Live, from Peoria, Illinois, it’s Saturday Night starring this week’s host, The Peoria Riverfront Museum hosting The Dan Fogelberg Celebration Weekend with lots of special guests and a live musical tribute to Dan’s music.
Now, please welcome this week’s host, The Peoria Riverfront Museum!
Here we are at the Peoria Riverfront Museum on a lovely Saturday night!
We’ll travel up the stairs and head inside and begin this week’s Saturday night adventure!
Wow, the tables all have white tablecloths on them, it looks very fancy in here. The spaceman is wondering what the hell is happening in here!
You check in over at this table and this pretty woman welcomed me with a beautiful smile and gave my my pass for the evening. There’s fans, buttons and the schedule for the evening on this table over here. Welcome!
There’s the cool commemorative Souvenirs poster and people are milling about in the lobby and outside on the lawn.
Let’s take a look around in the museum!
Check out these platinum albums on loan from Mary Anne and Jerry Milam, the owners of Golden Voice Recording Co. where Dan started his recording career.
Here’s Dan’s Woodruff high school yearbook and his photo on display. There’s also a photo from the high school production of Cyrano de Bergerac that Dan starred in. He’s on the far right of the photo.
These were on loan from Dianne Turner.
Check out this painting that Dan did back in 1969, what a talented artist!
This was also on loan from Dianne Turner.
A trifecta of gold records from Dan on the Golden Voice wall of records in the museum.
Time to head into the theater for a special movie to start the evening off!
There’s the Fogelberg Foundation logo on the screen and there’s Eric Mills from the Foundation, who’s going to be giving a talk before the movie is screened.
“Greetings From The West” was a great introduction movie for the evening. It’s a fantastic concert film from Dan and his band and in between songs it had a great interview with Dan talking about his music and his life.
After the movie I met and had some nice conversations with fellow Dan fans in the lobby, from the top: The aforementioned Jerry and Mary Anne Milam, the owners of Golden Voice where Dan started his recording career, there’s Rhonda and Tony who went to Trefzger’s Bakery after reading my story about my brother Jim having a Dan Fogelberg sighting in there years ago, next is Mike, who’s the administrator of the New Dan Fogelberg facecrack page and last but not least, there’s Judi who’s a moderator of the page.
Great to meet and have a nice talk with all of these wonderful people!
I went back into the theater for the next event and ran into Gary and Larry, who I went to high school with! It was a nice surprise to see both of them!
There was a film with Peter Berkow, who went to the University of Illinois with Dan and was the talent manager for the Red Herring Coffee House where Dan performed some of his earliest shows. Peter shared his memories of Dan and his music in the film.
Later he was live on screen from California via a Zoom chat and took questions from the audience.
Next, Eric brought onstage, Robert McEntee and Mark Andes who are musicians and were part of Dan’s touring band for years. They shared fond memories of touring and recording with Dan and took questions from the audience.
It was cool to hear them tell tales and memories of Dan as he was on the big screen behind them!
They had a nice dessert break featuring cake and cookies from Trefzger’s Bakery. They did a wonderful job on that signature cake!
Next up was a live show featuring the music of Dan Fogelberg and was started off with tunes sung and played by Sheldon Felich and Jay Hennessey. They sounded fantastic and it was a perfect evening for Dan Fogelberg music on Peoria’s riverfront!
After the first set I met Mary Ann and her friend, Harmony. Great to meet and chat with both of them!
Next a full band joined, Sheldon and Jay and they played more spectacular versions of Dan’s extensive catalog of music.
Robert and Mark joined the band after a few tunes and it was fantastic to hear two musicians who were Dan’s bandmates on stage! One of the tunes they played was Robert’s tribute to Dan, “Over Peoria.”
It was a wonderful tribute and this was a fabulous live show featuring Dan’s incredible songs and music!
Thanks to everyone from the Fogelberg Foundation of Peoria and all the volunteers who helped make this such a spectacular weekend celebration of Dan Fogelberg’s life and music!
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Related Posts: From A Basement To A Stage: The Oral History Of The Coachmen and The MBIP Dan Fogelberg Tour.