When Chris Vallillo performs Jan. 29 at the Grayslake Heritage Center and Museum, he’ll not only sing and play his acoustic guitar, but he’ll also reveal the stories behind the folk music he’s written.
For example, he’ll perform “The Walnut Fiddle,” a song he wrote based on his experience interviewing folk musicians for an Illinois Arts Council project.
“The Walnut Fiddle” tells the story of a 94-year-old man who crafted a violin out of a walnut tree planted from seed by his grandparents. The tree got knocked down by a storm, and he couldn’t afford to buy a violin, so he decided to make one out of the walnut wood.
“That’s so typical of the attitude of the people in rural Illinois,” said Vallillo, who lives in Macomb, Ill.
“I tend to write a lot of songs that have great stories behind them. That’s what motivates me.” And that’s why he’s been invited to perform for the Lake County Folk Club at their new venue in Grayslake.
Periodically the club features concerts in which the audience can not only hear folk music but also learn how it was crafted.
“It’s an interesting concept our past president came up with,” said Scott Engstrom, the club’s president, who lives in Libertyville.
“We book a fairly well-known songwriter in the folk realm. They perform and talk about their songwriting. It’s part concert, part insight. We ask what was behind the song, what was the writer thinking, what was the environment and what do they look for in a good song.”
Engstrom said this concert is the perfect one to have as the group begins staging productions at the Grayslake heritage center.
For the past several years, the Lake County Folk Club, which hosts sing-a-longs, open mic nights and monthly concerts, has been holding events at various restaurants in the county.
The group has had to move around a lot recently and decided the heritage center would give them a more permanent home.
“The tie-in with the heritage center is great and Dave Oberg, who runs the museum, is excited about this fit. It’s just feels like it’s a good thing,” Engstrom said.
The audience can bring their own drinks, and the club will provide snacks and water, he said.
Vallillo, a former university archaeologist turned folk singer/songwriter, was hired by the Illinois Arts Council in 1985 to document the stories of pre-radio musicians in Illinois.
“The tapes we created are in Washington D.C. as part of the national archives,” he said.
After that, “I began to build the concept of using music as a tool to explore history.”
He has six shows he takes on tour including “Abraham Lincoln in Song,” in which he performs the music from Lincoln’s time, using it as a vehicle to tell stories about the United State’s most famous president.
Another show, “Oh Freedom: Songs of the Civil Rights Movement,” uses songs from that era to tell about the movement, he said.
“I am a child of the 50s and 60s. I grew up seeing the civil rights movement and living through those times. Music is this powerful tool you can use to put people in those times and places. I created that show because I felt that conversation needed to remain in the forefront. It felt like we were forgetting how hard the struggle had been and how important the achievements were, and these things were not to be taken lightly.”
He may perform and talk about some of the songs from that show when he’s in Grayslake, he said, plus he’ll sing about an 1890s Washburn guitar in his newest song, “The Washburn 1897 Style New Model 145.”
“It tells the story of the old instrument and me finding it in pieces and then rebuilding it because it’s something worth saving. Some things are worth fighting for and saving – that’s the theme of the song.”
Sheryl DeVore is a freelance reporter for the News-Sun.
Behind the Song with Chris Vallillo
When: Jan. 29
Where: Grayslake Heritage Center and Museum, 164 Hawley St., Grayslake
Tickets: $13-$18
Information: 847-602-8882; www.thelakecountyfolkclub.org
