- [Announcer] Production of Applause, on Idea Stream Public Media, is made possible by: The John P. Murphy Foundation.

The Kulas Foundation.

And by Cuyahoga County residents through Cuyahoga Arts & Culture.

(upbeat music) - [Kabir] Coming up, learn what goes into making a pipe organ from the craft workers at the Schantz Organ Company in Orville.

Hear Austin Walkin' Cane's boomin' vocals as he belts out the blues for Applause Performances.

And get totally tangled in the delightful doodling of this Akron artist.

Welcome to Applause.

I'm your host, Idea Stream Public Media's, Kabir Bhatia.

In Wayne County, the Schantz Organ Company has been building instruments for 150 years.

Step inside the Orville workshop for a look at how the king of instruments comes together with Idea Stream Public Media's Carrie Wise.

- [Carrie] Organ making is a slow art.

And, at the Schantz Organ Company in Orville, workers have been handcrafting instruments for generations.

The pipes start as flat pieces of metal before they're soldered together.

And the process is repeated, as every key has its own pipe.

And, depending upon the organ size, there can be thousands of pipes.

- We're holding on to traditions of craft where people make things actively with their hands.

So, pipe making in a pipe organ shop.

The building of the blower with metal craft.

The building of the wooden casework or console.

The building of various component parts that go into the pipe organ all involve many different kinds of craft skill.

And we get to perform those crafts, teach and train people in the preservation of those crafts because they take so long to learn.

- [Carrie] This legacy started with AJ Schantz.

He didn't want to be a dairy farmer, so he established a reputation for building furniture and fixing things at the family farm in Kidron, just south of Orville.

- And, one day, a church from the area brought a reed organ to the shop and said, "can you fix it?"

AJ took it apart.

Found out what was wrong, put it back together and said, "I can make these."

And that, on that little farm in Kidron, was the beginning of the company, in the sense that, AJ started to invent and build reed organs.

Which, at the time, no TV, no radio, no electricity.

What people did in that time of history was sit in the parlors on Sunday and sing.

- [Carrie] By the early 1900s, the factory moved to its current location in Orville at the corner of Oak and Walnut Streets.

And the Schantz Organ Company transitioned from making reed organs to pipe organs with the advent of electricity.

Business today involves both making new organs and refurbishing existing ones.

- So, the breadth of the instruments, where the pipe organ gets what it can to actually make it sound, comes from the air, comes from a blower.

And we actually make those blowers here in house.

We have the Zephyr section right here.

Around it is the pipe shop.

So, we keep a lot of the metal work all together.

And so, the pipes are all made by hand here.

Even the painting aspects of it.

We use our own spray booths, our own skilled painters, to be able to take care of that.

As you move upwards into the shop, you get into the woodworking facility.

And so, all of the casework, the console itself, all of that architecture comes to life here.

All of the electronics are put in by our staff here.

And so, just about every aspect of the pipe organ, we're trying to make by hand.

- [Carrie] Once the pipes come together, they're manipulated to ensure that they play right.

This task is called "voicing," and focuses on tone and volume.

(organ honking) - And, if I tap that- (organ honking) It'll gets softer, and also- (organ honking) So then, if we put it together with its tuning reference rank, we'll see if we can put it back in tune.

(organ tuning) - [Carrie] Once an organ is created in Orville, Sean's staff members transport the instrument to its new home.

A recent project involved refashioning an organ from a church in North Carolina for Our Lady of Peace Catholic Church in Cleveland.

(organ playing) - When we hear the organ inside, you can hear how it reacts with its space.

That's one of the interesting things about pipe organ building.

Is how does that instrument, and how do those individual pipes, and then individual sets of pipes interact and react with a room?

In a pipe organ, with the use of air, you're actually changing the physics of sound in that room.

Those pipes are literally resonating as they play.

And that's why, when you hear a pipe organ play, you can sometimes feel it in your chest.

And that's because air is actually being moved.

- [Carrie] On site at the church, adjustments are made so that the sound fits with the space.

- In this organ, there are 1,952 individual pipes.

And we have shaken hands with every one of them at least once.

Sometimes, two and three times.

And that's the process that we call tonal finishing.

And that's marrying those pipes to the acoustical and physical environment that the organ sits in.

- Play low C again.

- [Carrie] The overall market for pipe organs has declined in the last several decades, as church attendance has declined nationally.

But there's still great appreciation for this instrument.

(organ music) - Imagine a symphony orchestra in a church with all those instruments and all those people, as opposed to one instrument that can replicate many of the sounds of the symphony orchestra and accompany church singing with one musician and one instrument.

So, the king of instruments, as it's called, has this efficiency about it that has made it practical for churches, large and small, to have an accompaniment instrument that can do all of these different kinds of musical tasks.

Musical literature of all kinds.

One instrument.

(organ playing) (blues music) - [Kabir] From pipe organs to some serious vocal pipes, Shuffle and Applause Performances combined forces to share a studio session with Cleveland blues man, Austin Walkin' Cane.

He's performed locally since the early '90s, and now tours the world.

Walkin' Cane recorded his latest album in famed Muscle Shoals, Alabama.

He shared some of its songs and stories with Shuffle Podcast host, Amanda Rabinowitz.

(Austin playing and singing) - You've got a new album that was recorded in Alabama, but the story starts in Memphis.

Can you talk about that?

- I was heading down to Memphis, 'cause I have like a almost, you know, being a road guy, I have lots of almost, like, different families.

You know, I go to Memphis, I have my Memphis family.

I go to, you know, Clarksdale, Mississippi, I've got that family.

I go to, you know, Europe, or wherever, there's just people everywhere.

And my Memphis people were like, "man, you should just come down and hang out."

"You're not working."

Because of COVID, everything got canceled.

So, my buddy said, you can stay at this house, this Airbnb that they were rehabbing.

And then, my other buddy goes, "yeah, so you're going to Memphis, you know?"

"You know Muscle Shoals is only like two and a half hours away."

And I emailed Fame Recording.

And they said, "Well do you want to come on Tuesday or Wednesday?"

"Wednesday?"

Okay, so I got in my car on Monday morning and I drove to, you know, Alabama.

It took me like 12 hours or something, 13 hours.

And got there and- Actually, I take that back, I left on Tuesday, and I got there, and recorded at ten in the morning.

It was a pretty amazing feeling, because so many great people recorded there.

Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett.

I mean, Solomon Burke.

The Allman Brothers started in the other studio, which I thought was pretty great.

(Austin singing and playing) - Austin, I wanna talk a little bit about your moniker, "Walkin' Cane."

It's not quite accurate.

Can you talk about that?

- Well, it is accurate, but it's not accurate.

- Okay.

- Okay, so, I was born with an arterial venous malformation.

And, by the time I was 16, I was on a cane.

I used a cane 'til I was 26.

So, I figured, at that point, you know, I started playing out when I was 20.

And I was down in New Orleans, and I was walking around the French Quarter.

And this guy goes, "Hey, Walkin' Cane, you got some spare change for a brother?"

And I was like, "yeah, I do, here's some cash."

You know?

And I was like, Walkin' Cane would be a good thing for me, because, you know, I'm stuck with it.

You know, I'm probably gonna be using a cane the rest of my life.

So, I thought that, you know, that'll be a good, that'll be my thing.

And then, you know, at 26, I had my leg taken off.

And, now I don't really need a cane all that much.

If you see me with a cane, I'm probably in a bad way.

- So "Walkin' Cane" stuck?

- It did, it was like a, you know, blues guy, you gotta have some kind of ailment, you know?

Blind Willie Johnson.

(Austin playing blues) ♪ Sun go down ♪ ♪ Down for me ♪ ♪ Sun go down ♪ ♪ Down for me ♪ ♪ Sun go down ♪ ♪ Sun go down ♪ ♪ Sun go down ♪ ♪ Down for me ♪ - Do you think that experience and what you've gone through in your life has, I guess, you know, given you this outlet, with your blues singing and the emotion that you put into it?

- I have no doubt that it affected me somehow.

You know, I don't really know, because I don't, I've never lived any other kinda life.

This has always been what it's been.

So, "Sun Go Down," it was the last tune on the new record.

A friend of mine, her son had passed away.

It was 27, it was awful.

♪ Take the light away ♪ ♪ Sun go down ♪ ♪ Down for me ♪ ♪ Sun go down ♪ ♪ Down for me ♪ And I was driving to Muscle Shoals.

And she was in my head, you know, just kind of thinking about everything she was saying.

'Cause, you know, I've been fortunate, my kids, I've never gone, I've never experienced anything like that.

And we were talking.

And I was just thinking about stuff and I started getting a melody in my head.

And just talking into my phone while I'm driving, every once in a while I get, "oh, that's a good line."

You know?

And then, I reached a gas station at some point, I had to take a break.

You know, I'd been driving for like eight, nine hours.

And so, I sketched it out real quick.

I had to pump gas, so I put the book right there and, you know, recorded myself singing the song acapella while pumping gas.

And then, I thought, well I'll send it to Chris Allen, see what, you know, he has to say.

And I, it was about, you know, 10 o'clock at night or something.

And he gets it, and he was working on songs in the garage.

'Cause that's where we hang in the summertime.

And, so, he was working on some stuff and he goes, "Oh, this is cool."

And he wrote it out pretty quick.

And came up with a guitar part.

'Cause it was pretty much a straightforward song, you know?

And he sent it back to me and I went, "wow."

"All right, we have a song."

♪ The sun will rise ♪ ♪ Oh, yes, it will ♪ ♪ Sun will rise ♪ ♪ I pray it will ♪ ♪ But for now ♪ ♪ Take away this pain ♪ ♪ Take away the sun ♪ ♪ Take away this pain ♪ ♪ Take away the sun ♪ ♪ Take away this pain ♪ - [Announcer] If you'd like to watch the entire session of Applause Performances featuring Austin Walkin' Cane, you can stream it any anytime on the PBS app.

- [Austin] ♪ Sun go down ♪ ♪ Down for me ♪ - [Kabir] It's been 50 years since a DJ in the Bronx laid the foundation for the music known as hip hop.

On the next Applause, take a tour of the new Rock Hall exhibit, "Hip Hop at 50: Holla If You Hear Me."

Plus, travel to Athens, Ohio to meet the man behind Red Diamond mandolins.

And the Cleveland Orchestra performs a Mozart masterpiece composed in the summer of 1772 when he was only 16 years old.

All that and more on the next round of Applause.

(classical music) Painter Yan Sun's life changed when he arrived in the United States escaping communist China after the cultural revolution.

For the last three decades, he's captured the people, landscapes, and history of his adopted home in his art.

- At that moment, I was lucky I met the artist who were very famous artists, but who was not communist party members.

He was forced to the coal mine.

His small studio has a special smell.

What kind of smell?

Linseed oil, and the brush, and the colors.

Wow, this is my way.

At that moment I think, "Okay, probably, I don't want to be a doctor."

The doctor can get a lot of money, I know, to survive.

But I like art.

I just use a pencil, I use a brush, and drawing every day.

I'm very interested about the American culture.

And not just say in the 21st century, 20th century, I want to go back to a couple of hundred years ago and I want to know the, more about the Western.

I want to know the what had happened in the, in Ohio.

That's why, when I find the good subject matter of Ohio and the American Indian.

And I focused on the different life.

And, most tribes, they have the old man.

They have a great power.

They were leader.

And they give a story.

And the story, not just write down, they give the, just a, talk about story and the history.

What is this generation?

What is next generation?

For this, it's the same.

The young girls, they like to go back.

They want to find the root of their the culture.

I like to use oil, because the oil color, you just use the big brush or small brushes.

The big brush can represent the feelings of the emotion.

For example, this, I did never mix too much.

I mix, for example, this is my style.

Just make this.

You can see the some colors and same brushes.

You can use a different color, a big brush.

Do not mix too much.

Look this, yeah.

You can find how nice.

But when you stand far away, this red color, and mix color, it's just give you another fresh impression.

In the 19th century, Monet and the French artists, they use the same style and they represent very good trees.

The tree, remember that, the tree is not green.

Even that one is real, is green, but you cannot use green to represent the green.

You need to use some blue, yellow, or black and white to represent the green.

The style depend on the subject matter.

For example, this, you cannot use a big brush, because they have a string.

They have detail, they have paper.

And you need to use the small brushes and many layers.

Or for the landscape, the trees or leaves shaped, you cannot use that one.

You need to use a big brush.

Just like the impression.

So, that's why in my painting you can see that I have so many different subject matter.

Or some different style from.

Or something simple as realistic style.

Or impressionist style.

The title of that work is "Three Sides of Mona Lisa."

The pose is Mona Lisa.

Mona Lisa was a lady.

I selected a boy.

My student.

I want to combine the history of the very famous artist work, but combined my contemporary idea.

People asking me, "why you think this work is complete?"

Yeah, I, this is a good question.

Some works, is depend on my feeling.

For example, I want to make the so excited works, and I need to keep working.

On the surface, you, as a good artist, you must understand what time you need to stop.

Do not do too much.

For example, this work, in the background, I make the emotion.

This is, you cannot see the flower, or this is trees.

That is not important.

I can say this is a spirit.

And the emotion.

And sometime you have to keep this emotion.

That's okay.

Do not think about, "oh, this flower, I need to add some detail."

Do not make the all the details, all reflections.

If you do that, probably, you lost emotions.

This orange color, this is my favorite color.

And also, the orange, makes a great contrast of the background.

And in my earliest artwork, I use the orange just make the violin, or cello, or that.

But the background must be the black, or dark, that make the great contrast that represent my feeling.

Yeah, just what is the hope of the people?

What is the hope in the future?

What is your dream?

- [Kabir] A lifelong doodler, April Couch discovered the art of Zentangle, a meditative method of drawing structured patterns, which was a lot like the doodling she'd been doing over the years.

Now, she's making it work with her artistic establishment in Akron, "Totally Tangled Creations."

- I probably had five or six pieces.

When I sold them, I got really emotional and started crying to the point that people have said, "do you want me to buy something else?"

And my husband would be like, "Nope, she'll be fine."

"Go ahead and take it."

Hello, my name is April Couch, and I am the artist owner of Totally Tangled Creations.

I got my degree in business administration and I worked in banking for 17 years.

Then I quit to be a stay-home mom.

And I did that until my kids all went to school and I had to decide what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.

And I didn't want to go back to my career, because it was not something I was passionate about.

So, I decided to go back to my first love, which was art.

I just happened to upon this type of art, which looked like what I was doing.

Most people call this "zentangle," I call it doodling.

Zentangle is an art form, but is a meditative way of creating patterns repetitively.

It's mostly done on, like, little squares of paper.

That's how it starts.

Immediately, that seemed like boundaries to me.

I wanted to explore different things.

So, I took zentangle and my doodling and I married to two and I came up with my own style of doing this.

And everything just kinda happened from there.

Usually, it starts with the piece first.

Probably, four days a week, I'm out shopping looking around thrift stores, on the curve, wherever.

And then, once I have the piece in my hand, I decide what I'm going to do with it.

And, if you look at them, most of the designs look pretty much the same, even though not any two pieces are the same.

They all look totally different.

As I work on a piece, the designs are pretty much random, and I just let my pen flow, and whatever comes out comes out.

From start to finish, a small piece can take me three hours.

A large piece can take me 75 hours.

I am absolutely in love with this piece.

You spend time with the things that you create and they become a part of you.

This was the first gourd that I did and I have a picture of my daughter holding it.

And she has this big smile on her face.

And so, that memory goes with this gourd and it makes it even harder for me to release this piece.

Success is about helping others, not just yourself.

It's about uplifting a community.

Akron is on the cusp of something I think is really great.

And to see that dynamic of artists really growing and developing businesses, seeing that happen, and being a part of it, has been really exciting.

When I'm creating, I truly leave the world.

I'm in my happy place.

No one sits and does this for hours, and hours, and hours without loving it.

And I absolutely love what I do.

And I think everyone has the right to love what they do, especially if they're gonna do it for the rest of their life.

- [Kabir] For more stories about local entrepreneurs who are making it visit ideastream.org That's our story and we're sticking to it.

Thanks for watching.

I'm Idea Stream Public Media's, Kabir Bhatia, reminding you there's always room in your life for a little more Applause.

We leave you with more music from Austin "Walkin' Cane."

- ♪ Made it through another day ♪ ♪ Never had much money but made to through the day ♪ ♪ Now hard times have come my way ♪ ♪ All these hard times are here to stay ♪ ♪ Waitin' for a little sunshine to come my way ♪ ♪ Come my way, Lord, come my way ♪ ♪ Waitin' for a little sunshine to come my way ♪ ♪ Lord take these blues away ♪ ♪ Heaven take these blues ♪ (Austin playing blues) - [Announcer] Production of Applause on Ideastream Public Media is made possible by: The John P. Murphy Foundation.

The Kulas Foundation.

And by Cuyahoga County residents, through Cuyahoga Arts & Culture.