Memorial Day Weekend: We Gotta Get Out of This Place, A Concert Experience

The Edgewater salutes Memorial Day 2018 with an inspiring concert experience featuring the soundtrack of the Vietnam War. Join us Saturday, May 26, on The Grand Plaza for a musical story based on the book, “We Gotta Get Out of This Place” by co-authors Doug Bradley and Craig Werner.

Sean Michael Dargan & The Back in the World Band will perform music discussed in the book while Vietnam veterans provide first person narratives, dubbed “solos,” offering a diverse array of viewpoints regarding the war and the impact of music on their Vietnam experience.

The book explores how and why U.S. troops turned to music as a way of connecting to each other and the world back home and of coping with the complexities of the war they had been sent to fight. It also demonstrates that music was important for every group of Vietnam veterans – black and white, Latino and Native American, men and women, officers and “grunts” – all whose personal reflections drive the book’s narrative. Rolling Stones magazine named “We Gotta Get Out of This Place” the best music book in 2015, calling it “intimate and deeply informative, with a scope that encompasses both the war itself and the way that music has helped raise awareness of veterans’ issues long after its end.”

Bradley and Werner will sell and sign copies of the book during the May 26 event. The performance is free and open to the public and will benefit The Highground, a 155 acre Veterans Memorial Park near Neillsville, WI.