Is it possible to live a sustainable life off the land, and also pursue the artistic dream of being a traveling musician?  Aren’t these fundamentally incompatible lifestyles?  Putnam Smith has spent the past decade trying to balance these seemingly conflicting goals.  Aspiring homesteader in the summer months at his log cabin in Maine, nationally touring artist in the off-season, Smith has been described as a “troubadour fresh from the 19th Century.”   True to this old world sensibilities, he plays his great-grandfather’s banjo, grows much of his own food, and prints the jackets to his CDs on an antique pedal-powered letterpress.  In his presentation, he will share his insights and experiences from his life on the road, and from his more rooted existence up in Maine.  He will also share songs from Appalachian tradition, and songs of his own, that celebrate rural living, and the quest to live closer to the earth.  

Smith will be performing on the Coffeyville Community College campus on Tuesday, January 30, as part of the CCC Humanities Project. The public is invited to the 10:30 a.m. Tuesday humanities performances at CCC.  The performances are free and held in the Spencer/Rounds Performing Arts Theatre.

For more information about the humanities project at CCC, please call 620-251-7700, ext. 2166.