Monthly Archives: February 2015

Afterword from Glen Canyon Betrayed

Katie Lee Posted on by

Forty Years Later “…we must preserve it—not for the beauty, biology or God and country, but so we can always know the place we dream of being, the place we cannot belong. The place for our yearning.”                  Chuck Bowden, author Inferno How many times in forty years have I heard these words, “Wouldn’t you rather have Glen Canyon safe under water where nobody could get to it?” and thought… Maybe so. Only one of a ton of them would appreciate the fluted canyons, amphitheatres, temples, cathedrasl, cataracts, potholes, ruins and granaries; much less, where they were, or treasure the magic … Continue reading →

Cline Library Interview

Katie Lee Posted on by

My Parents I had great parents, really. I was very, very lucky. I had a dad who was like a kid, always. Taught me how to stay outdoors and taught me how to shoot and hunt when I was old enough. Took me on picnics–my mother and dad did that, of course. My dad was the athletic type, and my mother was the artistic type. So I was influenced from both sides there. My mother was a singer and a teacher of music, before she married my dad. When I look back on it, I think, “Wow, how lucky can … Continue reading →

Interview with The Kitchen Sisters

Katie Lee Posted on by

The Kitchen Sisters (Davia Nelson & Nikki Silva) produce the NPR series Hidden Kitchens, which explores how communities come together through food. As California residents, they’ve been “watching every year the encroachment and development of the west.” In their two-part radio documentary “Cry Me a River,” produced with Martha Ham, they visit the West we lost through the stories of three river guides who try – and fail – to stop the damming of their rivers and interviewed Katie Lee. Ken and Katie Lee and Mark DuBois are such great characters. What drew you to them? Nikki Silva: I think … Continue reading →

Maude, Billy & Mr.’ D’ – Western Folk Opera

Katie Lee Posted on by

Way back in the mid-fifties, I read a story in the Saturday Evening Post titled, “The Rider on the Pale Stallion”, written by Helen Eustis, an author well regarded back then in the heyday of folk music and folk tales. Her story simply cried aloud for music and rhyme, so I began making it into a Folk Opera, writing lyrics and music, using the author’s words in-between the songs to keep the story intact. While I was performing at the Blue Angel in New York, and had almost finished the music, I looked her up. I played it on my … Continue reading →

The Story of the Arizona Killer Song

Katie Lee Posted on by

I’d just returned from a gig at Telluride MountainFilm Festival in 2008—where they showed a documentary DVD of my activism; trying to save our Colorado River and restore Glen Canyon—to be zapped back into my past with a force that has left me dazed. Out of the blue I get an email from a guy named Bill who is a PhD student in rhetoric and a composition teacher at Carnegie-Mellon University. He tells me he saw this movie 3:10 to Yuma and they played a verse from a song called “The Arizona Killer.” When he did a web search about … Continue reading →