Most signs of Wayne County’s nationally regarded recording heritage are tucked away in the Whitewater Gorge or in a museum.
An upcoming one-day festival featuring live music is planned to celebrate that legacy more openly.
Starr-Gennett Foundation is offering its Walk of Fame celebration from 3-9:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 14, at the Starr-Gennett Building, 101 S. First St., Richmond.
Admission is free to visit food trucks and vendors offering art, jewelry, posters, games and other merchandise, and watch five live performances.
Music begins at 3:30 p.m. with Richmond High School’s Steel Drum Band and Drum Line, followed by Todd the Fox at 4:45 p.m.; Tin Cup at 6 p.m.; Jimmy D. Rogers at 7 p.m.; and David Greer’s Classic Jazz Stompers at 8 p.m.
This year’s featured artist is Bix Beiderbecke, an influential jazz soloist on cornet. Alcoholism contributed to pneumonia, leading to the Iowa native’s death at age 28 in 1931.
Beiderbecke was perhaps best known for his time with Paul Whiteman’s orchestra, which appeared on national radio. They played every major U.S. concert hall, including Carnegie Hall, where Beiderbecke played his own piano composition, “In A Mist.”
Tours of the medallions installed outside the recording studio will be offered. The recently restored medallions spotlight Gennett Records’ contributions in preserving country/western, jazz, blues, gospel, spoken word and more.
A version of this article appeared in the September 11 2024 print edition of the Western Wayne News.