Steve Madewell is a long-time working musician who has also enjoyed a remarkable career in the public parks sector. As a musician and outdoorsman, he remains engaged with local, regional, and national conservation organizations. He has performed throughout Ohio with occasional shows in other states and several other countries.
Steve has supervised and directed a host of park operations including environmental education, natural resource management and protection, wetland restoration, grant writing, and fundraising. He has worked on plans and the development of dozens of park facilities and the permanent protection of thousands of acres of open space.
As an advocate for conservation, Steve has spent considerable time leading outings and tours for notable writers, politicians, business and sports figures. He has often fished and canoed with US Senators and Congressional Representatives, federal and state judges, and corporate executives.
Steve has written for several publications, been the subject of countless newspaper articles, and featured on many local and, the occasional, national television show. He has delivered presentations all across the country.
He often uses music as a tool to celebrate his appreciation of nature and has recognized that the love of open space and the natural world has developed as a long-standing theme in popular music.
Madewell’s Coffeyville presentation will illustrate how nature and concern for the environment are so prevalent in popular music that this subject has developed into a contemporary folk music theme.
Folk music is often defined as traditional music or music that has been passed through generations by storytelling and informal performances. It is often associated with a cause and is generally regarded as an expression of societal concern. With the advent and expansion of media outlets, the definition of folk art and folk music continues to evolve.
A Naturalist Looks at Music
While folk music might be considered “cause-driven”, popular music is generally identified as a commercial product, a product created to sell. However, in the last century, concern with the loss of open space, the degradation of nature and the environment has inspired the creation of a number of songs that have been extremely popular. This is reflected in a number of songs beginning with cowboy ballads of the early 1900s', to Woody Guthrie’s anthems from the “Dust Bowl”, and continuing through songs of the ’60s and on to the present. The great success and lasting impact of these songs have created a genre of new folk music.
With attitude and opinion surveys consistently indicating a deep public concern for the environment, nature has developed into a consistent theme for contemporary folk and pop music.
Steve has recorded three CDs of original compositions, “Rivers and Trails,” “Arrow Creek,” and “Home Town Blues.”