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Saturday April 13th, 2024
Jim Jones & Mariam Funke
Jim Jones was the Western Music Association's 2014 Male Performer of the Year and winner of the International Western Music Association 2019 Song of the Year, Academy of Western Artists 2016 Western Song of the Year and Western Writers of America 2013, 2017 and 2021 Spur Awards for Best Western Song. His songs and books are about the West ... cowboys, horses & cattle, cattle rustlers, the coming of the train ... songs about people and land, rivers and mountains, the beauty of the Western sky. His solo albums include "Race with the Wind," 2015, "Headin' Home," 2018, compilation CD, "Favorites," 2019, and recently released CD, "Good Days Are Comin'". Western novels include the Jared Delaney series, Rustler's Moon, Colorado Moon and Waning Moon, and the spin-off series including The Big Empty (2016) and The Lights of Cimarron (2019), published by Five Star Publishing. He has published two illustrated children's books, Spur Finalist Bolo the Brave and Bolo the Brave: True Friend. Mariam Funke is a native of Germany who from early on has felt a kinship with the American West and its music. He has enjoyed a colorful career on stage and in the recording studio, earning a reputation for being a versatile multi-instrumentalist, arranger and producer who is at home in many genres. In recent years, as a member of the Western Trio "The Cowboy Way", Mariam received numerous awards, including the International Western Music Association's Group of the Year Award for 2017, 2018, 2019 and Western Album of the Year Award for "Go West" in 2019. Other awards include Western Heritage Wrangler Award-Traditional Western Album of the Year 2017 for "The Cowboy Way" and, as co-writer with Doug Figgs and Floyd Beard, Wrangler Award-Western Song 2021 for "El Caballo del Fuego".Now residing in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Mariam works in his home studio as composer, producer, private music teacher, sideman and songwriter. |
Saturday, May 4th, 2024
Luke Bulla
Luke Bulla has been singing and playing music most of his life. Beginning with his family band at age four, Luke now has the privilege of playing with some of the world's finest musicians. He currently performs with Lyle Lovett's Large Band, and is working on his next album. In the spring of 1999, Luke moved to Nashville to establish himself as a full time musician. He spent his early years in Tennessee playing fiddle in Ricky Skaggs' band, Kentucky Thunder, which earned him his first Grammy Award. Following the Skaggs stint, he became a member of the John Cowan Band. More recently Luke has performed and/or recorded with Brandi Carlile, Jim Lauderdale, Darrell Scott, Alison Krauss, Jerry Douglas, Sam Bush, Edgar Meyer, Bela Fleck, Bryan Sutton, Kevin Costner & Modern West, Russ Barenberg Trio, Shawn Colvin, Tony Rice, Chris Thile, Peter Rowan, Patty Griffin, Glen Phillips, Rodney Crowell, and Earl Scruggs, to name a few. Luke was also a perennial instructor at Mark O'Connor's fiddle camps in his early Nashville years. With his long-time friend Casey Driessen, Luke founded the band Wisechild, which toured briefly with John Mayer and Counting Crows. He also had a band collaboration, W.P.A. (Works Progress Administration), which included members Sean Watkins (Nickel Creek, Fiction Family), Glen Phillips (Toad The Wet Sprocket), Sara Watkins (Nickel Creek, I’m With Her), Benmont Tench (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers), Pete Thomas (Elvis Costello and the Imposters, The Attractions, Los Lobos), Greg Leisz (Joni Mitchell, Wilco, Sheryl Crow, Beck), and Davey Faragher (Elvis Costello and the Imposters, Cracker). |
Saturday May 25th, 2024
Mike Agranoff
Mike takes the notion that Folk Music is passe or boring, and blows that all to Kingdom Come. He presents an intelligent and highly entertaining program of songs, tunes, stories and humor. Mike plays a superb fingerstyle guitar in idioms ranging from traditional fiddle tunes to the American Songbook to contemporary Americana. He is a master of the little-known English Concertina, applying it anywhere from a haunting and poignant song accompaniment to an unexpected virtuoso transcription of a Bach concerto. A performance might include a song of heart-stopping emotional impact, an acapella Irish patter song sung to the melody of a mile-a-minute fiddle tune, a riveting recitation in the style of Robert Service, and some of the most horrible parodies ever perpetrated on an unsuspecting audience. More a singer-songfinder than a singer-songwriter, Mike combs the canon of contemporary and traditional songs for little-known gems, puts his unique stamp on them, and brings them to the stage. If you've been around the folk scene at all in the Northeast, you've probably seen him. He's that tall guy with the beard and the leather fisherman's cap. And when the music starts, he's in the middle of it all, adding to the chorus and probably knowing all the lyrics. His repertoire is vast and varied. Mike is not only a collector of songs and a master at arranging them, but is also a writer of songs and recitations. He has a keen ear for the best of the best, and this only enhances his own writing. If you're sick of the endless stream of singer songwriters who write for the market, you will find Mike to be a refreshing alternative. He makes us laugh, cry and think, all the while entertaining us long into any evening of music. |
Daniel's songs tell interesting stories about a variety of characters, including himself. He plays guitar and banjo with a deft fingerpicking style that always enhances the stories, and a bit of harmonica into the bargain. His clear tenor draws positive comparisons to John Denver and Pete Seeger, and like Pete, Daniel is happiest when his audience sings too! Winner of the Grassy Hill Kerrville New Folk songwriter contest, the Woody Guthrie Folk Festival, and others, Daniel shares experiences from a life well-lived in three countries and seven States. This balladeer/songwriter with the friendly tenor brings his well-crafted story songs to happy audiences throughout the U.S. and in Europe in over one hundred shows a year, from House Concerts and listening rooms to major festivals - Kerrville, Winfield, Woody Guthrie, and others. Daniel is also a member of the iconic 1960s folk trio The Limeliters. NEW OLD FRIENDS, released in 2023, is Daniel's 9th solo album and has charted among the top ten folk albums across North America and Europe. All 15 songs on the album are co-writes between Daniel and legendary folk songwriter Tom Paxton, and Tom sings on five songs on the album. Noel Paul Stookey is also a co-writer on one song with Daniel and Tom. Daniel's 2016 album, THESE HOUSES, was considered for GRAMMY Nomination as "Best Folk Album". In 2016 THESE HOUSES was chosen among Top 10 Albums of the year by Folk Radio DJs across the U.S., as was his 2014 album SLEEPING DOGS that year." |
From my earliest memories there was music in our home. Beethoven or Herb Albert and the Tiajuana Brass would be spinning on Dad's old turn table, Roger Miller would be singing about "The King of The Road" or Burl Ives would tell how "Bill Grogan's Goat" flagged a train. Then the Beatles happened. They were my gateway drug. Dylan, The Stones, Iron Butterfly, CCR, CSN&Y, Cream, Cocker, Allman Brothers, Hendrix, The Who, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath. None of that bubble gum crap for me! Then I heard Guy Clark. The drug had changed. I needed to hear songwriters, but not just any writers and any old songs. I needed a country beat. Songs that spoke of real folks, folks that I knew. I needed to hear Jerry Jeff, Prine, Fromholz, BW, Kristofferson, Emmylou, Pure Prairie League, Flying Burrito Bros, Lucinda, Nancy Griffith, Steve Earle, Townes, Cash, Jones, Waylon, Ray Wylie, Chris Knight, Hayes Carll, John Moreland and on and on. Don't get me wrong, Beethoven still moves me to tears, and Rock and Roll will never die. I was surrounded by music and by friends who played and wrote music. I had no choice but to write songs |
March 15, 2024 Buffalo Bill & Dr. Jo |
Feb. 10, 2024 Almeda Bradshaw | ||
Jan. 27, 2024 Kerry Grombacher |
Nov. 14, 2023 Grace Clark |
July 8th, 2023 Lori Beth Brooke |
June 24th, 2023 Jennings & Keller |
May 6th, 2023 Ken Gaines |
April 21, 2023 Miss Devon & The Outlaw |
March 24, 2023 Carol Markstrom |
February 23, 2023 Poi Rogers |
December 3, 2022 Two Crows for Comfort |
October 2, 2022 Claudia Nygaard |
September 17, 2022 Randy Lewis Brown |
July 30, 2022 Dan McCorison |
June 3, 2022 Scott T |
May 14, 2022 Jim Jones & Mariam Funke |
April 28, 2022 Kray Van Kirk |
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March 19, 2022 Buffalo Bill & Dr. Jo |
February 12, 2022 Steve Cormier |
December 11, 2021 Steve Jones |
October 16, 2021 Dana Cooper |
September 25, 2021 Carol Walker |
August 28, 2021 Rupert Wates |
July 17, 2021 Rebecca Folsom |
March 15, 2020 Mike Agranoff |
February 23, 2020 The Rough & Tumble |
January 25, 2020 Buffalo Bill & Dr. Jo |
November 9, 2019 Kerry Grombacher & Aspen Black |
September 19, 2019 Carol Markstrom |
September 11, 2019 The Freight Hoppers |
August 9, 2019 Bruce Mandel |
April 13, 2019 Nikki Talley & Jason Sharp |
March 19, 2019: Bill Staines |