Chris Vallillo to perform ‘Forgottonia, An Intimate Portrait of Rural Illinois’ in La Salle

The Canal Corridor Association will host an Illinois Humanities Road Scholars Speakers Bureau presentation entitled “Forgottonia, An Intimate Portrait of Rural Illinois” by Chris Vallillo.

The performance will be 1 to 2 p.m. Sunday, May 14, at Lock 16 Visitor Center, 754 First St., La Salle.

Vallillo will perform his a one-man show, “Forgottonia,” featuring music he wrote in the last 35 years about Western Illinois, based on his experiences as a folklorist and songwriter in rural Illinois. The show combines music, storytelling and historically accurate narratives in a solo performance. Vallillo has spent the past 35 years documenting and preserving the heritage of Western Illinois: the land lovingly called Forgottonia.

Vallillo is an award-winning rural singer/songwriter, folk musician and folklorist with a natural affinity for American roots music. A master of bottleneck slide guitar, he weaves original, contemporary and traditional songs into a compelling and entertaining portrait of the history and lifestyle of the Midwest. In the mid-1980s, he was involved in documenting the last of the “pre-radio” generation of rural musicians in Illinois.