Word: waldeck
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...scene is the Sierra Club International Assembly in Ann Arbor, Mich., and the players are Bill Oliver and Glen Waldeck, the poets of preservation and the unofficial troubadours of the U.S. environment movement. All across the country, at conferences and campfires and on campuses, the two minstrels denounce development and pollution and plead for the rescue of endangered animals. Their music never hits the Top 40, but many a member of the Sierra Club or the National Audubon Society can hum their tunes and recite their lyrics by heart. To thousands of nature lovers, Oliver and Waldeck are to environmentalism...
...course, singing about ecology is chic these days. Superstars from Sting to Madonna have joined the crusade to save the rain forests. But these big names are Johnny-come-latelies. Following the tradition of conservation-minded singers like Woody Guthrie, Oliver, 41, and Waldeck, 32, have been spreading their message on the concert trail for more than a decade -- all through the Reagan years, when environmentalism was on the defensive and Interior Secretary James Watt seemed to be trying to stamp out the movement single- handed...
Oliver and Waldeck win over listeners because they are entertainers first and crusaders second. Dressed in T shirts and sneakers, they mix humor with their anger, and fun with their activism. In one number, Waldeck strolls around the stage under an umbrella. The lyric: "I walk the shores of Lake Champlain/ in the placid acid rain." In another tune, Waldeck dreams of being reincarnated as a "big, wrecking ball" so he can "crack down on condos." But fast-food executives would not find the show especially funny. "Lay down your Whopper and your fries," one song goes. "Save a rain...
...audience generally gets into the act. Are there any other performers who stir a crowd to let out coyote yelps? And when Waldeck climbs up on a chair and incites Sierra Clubbers to join the "Woodpecker Rebellion," they seem ready to lie down in front of bulldozers...
Sting may be a dedicated environmentalist, but has he ever toured Alaska? Oliver and Waldeck have. Last year they, along with fellow performer-activists Dana Lyons and Mavis Muller, traveled through the 49th state in a Volkswagen van on their Keep It Wild Tour, giving concerts from Anchorage and Fairbanks to such wilderness outposts as Talkeetna and Girdwood. Preaching preservation in a state where many settlers came only to plunder the resources, they found themselves singing about the evils of mining and trapping to audiences that included miners and trappers. That made for some uncomfortable moments. One night...