Dear Strand Fan,

Our first concert of 2025 is this Saturday February 8.  AMERICAN TUNE: SIMON, CROCE, & TAYLOR.  American Tune: Simon, Croce & Taylor  takes you on a magical trip back to the 1970s to experience the timeless music of these three prolific singer-songwriters.

Relive the intimate storytelling, intricate chord changes and breathtaking melodies of these gifted artists - their work building on and transcending the more traditional folk-influenced acoustic music of the previous decade.

Paul Simon, never one to rest on his laurels, started exploring even more harmonically-rich sounds than he had during his peerless Simon & Garfunkel period as evidenced by such gems as "Still Crazy After All These Years" and "50 Ways To Leave Your Lover". Jim Croce made an enormous impact in his criminally short time on earth with deceptively complex chord progressions, strummed and fingerpicked underneath accessible, stirring melodies in songs like "Operator" and "Time In A Bottle" that permeated the radio dial. And James Taylor emerged as the definitive singer-songwriter with his singular guitar style and uncanny ability to touch people’s hearts with that distinctive voice on classics like "Fire And Rain" and "Carolina In My Mind".  American Tune: Simon, Croce & Taylor  showcases the songs you know and love from these master craftsmen during this brilliant span, framed in engaging stories about the artists themselves.

Tom Glynn is a child of the seventies, who spent countless hours learning every guitar and piano lick by his musical heroes as he wore out the grooves on their records. He went on to become an award-winning singer-songwriter himself and is thrilled to be paying homage to these musical giants. Tom uses a unique guitar/bass hybrid tuning that stays true to the artists’ signature fingerstyles while adding a deep, lower register to the instrument, essentially accompanying himself on bass to add a warmth and fullness for the audience.

Tom is a John Lennon Songwriting Contest winner and a Boston Music Award nominee for Outstanding Songwriter. Several of his songs have been chosen by NSAI (Nashville Songwriters Association) for their coveted Top 40 honor, and his music has been featured on ABC, Fox, Lifetime and Showtime. His recent album “Skylight Intervention” (streaming links below) was the most added album to folk radio stations across the country in its first week. It featured a cover of Jim Croce’s “Operator (That’s Not The Way It Feels)” that has received extensive airplay. The Boston Globe calls Tom “a tunesmith at the top of his game.”

The concert starts at 7:30pm.   This is a great opportunity to see a nationally touring artist right here in Shelbyville!    We are thrilled Tom Glynn is helping us kick off our 2025 performance season with this fantastic concert.   Tickets are available at the door, online, and at Shelbyville Paint.   Just show up!  It will be a great evening you won't forget.



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NOTE:  David Anthony’s One Man Magic and Comedy Hypnosis Show is rescheduled to May 18, 2025.   Sometimes we just goof.  We first worked on booking this show in September 2022.  Yes, it takes that long to get things booked into the theater.   We worked through 2023 and finally had a date in 2024 that worked for everyone.  

We checked the schedule, it was clear!    What we failed to check was the NFL schedule. We went along with our tickets available and the show advertised until we realized....wait!   Yes, Sunday is the Super Bowl.  Not wanting to disappoint Taylor Swift fans, we moved the performance to May 18.    The Strand master calendar now has the Super Bowl for the next several years listed.   We won't make that mistake again!   It will be a great show.

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TUESDAY

Next week we have three events.  Our Tuesday Night Film Series will feature "Love Strand Style" the month of February.   We will show WHEN HARRY MET SALLY on Tuesday February 11.   What can we say, this is just a great movie.  As always movies are better in a theater.  Come see for yourself.    The film starts at 7pm.  Tickets are available online or at the door.   The balcony will be open.



WEDNESDAY

The Strand will celebrate Presidents' Day on February 12.    We welcome a special guest to our stage, Abraham Lincoln.   ABRAHAM LINCOLN: HOOSIER HERO is a play that centers around Lincoln's time in Indiana.  How appropriate this is presented on his 216th birthday.   We forget that Lincoln was only 56 years old when he was assassinated.  

Abraham Lincoln is both hilarious and heartbreaking as he recalls his boyhood years, prairie lawyer days, family life, political aspirations, Civil War tragedy and triumph, and shares eloquent speeches.

Danny Russel,as Abe Lincoln, brings this theatrical tour de-force to the Strand with his uncanny likeness to Honest Abe.  He initially spent months researching and compiling the show during visits to Lincoln’s birthplace in Hodgenville, Kentucky; his boyhood home in Spencer County, Indiana; Springfield, Illinois; Gettysburg, Pennsylvania; and Washington, D.C.

Mr. Russel’s years of performing have given him a wealth of material to draw from, and  if desired, he will field questions after the program. In his customary black suit and ever-present stovepipe hat, Lincoln takes us through a fascinating panoply of uproarious comedy, gentle reminiscence, political intrigue, and always insightful commentary “peculiar institution” as a moral and social evil, leading to his nomination for the presidency, inspiring the Emancipation Proclamation, justifying the “people’s conflict” known as the Civil War, and resulting in the 13th Amendment which abolished slavery permanently.

Admired on every continent, Lincoln’s words are spoken with reverence in nearly every language, and he is universally recognized but far from universally understood.  Too often obscured by the marble statue, this portrayal reveals the humble and humane statesman who inspired it.  In addition to his illustrious acting career and on the human condition.  It is all seen through the eyes of a man for whom “all men are created equal” was a clarion call — bringing him national recognition in debates with Stephen Douglas as he decried the numerous tours,

This play is something you don't want to miss.  Tickets are only $5 (you know who is on the $5 bill).   Tickets are available at the door, online, and at Shelbyville Paint.  This is an all ages show and starts at 7pm.  Support live theater in Shelby County!



SATURDAY