roosevelt arch

Emmylou Harris, John Prine To Perform At Roosevelt Arch for NPS Centennial

Singer-songwriters Emmylou Harris and John Prine are slated to headline a concert at the Roosevelt Arch in honor of the National Park Service Centennial.

The event, entitled “An Evening at the Arch: Yellowstone Celebrates the National Park Service Centennial,” will take place Thursday, August 25, 2016 at 7 p.m. mountain time (MT) in Gardiner, Montana. It will also be broadcast online.

“This very special event will kick off the second century for the National Park Service, highlight the importance of public/private partnerships, and recognize the completion of the Gardiner Gateway Project Phase One,” said Yellowstone National Park Superintendent Dan Wenk in a press release.

It is a free but ticketed event. There will be seats set up in Arch Park and open seating available on the high school football field. Tickets will be available starting Sunday, May 15 at noon MT. You can claim a ticket here through Ticket River.

Additional tickets will be available June 15 and July 15. The Gardiner Chamber of Commerce encourages Gardiner and Jardine residents to come to them for tickets, which they will be giving away as a “thank you” for “putting up” with the Gardiner Gateway Project.

Event organizers suggest people arrange lodging accommodations before acquiring tickets, as area accommodations in and out of Yellowstone National Park are limited.

Besides Harris and Prine, the program will include cellist/folk musician Leyla McCalla, “The Singing Angels” children’s chorus from Cleveland, Ohio and Teddy Roosevelt reenactor Joe Wiegand.

A Note About The Performers

13 Grammy Award-winner Emmylou Harris has been performing since the early 70s, gaining notoriety as a singer with Gram Parsons. Her backing on both GP and Grievous Angel, which brought a dulcet sheen to Parsons’ “Cosmic American Music,” have ensured her place in rocky history,  After the death of Parsons, Harris made her solo debut with 1975’s Pieces of the Sky—and the rest is history.

Singer-songwriter John Prine has been heralded as one of the best country/folk singers of all time since his 1971 self-titled debut, which contained classics such as “Hello in There” and “Angel from Montgomery.” Subsequent classics (1973’s Sweet Revenge, 1978’s Bruised Orange, 1999’s In Spite of Ourselves) have only solidified his reputation.

Leyla McCalla first broke on the scene as a member of African American string band Carolina Chocolate Drops; she made her solo debut in 2014 with the widely-heralded album Vari-Colored Songs: A Tribute to Langston Hughes.

Cleveland’s Singing Angels choir, a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit originally founded in 1964, combines music performance with community building. To date, the choir has performed in 34 countries and has been featured on national and international television. They have also performed four times at the White House, along with a suite of other performers.

Joe Wiegund first started performing as President Roosevelt in 2004, making a name for himself in 2008 when he performed across the United States as a part of Roosevelt’s 150th birthday and the centennial year of his presidency. Wiegund was subsequently featured on the History Channel’s “The Men Who Built America” documentary as well as in “Wild America,” an IMAX film about the national park system.

About Sean Reichard

Sean Reichard is the editor of Yellowstone Insider and author of Yellowstone Insider For Families 2017.

Check Also

Yellowstone winter season

Drugs suspected in Yellowstone fatality

Drugs are suspected to be connected to a Yellowstone fatality, as a deceased woman and …