By Tribune staff

Central Kansans will be able to see and hear Daniel Boling sing his stories at 8 p.m., Saturday in the Back Room of the Barton County Arts Center.

Admission is $10, and reservations may be made weekday afternoons at the Arts Center, 1401 Main, Great Bend, by calling 620-792-3097 or e-mailing tickets@bartonarts.org.

Career and family took a good deal of Boling’s attention over the years, and he fit his music in around the edges of about 60 hours a week as a national park ranger and later a Bureau of Land Management special agent. But since February, 2008, he’s been performing and touring full-time.

Described as a folksinger/songwriter with a storyteller’s eye for detail, Bolig’s songs are inhabited by characters drawn from his life, family and friends: The vagabond running off with a tiny circus to tour the West, an aging Vietnam veteran looking back with surprise at his departed youth, a young rancher inheriting his grandfather’s nearly worn out rangeland and hoping he can hold on and live up to the legacy, and a passenger on Flight 93 calling his wife to say goodbye. Boling’s finger-picked guitar and banjitar support a good, clear tenor voice that is said to evoke his characters’ emotions perfectly.

Last year Bolig released his fourth CD, "He Dreams," with 13 new original songs, and was featured on the CD "LIVE! from the Winter Folk Festival 2009."

This program is presented in part by the Kansas Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional support is provided by Barton County, the City of Great Bend and CPI Qualified Plan Consultants, Great Bend.