Byron Biggers Band

Hi everyone,

I don’t remember the year, but I was giving a talk at a Barnes & Noble and my friend, CHRIS CRAIG, was there with his guitar to sing a few songs after I finished. We talked afterward and Chris said it would be fun to arrange some of my poems to music. I agreed and he did. He added another professional musician, GALE CLITHERO on percussion, and we formed a trio called Byron Biggers Band. I pulled some poems from various books and Chris got busy. We all had day jobs, mine as president of Glenstone Block Company, Gale as a math instructor at Ozark Community Technical College (OTC), and Chris as Deputy Provost at Missouri State University in Springfield. I just looked at Chris’s MSU site and found this under his special interests:

Byron Biggers Band performing at The Library Center, Springfield, Missouri

“Dr. Craig is a singer-songwriter and performs high energy acoustic rock & roll regularly with his band called Hendrix and Craig.  Dr. Craig is a published song writer and continues to write music for a variety of entertainers, including his close friend David Harrison, renowned children’s author and lead singer of the Bryon Biggers Band.”

On my Facebook page this morning at  https://www.facebook.com/david.l.harrison.37/ I posted a snippet from one of our performances. I hope it works.   

Children’s Literature Festival

Hi everyone,

I look forward to today. Around 2,000 boys and girls will be coming to the Children’s Literature Festival of the Ozarks held on the Missouri State University campus in Springfield. Authors and artists who are here to visit with them include Janet Carey, JB Cheaney, Tara Dairman, Cheryl Harness, David Harrison, David Patneaude, April Henry, Antony John, Ann Ingalls, Susan Keene, Obert Sky, Marie Smith, and Brad Sneed.

We’ll meet and visit with four groups each during the day and return to campus this evening for a program and book signing. On the program for a second time will be BYRON BIGGERS BAND, a musical trio that includes Chris Craig, Gale Clithero, and me. We’ll perform half a dozen of my poems that Chris has set to music. We always have a good time. All in all, it should be a great day.

The word game

Hi everyone,

On three occasions selections from my work have been performed by RAE (Resident Artist Ensemble), a Springfield based group of professional actors and, in some cases, their graduate students. Each time this happens I appreciate all over again what actors bring to the stage — any stage — to bring to life one-dimensional words on the pages of a book or script.

My post yesterday about Sandy Asher’s latest success as one of our nation’s leading playwrights reminded me of the two plays she has created that involve my contributions and that made me think of the times when RAE has thrilled me with their performances of my poetry and stories. I love it when words find their mates in the performing arts. Here’s Byron Bigger’s Band performing some of my poems arranged into music. What could be more fun!

Another successful Children’s Literature Festival of the Ozarks

Hi everyone,

Another Children’s Literature Festival of the Ozarks has come and gone — the 35th — and I’d call it another success. About 2,000 children attended and hundreds of adults. This year there were eight authors and artists and as I sat at my table signing books last night I was reminded, as I often am on such occasions, of all the talented people around the room.

Brad Sneed, Janie (J.B.) Cheaney, June Rae Wood, KD McCrite, Marie Smith, Obert Skye, and Roland Smith were all there and had spent the day thrilling young audiences with their wit, wisdom, and special genius for telling stories and bringing characters to life through words and pictures. One boy asked me if we every felt like competitors, a question I don’t believe I’ve been asked before. I told him that we’re all friends and celebrate when something nice happens to any of us.

During the evening event, Janie and Obert gave brief talks/performances and everyone in the room loved them. They were funny and charming and highly entertaining. My thanks again to Chris Craig and Gale Clithero (the other two members of our Byron Biggers Band) for the fun of performing six numbers together.

It was a lively evening, well attended, and as always we were all grateful for the long hours of preparation by the committee of dedicated women who create the festival and run it year after year, including Becky Crowder, Karen Martin, Margaret Butler, Judith John, Sue Charles, Melinda Hammerschmidt, and I know I’m forgetting someone.

I slept well last night.

I have pictures to prove it

Hi everyone,

Thanks to Sony Hocklander and Kathleen O’Dell for supplying pictures from Thursday night at The Library Center. If you don’t think we had fun, I offer these pics as proof we did!