By Doug La Rocque
An appreciative audience filled the room at the Everett Wager Senior Center in Grafton last Wednesday to enjoy the acoustic sounds of the Lost Radio Rounders. The duo of Tom Lindsay and Michael Eck kept their listeners entertained with ballads about such tragedies as the love triangle involving Tom Dooley and death on the Streets of Laredo, to sea shanties from the Canadian Maritimes and Mexico. There were even songs about groundhogs and rattlesnakes, as well as classics like Frankie and Johnnie, 16 Tons and the Sloop John B.
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The show was a collaboration between the Grafton Historical Society and the Grafton Community Library. Audience participation, smiles and applause was evidence of how well the performance was received.
Lindsay and Eck kept the show moving with a sprinkling of information about their songs, many gleaned from Alan Lomax’s Book of North American Folk Songs, and simple explanations of the many string instruments they played. They even musically tied the past to a more modern time, starting with a little ditty about a man whose sweetheart was a mule and finishing it with its new lyrics, the song now known as the theme from the cartoon Popeye the Sailor Man. Their love and enthusiasm for the music they played transferred smoothly from the stage to all around the room.
The duo hails from Albany, and has been performing in their current genres since 2007. They entertain in many different venues throughout the Capital Region, Western Massachusetts and Southwestern Vermont.
The show was meant to be a light evening of entertainment, but it also served as the culmination of the first Adult Summer Reading Program of the Grafton Community Library[/private]