Sustainable Tompkins recognizes WITH and Rootabaga Boogie

WITH-FM and "Rootabaga Boogie hosted by Tracey Craig" are honored at the Sustainable Tompkins Annual Awards.Rootabaga Boogie, hosted by Ithaca personality Tracey Craig and featuring an eclectic selection of folk and roots music, plus live music and conversation about music received a Sustainable Community Development award from Sustainable Tompkins.

Since 2006, Sustainable Tompkins has identified individuals and organizations emerging on the local scene, all doing their part to help advance community sustainability. Sustainable Tompkins honors these new activists in order to connect them with others involved in similar endeavors.  Awardees are celebrated for their contributions and receive a “Sign of Sustainability” certificate for their initiative.

Each year, Sustainable Tompkins acknowledges the following categories of Signs of Sustainability: a new sustainable enterprise; a brand new program or non-profit organization supporting some aspect of sustainable development; and a new sustainable program element rolled out by an existing business or non-profit organization.

Rootabaga Boogie's name is inspired by the Rootabaga Stories host Tracey Craig grew up hearing as a child. One of her earliest memories is listening to records of Carl Sandburg reading his Rootabaga Stories on a turntable that her dad built for her, her dad being David Craig, proprietor of Craig Audio Lab in Rochester and a longtime member of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra.

Rootabaga Boogie, airing Sundays from  10 a.m. to 12 noon on WITH-FM, offers music and conversation, artists both local and national, and a wonderful opportunity to present our Ithaca music scene and musicians within the larger context.

In the first hour of her show, Craig feature music from blues to bluegrass, traditional to contemporary, Cajun, Celtic, Klezmer and other music rooted in faraway traditions right alongside Ithaca’s own homegrown variety. The second hour of the program includes live music and conversation with some of the bohemian characters who live in or happen to be passing through Ithaca: primarily musicians, but also artists, writers and other interesting folks whose creative output involves music.

To learn more about Sustainable Tomkins, click here.