Gary Eller returning with latest Idaho Song Project offering

August 23, 2021

Idaho musician Gary Eller will bring the latest adaptation of his Idaho Songs Project, "Stock Handler Songs, Poems and Stories of Early Idaho," to the Boundary County Museum, 7229 Main Street, Bonners Ferry, for a performance and jam as well as a series of three workshops.

Eller, who retired to Pickle Butte near Nampa in 2004, established the Idaho Song Project in 2006 to collect, interpret and preserve songs written before radio came to Idaho in 1923.

He travels throughout the Gem State performing and conducting workshops on an amazing and inspiring facet of the state's history.

He'll hold an Oral History Workshop in the Portrait Gallery at the museum from 10 a.m. to noon Wednesday, September 15, teaching attendees how to preserve the oral histories of the many elders around us, covering interview techniques and how to operate recording equipment, and he'll return from 6 to 7:30 p.m. to hold Song Writer's Workshop #1, where participants are encouraged to bring their own songs, snippets of songs, lyrics and poems to be set to music.

He'll perform "Stock Handler Songs, Poems and Stories of Early Idaho" at 7 p.m. Friday, September 17, again in the Portrait Hall, and all are encouraged to bring their instruments for an informal post-concert jam session to share music and make friends and memories.

He will hold his final workshop, Songwriter's Workshop #2, from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday, September 18, in the Portrait Hall, where participants will create "Songs to Sing and Tales to Tell."

Eller's visit is sponsored by the Idaho Humanities Council and the Boundary County Historical Society. To learn more, call (208) 267-7720.