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August 17, 2006
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August 17, 2006 |
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German fans visit to meet radio host
Was it the area’s rich German heritage that brought Georg and Martha Weber from Frankfurt, Germany, to Yellow Springs on their recent honeymoon? Was it the soothing waters that gurgle from the iron-stained rocks of the Glen? Was it the miles of bike paths winding through town from Xenia to Springfield? While the Webers have experienced all of the above with Germanic gusto, the answer to each question is nein. When the Webers booked their honeymoon trip back in Frankfort, Germany, their travel agent advised them to skip Ohio and visit New York, Chicago, and San Francisco, the couple said in a recent interview. But the Webers wanted the heartland. They wanted to combine an extended stay in grassroots America with a bluegrass pilgrimage. According to Georg Weber, they especially wanted to meet the host of a bluegrass radio show they have been listening to for years. “The Banks of the Ohio,” which officially originates from WYSO, is hosted by Fred Bartenstein. The show is broadcast eight times per week over the Internet at BluegrassCountry.org, as part of a 24-hour Internet audio streaming service of WAMU, the public radio station of American University in Washington, D.C. Over the past couple of years, Weber and Bartenstein developed an e-mail relationship. Weber was nine years old when he first heard bluegrass music in 1966 on an album of Nashville artists his father liked to listen to, he said. Then in his early teens he discovered some bluegrass cuts on a John Fogarty album, and soon he was hooked. Listening over the Internet, and to Bartenstein’s show in particular, Weber heard more bluegrass than he could ever find in Germany. It didn’t stop there. An amateur guitar player, Weber retuned his electric guitar to emulate a five-string banjo and taught himself to play. Once he felt he was good enough, he purchased a real banjo, then a mandolin and an autoharp. Recently married, the Webers looked to combine a belated honeymoon with an English immersion experience, since Georg teaches English to German middle-schoolers. He had been to England, but never to the U.S. And then there was the bluegrass thing. While most of their two-and-a-half week visit was spent in Yellow Springs, the Webers took a side trip to Kentucky and Nashville to indulge their bluegrass passion. On their trip south, they visited the Grand Ole Opry, the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Gibson Guitar Factory, bluegrass musician Bill Monroe’s birthplace and grave, and the International Bluegrass Museum in Owensboro, Ky. However, they didn’t have to travel that far to find what they were looking for. They also attended bluegrass shows at the Greene County Fair, at a truck show in Wilmington, and in Columbus. In town they have been staying at a downtown apartment that Vicki Morgan lets on a short-term basis. They have traveled the bike path to Xenia and Springfield, hiked the Glen, spent a couple days at the pool, and attended the Greene County Fair. Georg prepared for the trip by learning everything he could about Yellow Springs over the Internet, he said. As a part of their experience, the Webers had wanted a window into typical American life. For Bartenstein, it has been an opportunity to view the village through the eyes of a foreigner. He called it a “beta test for a Yellow Springs global tourism market.” The Webers’ first night in town they ate on the porch at Peach’s and later stumbled upon a poetry reading with jazz accompaniment at the Emporium. While they have dined at every restaurant in town, Georg admits to working hard at sampling every one of the 20 beers they have on tap at Peach’s. The Webers returned to Germany on Aug. 14. The highlight of the trip, according to Georg, was his on-air appearance on Bartenstein’s radio show. It seems fitting that it was a show celebrating the fifth anniversary of BluegrassCountry.org.
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