TICKETS GO ON SALE WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 6TH FOR SMILE 'TIL IT HURTS

Tickets go on sale at Nashville's Belcourt Theatre (and on-line at www.belcourt.org),
Wednesday, October 6th for the award-winning documentary, SMILE 'TIL IT HURTS: THE UP WITH PEOPLE STORY.

The film dates are Monday, October ll and Tuesday, October 12 at 7:00 p.m. Former members of Nashville's Sing-Out South cast and anyone who traveled with UP WITH PEOPLE are urged to attend Monday's performance, which will be followed by a special question & answer session that will feature Lee Storey, the Director of the SMILE documentary, as well as Linda Blackmore Cates, a star of the original Sing-Out cast and UP WITH PEOPLE.

Linda is interviewed during the documentary. She presently lives in Franklin with her husband Bill Cates, who was also a driving musical force both in Sing-Out South and UP WITH PEOPLE.

Below, courtesy of YouTube is an inteview with Lee Storey conducted right after the release of SMILE 'TIL IT HURTS some months back. Here she gives some background on how and why she decided to make the documentary....

Ticket prices are $8.75 adults, $7.25 students and military with ID, $7.25 Children, 11 and under, $6.25, seniors (65+). For members of the Belcourt tickets are $5.75.

The SMILE film features never-before-seen archival footage of the UP WITH PEOPLE cast which were seen by over 20 million people world wide as well as being featured during the halftime of four different Super Bowls.

The video has won both praise and criticism from those previously involved with Sing-Out and UWP. The after-event question & answer session will give everyone a chance to discuss their thoughts and feelings, much as we often did back in our days in Sing-Out and UWP.

We can also take the opportunity to share our contact information as well as our thoughts and ideas about how to hold a 45th Reunion sometime during 2011 to celebrate the founding of Sing-Out South back in 1966. Both SOS and UWP members would be invited.

If you have any thoughts about SMILE or a possible reunion right now, please leave them here on the blog site below.

(Thanks to Bill Cates for the information on when the tickets go on sale!)

SMILE 'TIL IT HURTS COMING TO NASHVILLE!

The multi-award winning documentary SMILE 'TIL IT HURTS: THE UP WITH PEOPLE STORY is coming to Nashville on Monday, October 11 and Tuesday, October 12 for 7:00 p.m. evening performances both nights at the Belcourt Theatre in Hillsboro Village.

Former local UWP and Sing-Out South members are strongly urged to attend the premiere showing on Monday evening, October 11 which will also include a post-film question & answer session with Director Lee Storey and former UWP cast member Linda Blackmore Cates, who now lives in the Franklin area along with her husband, Bill, who was a major musical force in the founding days of Sing-Out South as well as with UP WITH PEOPLE.

From what I know and have seen from clips from the documentary, there will be plenty to talk about and discuss after seeing the film. Besides, this is a great excuse for all of us former UWP and SOS members to get together again, even those of you who live outside Nashville but might want to make the trip here to see this fascinating film.

We can also use our time together to discuss a possible SOS Reunion sometime in 2011 to celebrate the 45th anniversary next year of the founding of our group in 1966.

The 80-minute SMILE 'TIL IT HURTS documentary explores "the clean cut, smile drenched singing phenomenon(of the 1960s-1980s)..that was seen by 20 million people (worldwide) and performed at (a record) 4 Super Bowls." It features reflections of several former cast members and others and uses never-before-seen archival footage of the cast and its performances from years gone by.

Here's a trailer to give you some idea about the film and some of the issues it discusses....


As you can see from this roughly two-minute movie trailer, there are likely a lot of things about this documentary that will take you back in time, bring back a lot of wonderful memories and make you proud. It will also possibly inform you of some things you didn't know or hadn't thought about during or after our involvement with Sing-Out and Up With People. And frankly, some of it may also make you mad or feel the documentary involves some revisionist history.

I think all of that is great. My memories of being in Sing-Out South and UP WITH PEOPLE were how often we engaged in deep, long discussions about the issues of our world and our lives in those days. Some times, we did those things after shows or practices and sometimes we even did it after going to the movies together, including some at the Belcourt Theatre.

Here's such a photo below. Now, I have no idea what Bob Sharp (left) and the late Henry Swider were discussing when this photo was taken, but you can see it was a intense and likely heart-felt as so many of our discussions were and likely will be again after we gather to see this film on Monday evening, October 11 at the Belcourt...

Ticket prices are $8.75 for adults, students/miltary (with ID) $7.25, children under 11 $7.25 and (for any who qualify and I doubt we do LOL) seniors (65+) $6.25.

In the coming days I will continue to feature more excerpts from the documentary and I urge you to get your tickets NOW to see us on Monday, October 11. If you've seen the film and have thoughts to share please leave them below. Or if you want to let folks know you're coming and want to encourage others to attend, leave your message below or call and contact all your former SOS and UWP buddies to get them to attend what promises to be a very special evening, especially the discussion and question & answer session afterwards with Director Lee Storey (whose husband was a part of UWP) and our own Linda Blackmore Cates, one of the stars of the early days of Sing-Out and UP WITH PEOPLE.

One Last Time On Wedgewood For The Tennessee State Fair

After 104 years on its historic grounds along Wedgewood Avenue in South Nashville, the Tennessee State Fair has begun the final week of its annual fall run. There will likely be no reprieve this time. This is the last year, at least at this location.

Sing-Out South was very proud to be a part of the Fair both in 1966 and 1967. The first year (as seen above), we performed at the top of the hill, just outside the Raceway on a flat bed truck sponsored by WENO Radio. The Fair was in recovery mode that fall having just suffered the tremendous loss to fire of the historic Women's Buildings seen below.

After performing literally on the ruins of the old Women's Building in our 1966 State Fair appearance, in 1967 we moved inside the old Nashville Raceway and performed in front of the grandstand.

While we could accomodate larger audiences there, we needed our full sound system to be heard. Everyone was seated quite a distance away as we performed in the infield of the Raceway (as opposed to having the crowd standing right on top of us us when we were on the WENO flat bed truck in 1966).

To our advantage, the infield did not sway the way the truck did when we performed our choreography for songs like "Don't Stand Still" as seen below in this photography and cut line from THE NASHVILLE BANNER

I remember some hot afternoons when we peformed at the Fair, especially our Raceway grandstand performances with the sun being right in our eyes some days.

In 1966, we did both a late afternoon and then an evening performance, which gave us a chance to watch another show performed right down the way called GOOD NEWS (which was sponsored by the Belmont Heights Baptist Church), and which some folks in Sing-Out South also participated in and even wrote some of their songs.

Of course, between shows, we also had a lot of fun visiting the Midway to ride the rides and get something to eat, even though, if you look carefully at the photo below, we were not exactly eating healthy in those days (good thing we got a lot of exercise doing the SOS show!).

My favorite story about Sing-Out South at the State Fair (and I have told it before on this blog)came in 1966 after we had eaten and enjoyed ourselves on the Midway one afternoon, then returned for our evening show.

We were supposed to wait until after the fireworks were over, but for some reason they seemed late that night (maybe because we needed to get home to do our homework for school). At rate, we went on before the fireworks and started our show (as we always did) with our national anthem, THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER. As luck would have it, just as we sang "and the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air," up came the fireworks!

It thrilled the audience who gave us a great ovation, thinking we had coordinated what happened, instead of realizing (as we all did on stage), that it was just dumb (but wonderful)luck!

It looks like, after just over a century, the Tennessee State Fair has run out of luck for continuing on its annual September run at its historic Wedgewood Avenue location in South Nashville.

If there is a Tennessee State Fair in the future, it will be located somewhere else in Davidson County on a site yet to be determined. It will also very likely be operated by some group other than the local government (and there appear to be some interested folks). The administration of Mayor Karl Dean has decided the Fair has lost too much money in recent years and has outlived its usefulness. A study has decided the current Fairgrounds ought be redeveloped as a city park and perhaps for other uses yet to be determined or announced.

And so, still treasuring the many fond memories of attending and performing at the Fair, I will close this blog post with a song that we used to performed to close our SOS shows.

And its title seems kind of fitting as well about the future of the Fair.
It's "Which Way, America?'....

Free music - Which Way America?