Below is the transcript of our conversation with Will Anderson: David Nicholas:
I'm David Nicholas and this is Central Focus, a weekly look at research activity and innovative work from Central Michigan University students and faculty. West Branch, Iowa is the birthplace of Herbert Hoover, our 31st president. While working in Iowa, Dr. Will Anderson, Professor, on CMU’s School of Communication, Journalism and Media wrote a radio drama called “The Son of West Branch: America's Great Humanitarian.” That was 2008. Now in 2024, he paired his words to music to produce what he calls “The Concept Album,” and he sat down in studio with me to tell me more…
Will Anderson:
It was a cool way of doing it because the audio drama was already pretty well known and it existed, and so it helped ground me if I was going to write 8 new musical pieces instead of writing about clouds and love and going to the store or whatever, these helped me focus on and things, and they provided a really good basis for me creating a piece that tells the story in the musical piece and in those that helps promote the audio drama itself. The two work very neatly together. But it allowed me to really extend a new way of telling stories. It also allowed me to do, a really cool, a bunch of interdisciplinary work working with students. We had this air on the local Summit Sessions live so students were able to mix. I was able to bring in Mount Pleasant, A-listers from (from) the Mount Pleasant music community to help me perform it. It was, it was just a fantastic project.
DN:
Did the words now a decade, more than a decade later, hit you in a different way? When, then, you sat down with the guitar and started trying to compose some music to it?
WA:
They did. They did it well and a lot of it when I, when I heard, when I listened back, it's like, well, it's a little clunky. I've gotten better at writing, but I mean, there's certain elements. Like in one of the scenes, one of the second piece I wrote, it's called “A Halda Song.” And it’s voice through the eyes of Herbert Hoover's mother, on the Iowa Prairie in the 1870, sits in one of the lines, it's like “In 1876, the little general got real sick.” It rhymes nicely, but if you know about the audio drama, you know that's Hoover’s nickname that he had.
DN:
What is the kind of culmination of how this now all comes together?
WA:
Well, the neat part about the grant was, for publication of it, I said I would perform it live on the Summit Sessions, live television station and it was broadcast live on YouTube. And (and) it was simulcast on (on) the student WMHW Radio. And then I took those elements of a live performance. If you think about that, we got together a band, and we rehearsed a couple times and we did that thing for an hour-long show, and it came out good enough. I was able to cull out those pieces and put them together into a concept album. But I've also had a very cool experience of, by pitching this, I've been able to go out as a solo performer. I performed one performance of it at Art Reach back earlier in June. I have another performance scheduled at the Clark Historic Library on July 2nd, and then I also landed a nationally competitive Artist and Residency engagement at the Hoover National Historic Site in West Branch. Performance there on July 7th and I'm performing at, I believe this is coming up. I'm performing at (at) the Dubuque Museum of Art on July 7th and performing the Hoover on July 6th. So, it's (it's) it has a lot of external…
DN:
And those states in Iowa, how closely do they coincide then with his birthday?
WA:
His birthday is on August 10th. They have a whole summer of stuff. They're having a Hoover Ball tournament. They have another artist coming in. He's a culinary chef and he's creating meals that the Hoover family, would have eaten in the White House. They have a summer full of stuff. And so, it's (it it) was a very good time to come in and do it because there's (there's) a lot of (of) buzz about Herbert Hoover.
DN:
This year marks Hoover's 150th birthday. Will Anderson's solo performance is at 2:00 PM Tuesday, July 2nd at CMU's Clark Historical Library. The Son of West Branch, America's great humanitarian the concept album Will Anderson, professor 9of) Central Michigan University’s School of Communication, Journalism and Media, best of luck with the performances to come and thanks so much for telling us the story today!
WA:
David, thank you so much for having me! I mean, I'm the luckiest guy to get to do this kind of project. It's just been an exciting sort of ride!
