Recess! Media

Brief sound clip 

That’s Amy Lowe singing and Megan Wells as Mrs. O’Leary, deconstructing the legend of the great Chicago fire of 1871. It’s from a CD called “Fire in Boomtown,” featuring these two award-winning story-tellers, who take us on a journey back in history to understand how such a horrible event could have occurred. And what we learn through their brilliant mixture of songs, the historical record of old Chicago, and eye-witness testimonies is that it all came about through a fateful and fatal series of events and circumstances: a nearly all-wooden city, a drought, a mysterious spark, and a strong wind that drove the flames. It’s a compelling, tragic, and heroic story of loss and renewal that captures Chicago’s famous, resilient, creative “city-of-the-big-shoulders” essence. Every place doesn’t have a story quite as big as Chicago’s, but every place should have bards as talented as Ms. Wells and Ms. Lowe to tell its story.