MILLEDGEVILLE — "Where the river is winding, big nuggets they’re finding. North to Alaska, They’re goin’ north, the rush is on.”

A great song from Johnny Horton, and the theme song to the movie “North to Alaska,” filmed back in 1960 and starring John Wayne, Stewart Granger and, one of my personal media heroes, Ernie Kovacs. “North to Alaska” was one of John Wayne’s lighter westerns, more along the lines of the better known “McLintock” than films like “Stagecoach” or “Red River.”

The dust has finally started to settle on the Milledgeville Players production of “Damn Yankees” (or maybe I should say infield dirt). Once again, many thanks to all the folks who came out to enjoy the show. A great cast worked their hearts out (luckily they had “miles and miles of heart”). And if you missed it, well all I can say is it will probably be sometime before you have a chance to see and hear a number like “Whatever Lola Wants, Lola Gets” performed by a talented and striking beauty like Sara Stone.

Or to see such questionably sexy hunks like Bob Jaworski or Darrell Black strutting proudly across stage wearing nothing but a bath towel. Oh, the humanity!!

OK, time to move on.

There are a couple of musical events coming up, sponsored by the Georgia College Music Department.

Now a word of warning. My only info regarding these events (it’s still early in the college season) are of the basic announcement-type critters. So I was forced to go to that always trustworthy entity, the Internet, to try to find out some more fascinating info to pass on to my esteemed readers.

And we all know how 100 percent reliable information from the Internet ALWAYS is! So I “think” I’ll be conveying semi-accurate details regarding two up-coming performances. But if by some chance I “googled” the wrong person (that can land you in jail in some parts of Georgia) — hey, that’s why I keep the day job!

Tomorrow evening, Wednesday, Sept. 7, Dusty Woodruff is scheduled to give a guitar recital, starting at 7:30 p.m., in Max Noah Recital Hall.

Dusty was born and raised in Juneau, Alaska, and is described as a self-taught musician. Juneau, Alaska? Now there has to be one of my more obvious references to introductory column lyrics.

At some point, Dusty realized he lived in Alaska and decided to head about as far away as possible while remaining the United States. He received a B.A. in music from Abilene Christian University in Texas and later moved to Georgia. He is currently pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Georgia in classical guitar performance.

Dusty performs as a soloist and as a member of the Athens Guitar Trio. He has written a number of arrangements, some of which appear on the album “Emergence” by the Athens Guitar Trio.

In his role as an educator, Dusty teaches guitar at Augusta State University and at Georgia College in Milledgeville. He also maintains a private guitar studio in Athens where, if you recall back two paragraphs ago, he is also studying for his doctorate. In other words, this guy gets around. Such is often the life of a professional musician.

The recital at Max Noah is free and open to the public.

And the music just keeps on coming at you.

On Sunday, Sept. 18, the David Marcus Ensemble will give a concert starting at 6:30 p.m. This one is scheduled for the Arts and Sciences Auditorium, so you may need to double check those GPS coordinates.

David Marcus received his Ph.D. in music from that aforementioned university located about 70 miles north on US 441. He holds previous degrees in history, Arabic literature and music theory. He has taught music theory, composition and world music at Middlebury College, Georgetown University, Emory and Clark Atlanta University. Fluent in Spanish and Arabic, he also is an Arabic proficiency examiner at GA Perimeter College.

That diverse background no doubt contributes to the title of the program scheduled for Sept. 18, “The Passion of Arabic Music.”

David is a commissioned composer (that means he actually gets PAID for composing music) as well as a pianist, guitarist, arranger and producer. His music has been broadcast on UNIVISION, NPR, GPB and — wait for it — the Cartoon Network!

Now that last qualification has to be one of the more impressive ones I’ve seen for quite some time.

The David Marcus Ensemble concert is also free. Just make sure you make it to the right building.

Speaking of the right building at the right time, I’m going bi-weekly with my column for awhile. So, if you have events, performances, exhibits, rags, bones or bottles you’d like to publicize, try to get a note to me as soon as you can. Depending on when your really big shoo is taking place, there could be a two week lead-in time needed to make sure I can give it proper placement.

But just think — that can also mean up to two weeks of anxious antici...PAtion building up in your potential audience. The excitement could be greater than trying to figure out who the actual stars are supposed to be on that strange dancing competition TV program.    

So get that artsy information in as soon as you can.

Back to our opening lyric. Johnny Horton became a major country singing star in the late 1950s and was often associated with “saga songs” like “Sink the Bismarck” and “Battle of New Orleans.” A member of the Rockabilly Hall of Fame, Horton died in 1960 at the age of 35 in an accident where his car was knocked off a bridge by a truck being driven by a young, intoxicated driver.

But his legacy lives on.

“Way up north, North to Alaska. They’re goin’ north, the rush is on.”

Catch you on the flip side.

Tom Toney can be reached at ttoney@unionrecorder.com.