization of the site becomes evident. There are headings for Alternative, Alternative Rock, Alternative/Indie, and Alternative/Punk. There is a heading for Comedy and one for Comedy/Humor. I tend to browse mostly in Folk, Rock, and Classical.

The other day I made a list of songs I would like to download, and realized most of them were wistful tunes from my teen years. “Dust in the Wind” by Kansas, “El Paso” by Marty Robbins, and “Darling Be Home Soon” by The Lovin’ Spoonful. I would probably never buy the CDs these songs are on, but I’m so thrilled to be able to add them to my music collection (for free!) and enjoy the occasional flashback to a simpler time of life.



Just so you don’t think the site is only for Baby Boomers, I saw many of the band names my daughter grew up with, such as Pearl Jam, NOFX, and Crash Test Dummies. Freegal also has Broadway tunes for aficionados of musicals, though I found if you want the songs from Jesus Christ Superstar, don’t expect to find them under Andrew Lloyd Webber. That’s another cataloging problem I wish I could fix! For those songs, you have to search by the name of the album or the individual songs.

When I was growing up, people tsk-tsked over the names of bands: Led Zepplin, Grateful Dead, Big Brother and the Holding Company; I even remember a radio host making fun of the Beatles coming to town, implying that they were insects. It just goes to show you can’t judge a band by its name. Some of the band names I found on Freegle seem even more bizarre to me: Ominous Seapods, Salt the Wound, and Made Out of Babies. Maybe I’ll like some of their music, or maybe not. But it will be fun exploring, and while I’m at it, I think I’ll go get a Tootsie Roll pop.

Shut Up and Freegal Me

I was flipping the channels on my car radio when I came across a song I hadn't heard in years. "Shut Up and Kiss Me" by Mary Chapin Carpenter sits right on the corner of Country and Rock. It has a bluesy guitar line and fun lyrics, and Carpenter has a beautiful smoky voice.


In short, I dig it, and I wanted to own it.

Did I go to iTunes or other online music vendor and buy the song? No.
Did I go to a record store and buy the album? I did not.
Did I go to some virus-raddled P2P site and download it illegally? Hardly.

I went to the Newport Public Library's home page, where I clicked the Freegal icon. Within 45 seconds, that song was mine, all mine.

I did not part with a penny. It was easy and fast and completely legal. And the song I downloaded is DRM-free.

There is a downside to this. You need a card from the Newport Library. You're not going to find any indie artists on Freegal, and you can only download three songs a week. Still, that's a lot of free, legal music that's just waiting to be claimed.

Interested in learning more? Go to our home page and click this:

Newport Library Card = Free Music!

At Newport Library, free music downloads are legal at freegal music.com

Patrons with Newport Library cards are eligible to download 3 songs each week from the thousands of tracks listed in the Sony/BMG music catalog. It’s fast. It’s easy. And it’s free.

Log in to freegal with your Newport Library card number as well as your account PIN (usually the last 4 digits of your telephone number). There’s a handy search window or browse/search by artist, song, album, genre or composer on the advanced search page. You can also create a wishlist if you’ve reached your weekly limit but want to keep track of music you’d like to download later.

Newport Library is so much more than just books. We also offer DVDs, downloadable audio, and now free music downloads.

Get started by clicking on the “freegal” icon on our homepage here.