The Vault: Vintage NCPR

(04/10/94) Adirondack folksinger and storyteller Chris Shaw grew up on Lake George, in part aboard the 80-foot mahogany steamboat Sayonara captained by his father. He shared songs and stories with Jackie Sauter on The Folk Show in 1994.

(01/01/90) Illegal gambling casinos flourished on the St. Regis Mohawk reservation in the 1980s. But the issue of gambling and how it fit into Mohawk traditions and laws, and state and federal law, deeply divided the community there.
Two hundred New York State Police officers raided the casinos in mid-July 1989. They blockaded the reservation, restricting traffic on and off the reserve.
An armed ad hoc Mohawk security force, the Warrior Society, emerged.
Gunfire became common, directed at the power supply of a casino, or at the patrol car of police known to oppose gambling. Within months, most of the gambling halls were open again. Under an agreement worked out between tribal leaders, the Warriors and Gov. Mario Cuomo, state police didn't venture onto Mohawk territory without checking in with the Warrior Society.
The bitter dispute continued. It came to a head in May of 1990, when gunfire killed two Mohawks, bringing New York and Canadian police onto the territory en masse.
In early 1990, North Country Public Radio aired an hour long documentary we called "The Fractured Family: Gambling at Akwesasne," after extensive interviews and research inside and outside the Mohawk community, and its traditional and non-traditional factions. The Fractured Family was written and produced by Pat McKeown and Martha Foley. Production engineer was Beverly Hickman.

(05/30/89) Don't Look for Me in the Picture Show is a documentary about the Vietnam War era and the role of art in the process of reconciliation and remembrance. Hosted by Elizabeth Kahn, the program draws material from the 1987 Steinman Festival, "Art in the Vietnam Era," held at St. Lawrence University in Canton NY. Produced by Beverly Hickman, Elizabeth Kahn, Jackie Sauter, and Ellen Rocco; it received honorable mention in the Gabriel Awards for 1990.

(09/01/87) North Country farmers dumped milk to protest low milk prices fifteen years ago, on Labor Day, 1987. Dumping is the ultimate step for the farmer who has raised the cow, kept her, milked her. But theirs was more than a symbolic gesture. Two dozen farms were hoping their milk strike would catch on--that enough farmers would join in to turn the law of supply and demand to their cause. They were remembering the milk strike of 1967. Martha Foley visited the Mitchell farm just outside Canton and filed the story for North Country Public Radio, and NPR. At that time, there were 860 active farms in St. Lawrence County, one of the top dairy counties east of the Mississippi. They were making more per hundredweight of milk than farmers did in August 2002.

(07/15/87) Martha Foley followed the scent of sweetgrass to find a group of Mohawk women making baskets at the 1987 North Country Folklife Festival in Massena.

(03/02/87) A one-hour documentary about the only refugee camp established during WW II on U.S. soil for people fleeing Nazi persecution. The camp was based at the old Fort Ontario site outside Oswego, NY. This documentary was distributed nationally to the public radio system and was recognized with an Ohio State Achievement Award in 1988. It is part of the permanent collection of the NYS Museum in Albany. Jackie Sauter and Beverly Hickman, producers; Ellen Rocco, executive producer; with special production help from Lawrence Baron.

(12/02/85) Dr. Helen M Hosmer, Dean Emerita of the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam, retired in 1966 after 44 years at the school. Among the forefront of music educators in the United States, her mark on the school she served endures today, as it does on the countless students who passed through Crane over the years. Martha Foley prepared this audio biography on the occasion of Crane's Centennial year.

(04/29/83) Chicago blues legend Eddie Shaw and his band, the Wolf Gang, made regular North Country appearances in the late 70s and early 80s. NCPR's Josh Sacco recorded them live at the popular music venue and watering hole, Django's, in Potsdam NY on the night of April 29, 1983, for his program North Country Music.

The Band:
Eddie Shaw: vocals, saxophone and harp
"Vann" Shaw: guitar
"Shorty" Gilbert: bass
"Slim" Holt: drums
Bobby Dixon: piano

(04/03/82) Recorded at ATO Fraternity, St. Lawrence University, Canton NY, on April 3, 1982, this concert aired on NCPR's North Country Music show, hosted by Josh Sacco.

The band:
John Kribs: electric guitar and vocals
Dan Gotham: electric guitar and vocals
Michael Hadfield: bass and vocals
Frank Carcaterra: drums

Concert playlist:

Walk On: B. McGhee
Better Day: B. McGhee
Full Circle: G. Clark
Folsom Prison Blues: J. Cash
Watch Out For Lucy: E. Clapton
Six Days on the Road: E. Green, C. Montgomery
Who Do You Love?: Bo Diddley
Big River: J. Cash
Trouble in Mind: R. Jones
Move It On Over: H. Williams

(03/07/81) In these live recordings done in part by Brian Zolner at The Proteus 9 Studio in Canton and Josh Sacco at the Hut in Colton and SLU's ATO fraternity, host Felicia Otero talks with and listens to the band, Flying Wedge, including five original tunes.

Band members:
Vince Nerlino - composer, lead vocals, keyboards
Pat Brown - drums
Geoffrey Titman - guitar, vocals
Fred Serfis - lead guitar, vocals
Scott Brown - bass, vocals
Brian Zolner - saxophone, soundboards