July: Lake Geneva | ​Beating the Heat with Music: DTOS Summer Picnic Feat. Candi Carley-Roth

After several days of intense summer heat and wildfire smoke, Sunday, July 19, 2026, provided a refreshing break. Approximately 75 people took advantage of the lovely weather and drove to John Cornue's shop just outside Lake Geneva for the Dairyland Theatre Organ Society's annual summer picnic.

Mike Jacklin tended the grill while members contributed dishes, maintaining the usual, easygoing conviviality of a DTOS gathering.​

However, the main attraction was listening to John's 4/31 Hybrid Organ, which was played from its rare four-manual Kilgen horseshoe console by Candi Carley-Roth.

Candi was born three months premature and lost her sight during the two months she spent in an incubator. However, she states that she was never sheltered or isolated. She grew up riding bikes and skateboards and even tried her hand at judo and horseback riding. Music entered her life early; by age eight, she was performing on the organ, piano, and vocals. At seventeen, after hearing a theatre organ in person for the first time, she switched from playing the Hammond organ to pipe organs. Since then, she has appeared at five ATOS conventions and one convention of the Theatre Organ Society of Australia.

Candi lived up to her reputation by showcasing her unique style at the console. Being blind, she plays from memory and uses Braille stickers on the stop tabs to navigate unfamiliar instruments. This method allows her to confidently operate John's four-manual Kilgen organ just as comfortably as an organ she has played for years.
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Instead of using the traditional theatre organ songbook, she created a setlist featuring rock, R&B, and gospel music. She opened with a memorable rendition of the Chicken Dance and later included "Low Rider," a song not commonly performed on a theatre organ. The audience loved it, enjoying both the music and her jokes.
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Music we heard included: the Chicken Dance · Little Deuce Coupe · Dream / (Till) I See You in My Dreams · Low Rider · Eye in the Sky (Alan Parsons) · How Great Thou Art · Lord, I Just Want to Thank You · Fun, Fun, Fun · Baby Blue · Get a Job · You Send Me · Happy Organ · Jambalaya - Encore: God Bless America

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