Rock Springs Main Street Welcomes Hot Tamale Louie

Rock Springs Main Street Welcomes Hot Tamale Louie

ROCK SPRINGS — The Rock Springs Main Street/Urban Renewal Agency is welcoming Hot Tamale Louie – The Story of Zarif Khan to The Broadway Theater, April 12.

It’s a coming-of-age story about leaving home, of travel and wandering the west. It’s a story of fortunes won and lost, of immigrants and citizenship, of generosity and hate, of love late in life and a heinous murder.

At the age of 12, Khan left his home near the Khyber Pass, wandering India for years before sailing to Seattle. After exploring the west, he settled in Sheridan, Wyoming to take over a business selling tamales. He was famous for his food and eventually learned how to invest in the stock market.

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Khan gained citizenship in 1925 but soon, had it evoked. He regained his citizenship 30 years later. He became a legend, between Afghanistan, Pakistan and Wyoming.

This tale is told through Western ballads, gentle Mexican waltzes, folk songs and melodies from the East, suggestive – tone poems and brassy ragtime melded together by jazz.

The audience will see cowboys and Indians, landowners and congressmen, society ladies and ladies of the night, school children and old folks Afghans, Mexicans, Chinese, Czechs and Poles, and special appearances by the famous Buffalo Bill Cody and Medicine Joe Crow. You will laugh, you will cry, you will fret, you will sigh.

This musical ensemble includes:

·         John Rapson – composer and pianist

·         Danyel Gaglione – composer, voice, mandole.

·         Dave Moore – voice, slide guitar, accordion, harmonica.

·         Ryan Smith -saxophones, flute, clarinet.

·         Tara McGovern – violin.

·         Dan Padley – electric guitar.

·         Blake Shaw – doublebass.

·         Justin LeDuc –  drums, percussion.

This performance starts at 7 PM and is free to the public. Sponsors for this event include Wyoming Arts Council, City of Rock Springs, Broadway Theater, Sweetwater Board of Cooperative Educational Services, WESTAF and ThinkWY.