The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #94162 Message #1819756
Posted By: Joe Offer
26-Aug-06 - 08:45 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Ballad of the Yukon (Steve Hites)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Ballad of the Yukon'
Hi, Michael - Looks like a song with that name was used in an interpretive slide show at Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park in Skagway:
Complementing the movies and music was a ten-minute slide show, entitled "The Klondike Gold Rush," that was shown once an hour. Accompanying the lapse-dissolve slide production was a score written by Skagway resident Steve Hites. During the mid-1970s, Hites had written a number of songs with a historical theme. NPS personnel were sufficiently impressed by his music that they invited him to the agency's Harpers Ferry Center. Here he composed a medley of three of his songs--"Gay '90s," "Diggin'," and "Ballad of the Yukon"--that served as the slide show's sound track. The show remained a staple of the interpretive program through the summer of 1987.
(footnote 2) In July 1978, Hites recorded several of his songs at Juneau's Red Dog Saloon. The songs appeared that December on the album Yukon Legacy.
Stop at the National Park Service headquarters in Anchorage. I'm not sure who exactly can help you, but I think if you ask to talk to one of the historians, they can lead you to the right person. I had to interview a number of the historians there about ten years ago, and they were delightful people. If you come up with it, please stop back and post the song for us, it you can.
-Joe Offer-