Skip Gorman Brings the Wild West Home for Two Mascoma District Schools

Experiencing the Arts school wide assembly at Mascoma High School was only a part of Skip Gorman's interaction with Mascoma District schools. We were delighted that he agreed to also perform for the Indian River Middle School and meet with History, Experiencing The Arts and other classes. With the classes he offered a more intimate look into the days of the cowboys and the Western expansion around the time of the Civil War. Mr. Gorman took time to carefully explain the evolution of the period as well as the instruments themselves. We learned that the first banjo was invented in Africa; made from a stick and a gourd which evolved in America into the shape we recognize. It was an honor to have Mr. Gorman share so generously with the other school and classes -- he is a performer with significant recognition.

He has performed on ABC's Good Morning America (from WY), A Prairie Home Companion (NPR from WY), and on the Soundtrack of Ken Burns' PBS documentary, Lewis & Clark: Journey of the Corps of Discovery.

You can learn more about his accomplishments at his website at skipgorman.com: "Through his music, Skip Gorman brings back to life the workaday world of the cowboys of the American West. His music is not the music of the Hollywood cowboy, but rather the simple, yet beautifully poignant music that was performed around campfires by cowboys and westward settlers in the 19th century. Gorman brings to the music a scholar's knowledge of the cowboy's Celtic, Spanish and Afro-American roots as well as the personal experience gained by working as a cowboy on a ranch in Wyoming, along with an exquisite touch as a singer, guitarist, fiddler and mandolinist."

Many of the Mascoma students had Mr. Gorman as a Spanish teacher when he taught at Indian River School. The Grafton resident said he enjoyed coming back to perform for his former students.

Experiencing the Arts student Carrie Bladyka had this to say about Skip's performance: "The school wide assembly with Señor Skip Gorman was highly enjoyable. He began by explaining his fairly common instruments, telling of their history, which surely most people did not know. After a demonstration of each, he told interesting mostly-true tales all of western influence. One about stampeding bulls, another of a boy on his first cattle drive. There was a song to go with each tale. The music was the beginning of what we now call "country," even the mainstream country and bluegrass. Señor Gorman was very good about dealing with the audience, having dealt with this age group many times before."

Experiencing the Arts Director, Christopher Morse summarizes "Experiencing the Arts benefited from Skip Gorman's generosity in our effort to expand the program's cross curricular and broader community impact of the Arts. With Skip, we got allot of interaction for our assembly budget. Not only did he perform, he had students interact with him learning to strum the banjo and join in singing the songs. I would highly recommend Skip Gorman to schools as the cover the period of Westward expansion and the influences of other cultures in the evolution of country music and America."