Songs and Stories of the Great Lakes

About the Event

Cost: Free

The Saugatuck-Douglas District Library and the Saugatuck-Douglas History Center present, “Songs and Stories of the Great Lakes,” with musician and historian Lee Murdock.

This live performance concert program traces the development of the Great Lakes region, including both maritime and songs and stories about the people who settled on the Great Lakes shores.

Noted as a fluent instrumentalist on the six and twelve-string guitars, Murdock combines ragtime, Irish, blues, and folk styles with his flair for storytelling in songs. Murdock began his folk career in the Chicago area in the mid-1970s, expanding his repertoire of blues and popular music as his interest in folk music and the maritime tradition grew.

His focus on Great Lakes music began as a simple interest in finding the folk songs from his own local history. He says, “I sort of ‘fell in’ to the Great Lakes by accident,” says Murdock, “but once I started performing songs about the Great Lakes, my audiences kept asking for more. And the stories and songs just keep coming.”

Murdock’s songs create an unforgettable image of commerce and recreation as they coexist on the Great Lakes today, with huge cargo ships traversing vital shipping lanes while pleasure craft of all types and sizes share the waters along America’s fourth coast. Lee’s songs and stories share the tragedy and the heroics, the isolation and the breathtaking beauty of lighthouse lore and the US Life Saving Service (later known as the Coast Guard).