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Local musician Bentley Brehm next featured guest on Studio Sessions

March 8, 2012

The Northland College radio station, 97.7 WRNC-LP, will feature local musician and Washburn resident Bentley Brehm on the next segment of "Studio Sessions" on Friday, March 9, at 7:30 p.m. WRNC Music Director and Northland student Jeremiah Cornehl will interview Brehm about his life as a musician and what influences his work. Brehm will perform a selection of songs with themes touching on lost love and life on the road.

Brehm travelled to northwestern Wisconsin from Ohio in 1978 to attend Northland College, where he became involved with the Northland College Voyageurs. The group, directed by Bill Otis at the time, performed fur-trade re-enactment songs. The Northland College Voyageurs recorded an album in the Twin Cities that featured the late Sigurd F. Olson talking about voyageurs and the Northwoods. Brehm says Olson recorded his contribution in a canoe on the Chequamegon Bay.

"I was sitting behind Sigurd Olson helping paddle this big canoe while they were recording that, so that was kind of neat," said Brehm.

Brehm always possessed a love for music, playing the harmonica and guitar.

"Music is my reason for living," said Brehm. "There were quite a few years in my life where I was trying to be an adult and I kind of suppressed that. I was in some relationships that kind of discounted the music, and they looked at it as an either/or proposition: 'you're either a family man or you're going to be a musician.' My argument was that, no, you can't separate anything out."

Brehm plays a custom John Gray guitar. Gray, a Washburn luthier, repairs guitars and other stringed musical instruments. To learn more about Brehm and his life as a musician, tune in Friday at 7:30 p.m. on 97.7 WRNC-LP. Listeners may stream the show online at www.wrnclp.org. The "Studio Sessions" show featuring local musicians Yazmin and Bruce Bowers has been rescheduled for a later date. For more information on upcoming shows, call (715) 682-1664 or email md@wrnclp.org. WRNC welcomes local musicians who live in the Chequamegon Bay area to be interviewed on the program.