Art Tougeau parade just around corner

Organizers of the Art Tougeau parade hope creative types from across the area are preparing their wheeled art vehicles for the eighth annual event.

The parade will be May 3 in downtown Lawrence.

All mobile art creations are welcome. The only requirement is that they maintain the parade’s pace of five miles per hour.

Art Tougeau has featured national-caliber art cars from Houston, St. Louis, Fayetteville, Ark., and Omaha, Neb. Local entries range from the sublime to the bizarre and represent the efforts of senior citizens, special needs groups and children. Above, the Van Go Mobile Arts van passes through downtown Lawrence in a previous parade.

This year’s parade will have a new route, beginning at the Lawrence Arts Center, 940 N.H., then rolling south to 11th Street, west to Massachusetts, north on Massachusetts to Seventh, east to New Hampshire, then back south to the Arts Center.

A $15 entry donation is requested, but entries by children are free. Fully paid entrants will be eligible for prizes and trophies.

Singer-songwriter brings folk fusion to Lawrence

Singer-songwriter Carrie Newcomer, known for her blend of folk, country and bluegrass, will be in concert at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Unity Church of Lawrence, Ninth and Madeline.

New York City singer-songwriter Sam Shaber will open the show.

Tickets are $12 for the public, $9 for students and are available at Mass. Street Music and at the door.

Newcomer’s latest CD, “The Gathering of Spirits,” has won rave reviews across the nation.

More information is at www.westsidefolk.org and 865-FOLK.

KU quartet places at singing competition

Random Harmony, a barbershop quartet composed of four Kansas University students, won second place in the Central States District convention of the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop Quartet Singing in America on April 5 in Lincoln, Neb.

The KU quartet sang “If You Had All the World and Its Gold” and “I Never See Maggie Alone.”

Shaun Whisler, Olathe senior, and Michael L. Brown, Perry junior, founded the quartet in November 2000. Whisler, bass, and Brown, baritone, recruited KU music students Josh Abel, Eudora tenor, and Dustin Peterson, Douglass senior, lead singer and tenor. By spring 2002, they were regularly booking engagements, including a performance at the annual Vespers program and the 2002 commencement banquet.

Other schools in the district competition were Kansas State University, Wichita State University, Butler County Community College and Northwest Missouri State University. A quartet from Doane College in Crete, Neb., won first place.