Big Top comes to Ironwood Theatre

IRONWOOD - Nevermind the fact that Warren Nelson is an accomplished guitarist, or the founder of the Northland's most unique music festival in Big Top Chautauqua.

As a man who has written an ode to the very stage on which he stood Saturday night, Nelson's local charm had the audience's heart before he even struck a chord at the Historic Ironwood Theatre.

To the delight of the nearly half-full theater, Nelson was, in all his prose personable and never short on an anecdote. Thumping along to that old Americana bass line, his songs and stories melded into a single narrative spanning his rich 48-year music career -- from winning $50 in a bowling alley song contest to heavy deliberation on getting a tattoo inspired by that special someone, name dropping every small town from the Keewenaw Peninsula to Stevens Point, Wis., along the way.

"We've been coast to coast," Nelson said after kicking off the performance. "But right here in Ironwood, Michigan, you guys have got it all."

Ellen and Greg Metko, of Ironwood, attended the show and said they are big fans of Nelson, Big Top Chautauqua and The Ironwood Historic Theatre.

After moving from Appleton, Wis., a few years ago to enjoy the area's winter sports, the couple said they have found themselves in the theater at every opportunity.

"What a wonderful thing for Ironwood to have," Greg Metko said. "It's a beautiful theater. 

"We come to all the shows."

Betsy Wesselhoft, president of the board at the Ironwood Theatre, said she was honored to have the opportunity to host another one of Nelson's performances.

"(Nelson is) a brilliant guy and he's written some terrific music," she said. "We're very delighted to have someone of Warren's caliber and the three folks that will be with him tonight."

 "This is our region and this is our people, performing on this stage that belongs to all of us." she said.

Nelson was the headliner for a big night overall in the Ironwood arts community, which included a public reception next door at the Downtown Art Place.

Wesselhoft said the evening's performance was symbolic of new initiatives by both the theater and DAP to unite local and regional art communities of the Upper Midwest and overall bring more quality arts and entertainment to town.

"We're working hard to be a regional theater, that's part of our mission right now really is to attract people from other areas in," she said. "So I think it's really an exciting time right now in Ironwood, in terms of everything that's going on in the art community."

DAP's gallery event was in part to welcome Nelson, but also to show off the work of its participating artists. In addition, president Bob Burchell said he was hoping to spread the word about the soon-to-be erected "art park" in a vacant space just across Aurora Street and about a traveling Smithsonian exhibition called "The Way We Worked" set to open in the gallery in April. About 100 people attended the reception.

Open for just more than a year, much of DAP's resources have gone into renovating the 1920s building it inhabits. However, that doesn't mean they haven't already been a catalyst for creativity in town.

Burchell pointed to the studios that have sprung up since the inception of DAP as signs that the organization is having an impact. Sometimes, he said, artists just need a place to come together in order to get the proverbial ball rolling.

"We have a really strong art community ... both visual and performance art community," he said. "And these types of events are just bring people to together and exposing that."