ROSALIE SORRELS: WAY OUT IN IDAHO
Performance Documentary Profiles Singer-Songwriter-Storyteller
Rosalie Sorrels defies music industry categories to forge a unique place on the national stage.
Her versatile talent is showcased in a performance documentary that includes a concert with
friends on the historic Liberty Theatre stage in Hailey, Idaho.
ROSALIE SORRELS: WAY OUT IN IDAHO airs May 2007 (check local listings) on PBS.
Sorrels, who lives in a log cabin on Grimes Creek near Idaho City, describes herself as an
actress, troubadour, songwriter, connector. And, while her recordings are often found in the folk
music category, the Grammy-nominated performer refuses to be categorized.
“I’ve been trying to climb out of the box, all my life. I’m sure I’m nearly out,” Sorrels says.
“You could see me a lot of times and still not know exactly what I do, because I’m going to do
something different if I get a chance.”
Fellow musicians say she is unique. Producer Marcia Franklin interviews Pete Seeger, Nanci
Griffith, Jean Ritchie, Bruce “Utah” Phillips, Terry Garthwaite, Barbara Higbie, Roma Baran
and others for the documentary.
“It was fascinating to see how they all independently wanted to stress the same point — that
Rosalie’s storytelling is as much about who she is as her singing,” Franklin says. “And they all
talked about how Rosalie doesn’t fit into any commercial ‘box.’ She’s her own person, with her
own inimitable style.”
The program showcases Sorrels in concert with friends — musicians from Idaho and across the
nation — in September 2005 in a 1930s theater, renovated in the 1990s by actor Bruce Willis for
live productions. On stage are Roma Baran, musician and music producer, New York City, and
Barbara Higbie, pianist, fiddler and singer-songwriter, San Francisco. Idaho performers include
Ben Burdick, guitarist; Bill Liles, bassist; and Scott Ruesser, drummer. The Divas of Boise —
Rocci Johnson, Rebecca Scott, Margaret Stigers, Kathy Miller, Deb Sager, Sirah Storm and
Carrie Padilla — bring their voices to the songs; Sorrels adds depth with her stories.
“Sometimes I sing places where they don’t want me to tell stories and I almost can’t do that. I
can sing a bunch of songs but they don’t make any sense to me if you don’t have the stories,”
says Sorrels, whose 2004 album, My Last Go-Round, was nominated for a Grammy.
The portrait drawn by concert footage, interviews, and vintage photographs of Sorrels and her
family is vibrant and uniquely Idaho.
Executive producer Bruce Reichert says Sorrels epitomizes something that reflects her Idaho
pioneer heritage. “Her life has not been easy, but she perseveres. And she’s gutsy. As a friend
commented to me, she plays those low notes. She goes where others fear to tread.”
Sorrels’ voice has a signature sound that is truly hers.
“Nobody’s voice sounds like that,” Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Nanci Griffith says.
“The minute she opens her mouth and the notes come out, you know it’s her.”
Folk music icon Pete Seeger says Sorrels has “a real voice … that’s a real person singing.” He
says she reaches his ideal of a singer: “You don’t show off your fancy voice. You stay on pitch,
stay in rhythm, enunciate clearly enough so people know what the words are. That’s my ideal.”
Despite her refusal to concentrate on one musical genre, Sorrels has a secure place in American
folk music, according to Jean Ritchie, musician and winner of the Bess Lomax Hawes National
Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. “She has almost singlehandedly filled in the Utah and the Idaho parts of the country,” Ritchie says, reflecting on
Sorrels’ collections of traditional songs. Sorrels gathered Idaho songs and stories into a book,
Way Out in Idaho, for the Idaho Commission on the Arts.
Produced by Idaho Public Television (IdahoPTV), the performance documentary is funded in
part by the Idaho Humanities Council.
Bruce Reichert, host and one of the writer-producers of OUTDOOR IDAHO, a series featuring
the issues, people and places of Idaho and the West, has written and produced award-winning
specials that have aired nationally. He is also the executive producer of local productions for
IdahoPTV.
Marcia Franklin, a host-producer for DIALOGUE, a statewide call-in program, and a producer
for OUTDOOR IDAHO, has produced pieces for several national public television programs.
Her production about teens and mental illness, which aired nationally, earned a George Foster
Peabody Award and a regional Emmy.
Idaho Public Television is Idaho’s only statewide medium and offers national and Idahoproduced programming from five analog transmitters and five digital transmitters, plus 37
translators throughout the state. In 2006, the system aired 216 hours of productions about Idaho,
produced by IdahoPTV, Idaho’s colleges and universities, and independent producers. The Idaho
Humanities Council is a state-based program of the national Endowment for the Humanities.
Contacts:
Idaho Public Television
Anne Peterson, 208-373-7368, anne.peterson@idahptv.org
Karen Johnson, 208-373-7369, karen.johnson@idahoptv.org
Sandy Streiff, 208-373-7347, sandy.streiff@idahoptv.org