Singer & Songwriter series coming to Lewes in July

After eight successful years of the annual History Book Festival, co-founder and emeritus of the event, Ronald Collins, is picking up a new endeavor to further promote culture in the greater Lewes area. 

Collins and fellow co-founder Paul Sparrow will be kicking off their Singer & Songwriter series this summer. The series of events will aim to create more cultural energy in the community at local venues by bringing together live music and a discussion of the stories that inspire the music and musicians. The series operates under the umbrella of a nonprofit organization formed through the Greater Lewes Foundation. 

The first event in the series will welcome accomplished singer/songwriter Bobby Tomberlin at 4 p.m., Sunday, July 6, in the Lewes Elementary School auditorium. 

“We all have that one song that we love,” said Sparrow, a writer and Fireside Chat speaker at the Lewes Public Library. “I think understanding the motivations behind why the song was written, what it means, what it meant to them, it’s really an interesting way to explore different musical genres.”

The performance and discussion will be hosted in cooperation with The Listening Booth, a Lewes nonprofit organization and local music venue founded by Marissa Levy Lerer. Mayor Amy Marasco will deliver an opening statement. Admission is free, but seating is limited. 

The format of this series will be similar to that of the History Book Festival. The event will start off with an interview of the singer/songwriter about his or her life as a performing artist, followed by a public performance of the artists’ songs and concluded by a question-and-answer session with the audience. 

“The primary focus is not on having somebody just come and sing or do a concert,” Collins said. “The primary focus is to learn about songwriters.”

Tomberlin is a Country Music Awards, Academy of Country Music and Grammy nominee from Luverne, Ala., where he became a disc jockey at 11 years old, interviewing stars like Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings and Keith Whitley. Tomberlin co-wrote Diamond Rio’s No. 1 country and pop crossover hit “One More Day,” Darryl Worley’s Top 10 song “A Good Day to Run” and the Grammy-nominated single “Someday It’ll All Make Sense,” sung by Dolly Parton and Bill Anderson. Blake Shelton, Willie Nelson, Barbra Streisand and many other highly acclaimed artists have recorded songs by Tomberlin. 

After his interview, Tomberlin will be joined on stage by Tess Frizzell. Her mother, Shelly West, is a CMA and ACM winner, and her grandmother Dottie West and uncle Lefty Frizzell are Country Music Hall of Fame inductees. Frizzell has written songs with Bill Anderson, Waylon Payne and Tomberlin, among others. 

Collins was first inspired to create the Singer & Songwriter series after a visit to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. He watched as Tomberlin, who performs at the hall of fame several times a year, sat on a stool with his guitar and spoke about his music in an informal setting. Collins was impressed and approached Tomberlin after his performance, sharing his phone number and inviting him to Lewes. 

“I was just blown away by this man,” Collins said. “By his sincerity, by his ability to make the audience laugh, by his ability to make the audience cry and then by him talking about his songs.”

Tomberlin followed up on the phone call a few weeks later, prompting Collins to reach out to Sparrow, his longtime counterpart at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., and now Lewes neighbor, with an innovative concept. Collins said he was confident in Sparrow’s creative vision, vast knowledge of music and ability to make things happen.

“[Collins] came up with it as a way of creating another layer of cultural activity in this area,” Sparrow said. “One that goes beyond just performance.”

Tomberlin, who performs more than 75 shows per year, looks forward to being the first singer/songwriter in the series, and to his first trip to Lewes. 

“I just really open up my heart,” Tomberlin said. “The people that are in an audience – I learned a long time ago – just treat them like they’re your friends, even if you’ve never met them.”

The next event in the series, The Genius of Rodgers and Hammerstein, will feature Tina Marie Casamento, a Broadway singer and producer. Casamento will speak at the Lewes library pavilion at 7 p.m., Wednesday, July 30, about the team that transformed Broadway with acclaimed musicals like “The Sound of Music,” “Oklahoma!” and “South Pacific.” She will sing excerpts of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s songs accompanied by pianist David Libby.

A full schedule for the Singer & Songwriter series will be announced soon. Collins and Sparrow seek to partner with as many community groups as possible to host community-oriented events that explore diverse genres of music.

“The idea is just that, in time, maybe a couple of years, this will be the place where if you’re a songwriter you’ll want to come,” Collins said.