In House #1614: Rosalie Sorrels in Pocatello Tonight

Reknowned folk-singer Rosalie Sorrels is a true Idaho original: born here in 1933, Sorrels has incorporated much of her own experience into her songs over the years-- nothing if not the perspective of an Idaho country girl. That experience has been anything but potatoes and mountain bluebirds, however, and Sorrels has weathered a lifetime of turmoil in one form or another, including surviving both breast cancer and a cerebral hemmorhage. Once upon a time, her life seemed destined for anything but music.

Sorrels at Newport, 1966

The mother of five at 33, she left her husband and embarked upon a musical career after taking a songwriting course in the mid-1950's. That bit of rebellion seems to have foreshadowed her career, and eventually she found herself running in circles that included not only important musicians like Ramblin' Jack Elliott and Utah Phillips, but counter-cultural icons like Allen Ginsberg, Ken Kesey, Hunter S. Thompson and others. Over the course of 25 albums, the most recent of which was nominated for a Best Folk Album Grammy in 2005, Sorrels has tackled a diverse batch of musical styles in both her original and covered work. As Rolling Stone once put it, Sorrels "must know a million songs, but can sing each one as if it's her life story." She plays tonight in Pocatello as part of the First Friday Coffeehouse series.


In House #1614.
Airdate: 5/05/06
Focus: Rosalie Sorrels in Pocatello tonight, plus new music from Bruce Springsteen, Emmylou Harris & Mark Knopfler, and more.



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