Riders in the Sky

Utah Public Radio, in collaboration with Cache Valley Center for the Arts, will present a special broadcast featuring the classic cowboy quartet Riders in the Sky on Saturday, May 17, 8:30 to 10:00 P.M. The program was recorded live in April at Logan�s historic Ellen Eccles Theatre as Riders in the Sky wrapped up the Center for the Arts 2007-2008 Performing Arts Season.

Riders in the Sky have chalked up more than 5400 concert appearances in 50 states and 10 countries appearing in venues everywhere from the Nashville National Guard Armory to Carnegie Hall, and from county fairs to the Hollywood Bowl. For thirty years, the quartet has preserved classic Western music passed on by Sons of the Pioneers, Gene Autry, and Roy Rogers, reinvigorating the genre with their unique sound and zany comedy. They've had a weekly TV show on The Nashville Network (TNN) and a Saturday morning children�s series on CBS. For more than 15 years, Riders Radio Theater was broadcast in the style of shows from the Golden Age of Radio on public radio airwaves thrilling listeners from coast to coast.

The 90-minute program is a compilation of two performances at the Ellen Eccles Theater that were produced in the style of old-time radio dubbed Riders Radio

Theater. . .On the Road. Listeners will hear a two-act melodrama featuring Ranger Doug, "the Idol of American Youth," on arch-top guitar and baritone vocals; Woody Paul, "King of the Cowboy Fiddlers," on fiddle and tenor vocals; Too Slim, "a Man Aging like Fine Cheese," on bunkhouse bass, face and tenor vocals; and Joey, "the Cowpolka King," on accordion and baritone vocals. Riders also perform classic Western tunes like Tumbling Tumbleweeds, Back in the Saddle Again, Ghost Riders in the Sky and more.

Riders Radio Theater is emceed by western humorist Texas Bix Bender, who is known as the "voice that sold a million baby chicks over Border Radio," while sound effects are provided by Professor Zeno, the SFX Wizard. Special Cache Valley guest-star Wendi Hassan plays school teacher Miss Marm. Hassan has been working in the arts for the past 15 years and is currently Education and Outreach Coordinator for the Cache Valley Center for the Arts. Although she doesn�t run a "Montessori day care and prune ranch" like her Miss Marm character, Wendi Hassan does live in an old farmhouse with a picket fence.