Meet The Incomparable
Warren Nelson
Warren Nelson hosts Tent Show Radio
Saturday nights at 9:00 on the Ideas Network.
He's a songwriter, composer, poet,
producer, musician, storyteller, historian, and performer.
Oh yeah, he's also a radio host.
He's none other than Warren Nelson,
founder and artistic director of Lake Superior Big Top
Chautauqua, "The Carnegie Hall of Tent Shows."
You can hear Warren on the Ideas Network
every Saturday night at 9:00 on Tent
Show Radio which showcases
the musical performances that take place through the summer
under the big, blue and gray striped Chautauqua tent nestled in
the hills near Bayfield, Wisconsin. Tune in and you'll
hear Warren, the Blue Canvas Orchestra, and nationally and
regionally renowned performers.
This fall Tent
Show Radio continues to
present an eclectic mix of musical guests including jazz
violinist Randy Sabien, "The Lettermen," fiddle
master Natalie MacMaster, "The Lost Nation String
Band," Merle Haggard, the Irish-Celtic band
"Willowgreen," John Sebastian, "Saffire: The
Uppity Blues Women," and Willie Nelson.
Warren's early career included performing
with his first full-time professional group, "The Tenth
Story Window," five years in Colorado playing music
in the mountains, a stint in the Madison area where he formed
"The Lost Nation String Band," then on to the
Bayfield Peninsula of northern Wisconsin.
In the late-1970s, Warren got the idea
"to combine my interests in history, original songs,
poetry, storytelling, and performing" into a concert-like
theatrical big show that "sings the history of place and
tells the stories through music, along with old photographs of
times long gone." This idea, realized by Nelson and his
partner, Betty Ferris, led to the founding of Lake Superior Big
Top Chautauqua. And the rest is history … and music
… and storytelling … and lots of blue canvas.
Since 1986 Warren and the Big Top
Chautauqua staff have been operating the intimate 900-seat tent
theater. They produce and present more than 70 musical
performances and multi-media productions each summer from
mid-June to early-September. The heart and soul of Big Top
Chautauqua is the growing repertoire of original, historical
musicals celebrating the history of the people and places of
Wisconsin and Upper Great Lakes region.