Friday, November 13, 2009
9:30 am - 10:00 am
Welcome / Introductions
10:00 am First Plenary Session: American Popular Music and the South
Dr. Karen Cox, UNC, Charlotte, NC
"Dixie Lullaby: Songs of the South From Tin Pan Alley"
Dr. Brian Ward, University of Manchester, UK
"Blackbirds in Britain: Florence Mills, Johnny Mercer, and British Imaginings of the American South Between the Two World Wars"
Dr. Mary Montgomery Wolf, University of Georgia, Athens, GA
"When Big Bands were ‘Beach Music': The Swing Era in the Carolina Lowcountry"
Noon Luncheon Talk
Samuel Charters, Storrs, CT
"A Celebration of Jazz in a Dark Decade"
2:00 pm Second Plenary Session: Influence and Interpretation of Popular Music
Dr. Frank A. Salamone, Iona College, New Rochelle, NY
"Bopping Along With Johnny Mercer"
Dr. Michael T. Bertrand, Tennessee State University, Nashville, TN
"Could Fifty Million Record-Buyers Have Been Irrelevant? Understanding the Post-World War II Past through Popular Music"
Dr. Geoffrey J. Haydon, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA
"Singers and Jazz Instrumentalists as Interpreters of the Popular Song"
6:30 pm Reception
8:00 pm Atlanta premier of the "Johnny Mercer: The Dream's On Me" Documentary Film
Saturday, November 14, 2009
9:30 am - 10:00 am Welcome / Introductions
10:00 am Third Plenary Session: American Popular Music Goes Country
Dr. Patrick Huber, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, MO
"Ghost Singers, Citybillies, and Pseudo-Hillbillies: Freelance New York Recording Artists and the Creation of Old-Time Music, 1924-1932"
Mr. Kirby Pringle, Loyola University, Chicago, IL
"'To The Cow Country': The Musical Landscape of Gordon Jenkins' San Fernando Valley"
Dr. Steve Goodson, University of West Georgia, Carrollton, GA
"Building Bridges: Hank Williams and the Hit Parade."
Noon Luncheon Talk
Dr. Joshua Berrett, Mercy College, New York, NY
"Johnny Mercer and Louis Armstrong: A Story in Three Songs"
2:00 pm Fourth Plenary Session: American Popular Music in Film
Dr. Todd Decker, Washington University in St. Louis, MO
"'I'm Hep To That Step And I Dig it': Johnny Mercer Writes For (And With) Fred Astaire"
Dr. Cynthia J. Miller, Emerson College, Canton, MA
"'Don't Be Scared About Going Low-Brow': Vernon Duke and the American Musical on Screen"
Dr. Kyle Barnett, Bellarmine University, Louisville, KY
"Going Hollywood with Hoagy Carmichael and Johnny Mercer"
6:30 pm Reception
8:00 pm Johnny Mercer Centennial Celebration Concert featuring Lizz Wright, Joe Gransden and the Georgia State University Jazz Band.
