Actor John C. Reilly to join Tom Brosseau & Friends concert to benefit children's museum
Mar. 15—GRAND FORKS — The Empire Arts Center is hosting the Tom Brosseau and Friends Benefit Concert, featuring special guest John C. Reilly, to support the proposed children's museum here.
The concert begins at 6 p.m. March 26. Terry Dullum, an award-winning journalist and popular humorist, will serve as master of ceremonies. A reception, with drinks and dessert, will follow the concert.
Proceeds from the event will benefit the Center for Exploration, also known as the children's museum, which is proposed to be built in south Grand Forks.
Along with Brosseau, folk singer and Prairie Public radio host, the concert will feature Reilly, an actor who has starred in numerous Hollywood movies; as well as area musicians The Waddington Brothers, John Lardinois, Bob Cary, Heidi Gluck and Tarama Bertram.
Tickets for the Tom Brosseau and Friends Benefit Concert are $50; they may be purchased at
www.tinyurl.com/gfchildrensmuseum
or by calling (801) 548-3884.
Brosseau, folk-singer and songwriter, has toured Japan, Canada, Portugal, Iceland and Australia. He's performed in bars, backyards, grand halls, subways, theaters and retirement communities, and exchanged song and poetry with many talented artists including Susan Orlean, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Patrick Marber, Bonnie Raitt and the late Sam Hinton.
Reilly, a film and theater actor, made his acting debut in "Casualties of War" in 1989, and is one of several actors whose careers were launched by Brian De Palma. He has appeared in more than 50 films, including three films in 2002, each of which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, according to a news release about the show. He was nominated for the Academy's Best Supporting Actor for his role in the film "Chicago" and a Grammy Award for the song "Walk Hard," which he performed in "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story."
The Waddington Brothers have spent many years touring the U.S. and Canada, performing gospel music. As adolescents, they played during the Frozen Fingers Bluegrass Festival in Minot, with their sister Amanda playing bass guitar, the release said. Since then, the group has performed at Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri, and for North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple's inaugural ball in 2013, and have been featured guests on "Dakota Air, the Radio Show" on Prairie Public Radio, the release noted.
Lardinois developed his love for the fiddle while playing guitar and pedal steel in honky-tonk bands during the 1980s. He has been recording and running sound at fiddle contests for nearly 20 years.
Cary, who has a wide range of ensemble experience, has been performing as a bass guitarist for more than 25 years. He's performed with a variety of groups including rhythm and blues ensembles and rock groups, and has provided bass support for comedians such as Martin Short and the Smothers Brothers, and backing vocalist Prudence Johnson and rock-n-roll legend Bo Diddley, the release said.
Gluck, a Canadian-American musician, singer and songwriter based in Lawrence, Kansas, is a multi-instrumentalist solo artist, band member, producer and studio musician. She has released two EPs, "the Only Girl in the Room" and "Pony Show."
She has been a member of several bands including Margot & the Nuclear So and So's and Some Girls, and has appeared on recordings for numerous other artists including June Panic.
Bertram, who has taught violin and viola for 18 years, is a violin and viola coach for Northern Valley Youth Orchestras and choir director at Sacred Heart Church in East Grand Forks. She performs regularly with the Greater Grand Forks and Bemidji symphony orchestras.
