Voice and guitar blend harkens back to old-time county roots.
Music at the Martin
7:00 PM – March 17
Nell Robinson has a brand-new harmony-driven duo with award winning guitarist Jim Nunally, reminiscent of classic duets like Geroge Jones and Tammy Wynette as well as singing siblings like the Louvin and Stanley Brothers. Think Del McCoury meets Iris Dement.
Alongside her own original material, Nell Robinson and Jim Nunally cover music ranging from Bill Monroe to Nine Inch Nails.
Purchase your tickets on-line from the Martin Hotel
Nell Robinson hadn’t sung in public since elementary school until the itch struck in 2007. She has traveled a long way since then, and from her family’s small roots in “loser” Alabama, where several generations of Robinsons lived. Nell’s sweet childhood memories embrace visiting the local store that sold bottled cokes and boiled peanuts, pickling blueberries and shelling peas with her grandmothers, Nell Robinson and Thelma Bates. Raised by a career Air Force father, she and her family moved every few years, and the Alabama farmhouse and local roads were one of very few places where she was recognized and where almost every house along the road had “kinfolk” in it.
Nell’s debut CD, “Nell Robinson in Loango”, made national bluegrass and Americana charts throughout the country and she was quickly snapped up by Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion and the Strawberry Music Festival.
Jim Nunally is a world-class guitarist, vocalist and songwriter, and has toured extensively with the David Grisman Bluegrass Experience and with John Rieschman and the Blue Jays. He is the recipient of two Grammy Award certificates and two IBMA awards. He is also a two time Western Open Masterpicking Champion and Guitar Champion. His most recent CD, “Gloria’s Waltz”, showcases his distinctive pickin’ and singing.
FROM SCOTLAND’S OUTER ISLANDS AND IRELAND’S WEST, SOME OF AMERICA’S MOST AUTHENTIC MUSICAL HERITAGE IS COMING TO WINNEMUCCA.
The folk duo, Men of Worth, who position themselves firmly at the extreme, traditional end of the Celtic music spectrum, will perform at the Martin Hotel on Saturday, February 25.
Men of Worth’s tunes and songs are so authentic, so closely connected to their heritage, that Scotsman Donnie Macdonald sings some in his native Gaelic; while Irishman James Keigher includes time-polished pieces saved from the oral traditions of his native County Mayo.
Purchase your tickets on-line from the Martin Hotel
“Our music has its history in the crofting life of my Hebridean homeland and James’ western Ireland. It was a part of the fabric of everyday life and it came to America with the immigrants a century ago”, explained Macdonald. “Now, we’re playing it again, to audiences for whom it could only be a generational memory”.
“For us, the irony is we were brought up in Scotland and Ireland, and as boys we listened most eagerly to the music of America, and not especially to the music of own areas. On our radios, we heard Hank Williams Sr. and Jim Reeves. We wanted to see the Arkansas River, not Loch Lomond, and Reeves’ hometown of Carthage, in east Texas, had more romance for me than did the Isle of Lewis”. “Joni Mitchell, Neil Young and Crosby, Stills and Nash influenced me greatly”, admitted Keigher, who as a teen was already performing his own songs in the Irish pubs where he learned his wit and humor. “But now I have returned to my own musical bloodlines, too.”
The pair could not escape the emotion and tradition of their homeland song heritage. “We could not grow away from those sounds”, said Macdonald, “so we have preserved them as accurately and authentically as we can, in our performances”. “We entertain people with the real music of our regions; we have an ancient yet fresh musical story to tell”.
Sometimes that music comes from prosaic sources – Keigher wrote one song after overhearing two old ladies gossiping about him in a village market – and sometimes from traditional music passed down the generations. Several of Macdonald’s songs come from his mother’s own poetry and from Hebridean crofters’ airs.
The musicians, who met in California in 1988, each play a handful of instruments, among them mandolin, guitar, concertina and bodhran, a handheld drum. They are both married to Americans and live on the west coast. Keigher lives in Ashland, Oregon and Macdonald lives near Sacramento, California.
They have played concerts across the US, from Alaska to Texas. They also take guided tours to their own musical roots: leading folk fans to the western isles of Scotland and to Ireland’s heartland to hear the real music of the isles in its own home.
If you can’t make that journey, you can hear the music when these talented troubadours bring it to you, February 25.
It ain’t where you’re from that counts, it is where you’re going.
Ramblin’ Jack Elliott is going to make another visit to the Martin Hotel in Winnemucca. We’re thrilled to have one of the most mythical characters in American music visit our cozy little venue for the third time.
Jack Elliott set off sparks in London when he traveled there in 1955. The young musicians in England were just starting to investigate American blues and traditional country music. Into their midst fell an guitar playing cowboy. Jack showed up in this world of proper gentlemen in his boots, his jeans, and wearing his Stetson. He could play flawlessly in the styles they had only heard but never seen. Jack’s time in England and Europe helped prime the British Invasion that shows up on our shores 10 years later…
Music at the Martin
with
Ramblin’ Jack Elliott
7:00 PM
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
One of the last true links to the great folk traditions of this country, with over 40 albums under his belt, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott is considered one of the country’s legendary foundations of folk music.
Purchase your tickets on-line from the Martin Hotel
Long before every kid in America wanted to play guitar — before Elvis, Dylan, the Beatles or Led Zeppelin — Ramblin’ Jack had picked it up and was passing it along. From Johnny Cash to Tom Waits, Beck to Bonnie Raitt, Ry Cooder to Bruce Springsteen, the Grateful Dead to The Rolling Stones, they all pay homage to Ramblin’ Jack Elliott.
In the tradition of roving troubadours Jack has carried the seeds and pollens of story and song for decades from one place to another, from one generation to the next. They are timeless songs that outlast whatever current musical fashion strikes today’s fancy.
“His tone of voice is sharp, focused and piercing. All that and he plays the guitar effortlessly in a fluid flat-picking perfected style. He was a brilliant entertainer…. Most folk musicians waited for you to come to them. Jack went out and grabbed you….. Jack was King of the Folksingers.” – Bob Dylan, Chronicles: Volume One
There are no degrees of separation between Jack and the real thing. He is the guy who ran away from his Brooklyn home at fourteen to join the rodeo and learned his guitar from a cowboy. In 1950, he met Woody Guthrie, moved in with the Guthrie family and traveled with Woody to California and Florida, from the redwood forests to the Gulf Stream waters. Jack became so enthralled with the life and composer of This Land Is Your Land, The Dust Bowl Ballads, and a wealth of children’s songs that he completely absorbed the inflections and mannerisms, leading Guthrie to remark, “Jack sounds more like me than I do.”
In 1954, along with folksinging pals Frank Robinson and Guy Carawan, Jack journeyed south through Appalachia, Nashville and to New Orleans to hear authentic American country music. He later made this the basis for his talking song, 912 Greens.
In 1955 Jack married and traveled to Europe, bringing his genuine American folk, cowboy and blues repertoire and his guitar virtuosity, inspiring a new generation of budding British rockers, from Mick Jagger to Eric Clapton.
When he returned to America in 1961, he met another young folksinger, Bob Dylan at Woody Guthrie’s bedside, and mentored Bob. Jack has continued as an inspiration for every roots-inspired performer since.
Along the way he learned the blues first-hand from Leadbelly, Mississippi John Hurt, the Reverend Gary Davis, Big Bill Broonzy, Brownie Mcghee and Sonny Terry, Jesse Fuller and Champion Jack Dupree.
He has recorded forty albums; wrote one of the first trucking songs, Cup of Coffee, recorded by Johnny Cash; championed the works of new singer-songwriters, from Bob Dylan and Kris Kristofferson to Tim Hardin; became a founding member of Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue; and continued the life of the traveling troubadour influencing Jerry Jeff Walker, Guy Clark, Tom Russell The Grateful Dead and countless others.
In 1995, Ramblin’ Jack received his first of five Grammy nominations and the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album, for South Coast (Red House Records). Jack was again recognized with a Grammy Award for best Traditional Blues Album in 2009, for A Stranger Here (Anti-Epitaph Records).
In 1998, President Bill Clinton awarded Jack the National Medal of the Arts, proclaiming, “In giving new life to our most valuable musical traditions, Ramblin’ Jack has himself become an American treasure.”
In 2000, Jack’s daughter, filmmaker, Aiyana Elliott produced and directed The Ballad of Ramblin’ Jack, her take on Jack’s life and their fragile relationship, winning a Special Jury Prize from the Sundance Film Festival.
Ramblin’ Jack Elliott
Through it all—though agents, managers, wives and recording companies have tried—Jack resisted being molded into a commercial commodity. He played his shows without a written set list or including any songs that did not ring with his gut feeling of what mattered to him.
Ramblin’ Jack’s life of travels, performances and recordings is a testament to the America of lore, a giant land of struggle, hard luck and sometimes even of good fortune. Ramblin’ Jack takes us to places that spur us on to the romance and passion of life in the tunes and voices of real people.
At eighty, Ramblin’ Jack is still on the road, still seeking those people, places, songs and stories that are hand-crafted, wreaking of wood and canvas, cowhide and forged metal. You’ll find him in the sleek lines of a long haul semi-truck, in the rigging of an old sailing ship, in the smell of a fine leather saddle.
BETTER YET, FIND HIM AT THE MARTIN HOTEL IN WINNEMUCCA ON JANUARY 31.
Chamber Music
7:00 PM, Saturday, January 07, 2012
Tickets Are On Sale Now
We’re lining up another great music series for 2012 and we are privileged to start our new year hosting the Langroise Trio as they celebrate their 20th year of performances.
In what has become a community favorite, the concert with Geoffrey Trabichoff, David Johnson, and Sam Smith provides an evening of exquisite chamber music in the fashion it was meant to be heard, with a small engaged audience sitting close up, and listening intently. The performance at the Martin has become a favorite of the Langroise Trio’s as well with Geoffrey saying “We love playing in your intimate venue, where the excellent acoustic is exceeded only by the warmth of the audience.”
Purchase your tickets on-line from the Martin Hotel
Established in 1991 the Langroise Trio are Artists-in-residence at The College of Idaho, where they form the string faculty. They have performed on chamber music series in Alabama, Florida, Idaho, Oregon and Washington, their fourth c.d. is in the planning stage, and the Trio was one of the first groups to give an “internet archived” concert on the Millennium Stage of the Kennedy Center.
With its personnel among some of the foremost musicians in the country, the Langroise Trio offers an eclectic repertoire. Contemporary works by Idaho composers Jim Cockey and David Alan Earnest have been written especially for them and they stylishly play music from the Romantic, Classical, Baroque and Renaissance eras as well.
Geoffrey Trabichoff is Concertmaster of the Boise Philharmonic. He is the former concertmaster of the BBC Scottish Symphony and former leader of the Paragon Ensemble of Scotland. Geoffrey has broadcast numerous concertos for the BBC. He has been guest concertmaster of the Royal Philharmonic and the London Symphony as well as the Northern Sinfonia, BBC Welsh and BBC Philharmonic Orchestras. He also served as concertmaster of the Mannheim Chamber and Hanover State Orchestras in Germany.
David Johnson has been principal violist of the Iceland Symphony and the Ft. Wayne Philharmonic, and a member of the Freimann Quartet. David was assistant principal violist for the Grant Park Symphony in Chicago and holds a Master of Music degree from Indiana University. He has been a featured soloist on numerous occasions and a featured artist on Iceland National Radio Broadcasts.
Samuel Smith has been principal cellist of the Ft. Wayne Philharmonic where he was a frequent soloist and a member of the Freimann Quartet. Samuel was also a cellist for the Grant Park Symphony of Chicago. He has served as assistant principal cellist of the Florida Symphony, and has been on the adjunct faculty at Anderson College and the summer faculty at Ball State University.
Cowboy Singer/Songwriter
7:00 PM Thursday, December 01, 2011
Singer/Songwriter Brenn Hill doesn’t just sing about the American West, he reveals its heart to anyone who will take the time to listen. His most recent release “Equine” (2010), clearly defines what might be his most profound work to date, as well as a mirror of his growth as an artist over the last ten years. Its broad theme of horses, the cowboy’s working partner, is but a pathway into and through his own personal journey. No longer just the observer or narrator of our Western story, but its strongest interpreter, life’s trials and tribulations are also his raw material. Faith, trust and love are his guide.
Purchase Tickets Online
“Overall, I want a listener to know that my music isn’t about me,” explains Hill. “It’s how I make my living and not a vehicle for stardom. My goal is to present a valid story about people, places, and events that are song-worthy. If I can challenge someone’s perspective, or offer a new one on a classic theme or issue, I’ve achieved my goal. I feel a deep sense of purpose with my music and am honored to have the opportunity that I have.
I deeply appreciate my listeners. The greatest compliments I receive come directly from those that listen to my music. When a song touches them so profoundly that they tell me, “that song changed my life,” or, “that song got me through a hard time,” or, “that song’s about me,” then I know I got it right. No amount of money or recognition could mean more than that.”
Born into a 6th generation of a family anchored to the West and raised in Utah, Brenn and his music revisit the many stories that come from the land with a fresh, contemporary and personal twist. Home for the Hill’s is Hooper, a rural community in Northern Utah where Brenn resides with his wife, three children and a cavvy of horses. “Time in the saddle is my payoff for the hard miles on the road, the gut-full of showbiz, and the time away from loved ones,” says Brenn. “Horses bring me purpose in life. They provide a foundation and theme for my music and are an endless fountain of inspiration. In a way, horses write a lot of my songs, especially since they are an integral part of my connection to the land. They reveal my character. They’re constant teachers with endless patience and capacity, and likewise, provide an endless bank of inspiration that I can draw from.
The Zen Cowboy
A virtuoso guitarist with a Will Rogers-like wit
7:00 PM Friday, November 4, 2011
Chuck Pyle has won high praise from both fans and peers alike throughout an inspired performance career of over 40 years. When reviewers first gave him the “Zen Cowboy” moniker, he decided to, as he says, “Always ride the horse in the direction it’s going,” and took the nickname to heart, shaving his head and blending his upbeat perspective with old-fashioned horse sense. He mixes infectiously hummable melodies with straight-from-the-saddle poetry, quoting bumper stickers, proverbs, world leaders and old cowboys.
An accomplished songwriter, Chuck’s songs have been recorded by John Denver, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and Suzy Bogguss. Country fans know him best for writing, “Cadillac Cowboy”, recorded by the late Chris LeDoux, and “Jaded Lover”, recorded by Jerry Jeff Walker.
While fans love his recordings, they adore Chuck’s live performance. The first time he made an audience laugh, he was “hooked”. A nimble guitarist, critics say his sense of rhythm is more like a fine classical, or jazz, soloist, his songwriting musically sophisticated yet full of uncluttered space. The Chuck Pyle Finger-Style approach to guitar has distinguished him as a true original, earning him invitations to teach at such prestigious events as The Puget Sound Guitar Workshop and The Swannanoa Gathering. His music has made him a favorite of Bill & Melinda Gates who have had him play at their home in Seattle. Since writing the theme-song for a PBS series called Spirit of Colorado, he’s attained local fame, and even sings for the opening session of the Colorado State Legislature.
Chuck Pyle came from Iowa in 1965 when, “Boulder was mostly gravel streets”, and resides on the front range of Colorado. He does 100 dates a year all across the country, playing festivals and theaters, coffeehouses and house concerts.
His 11th CD, THE SPACES IN BETWEEN is twelve all-new songs, each with finger-style guitar out front of a crackerjack rhythm section. The embellishments are elegant, with everything from fiddle to uilleann pipes, grand piano to ukulele; each song’s a hummable melody guaranteed to make you tap your inner feet. In the middle of the night, Chuck began writing down the words to the CD’s opening song, called Dream Song, and the more awake he became, the better it sounded. Picking Out My Outfit is about Man’s need to look casual, Copper John is about the favorite nymph of fly-fisherman and Wide Open is about Wyoming’s bigness. The rest of the songs are classic Chuck Pyle truth-telling; one man’s outlook seen from a life-in-motion as he continues to gather traction and gravity.
Queen of the Solo Nouveau Old-Time
Electro-Acoustic Shamanic Violin Troubadours
After nearly 20 years as a fiddle sideman and a singer-songwriter, playing in bluegrass, country, rock, celtic, jazz and folk ensembles, Joyce Andersen has gone into the woodshed for 2 years to create a new body of music and a new musical standard of what an unaccompanied fiddle troubadour can do. Her 5th solo CD, titled Swerve, features her new sound in 8 extended improvisational songs that embrace a dizzying range of musical styles, from jazz standards to fiddle tunes, gospel, ballads and blistering rock & roll.
Over her career Andersen has developed an uncanny ability to play violin and sing at the same time, often with the instrument and vocal in counter-rhythms, as well as complex harmony and diverging lines. Add to this an array of hi-tech gear that would make a rock star drool, and Andersen now commands a staggering wall of sound that emanates from her violin, viola, Norwegian Hardinger fiddle, and foot percussion. Without using any computerized or pre-recorded sounds, she literally dances with all four limbs as she weaves intricate rhythms, melodies, and harmonies into extraordinarliy musical sonic collages. Her new sound is built from a large palette of strummed, plucked and bowed sounds, combining and juxtaposing beautiful acoustic violin tones with swirling electro-acoustic explorations and crunching rock distortion.
Swerve marks the emergence of a unique, urgent and powerful new sound for the solo violin player, that is at once diverse, complex, and distinctively her own. It showcases her impressive musical skills and vocals as well as her composing, arranging and brilliant improvising. With her powerful voice and stage presence at the center, she runs seamlessly through traditional bluegrass songs, anthemic power ballads, Billie Holiday torch songs, and house-rocking reworkings of classics from the likes of Marvin Gaye, Big Mama Thornton, Steppenwolf, Steve Winwood and even Jimi Hendrix.
Joyce Conjures Up Jimi Hendrix
“I’ve always envied guitarists their ability to play gigs alone, and especially I have always been in awe of the expressive power of the electric guitar,” says Andersen. ” I’m excited to have found a way to make a complete solo troubadour sound with just my violin that feels right to me musically, and since violinists really haven’t gone down that road the guitarists have, I am finding my own sounds.” Guitarists have always been able to play solo, and it’s taken over two years of effort for Andersen to develop the new tools and techniques she needs to fulfill her musical vision of expanding the violin’s capabilities. Following in the footsteps of electric guitar pioneers like Hendrix, Les Paul and Michael Hedges, Andersen is sculpting a new set of sounds to add to the sonic landscape of an instrument that was considered to have been perfected 400 years ago. She says: “A vital part of my sound is that in no way am I abandoning the acoustic tone of the violin & viola in favor of an electronic replacement. Electric violinists have plugged in for decades, but they seem to have sacrificed the acoustic tone they started with. I am trying to use both sets of sounds in my music.”
Indeed, for over half a century guitarists and listeners have accepted the electronically generated sounds of echo, phasing, tremolo, delays, distortion, and even wah-wah as an extension of the sound of the guitar, and there is no reason why the violin cannot go down a similar artistic path, and be seen as expansion rather than compromise or degradation. A number of violin players are already experimenting with electro-acoustic sounds, but Joyce Andersen is taking this idea to a whole new musical level and opening a new set of doors for modern-day violin troubadours, while still remaining true to her deep roots in traditional fiddling and musical Americana.
Her music has brought her from the coffeehouses and taverns of her native New England, national & international touring with folk virtuoso (and husband) Harvey Reid, the stage of Carnegie Hall, the Conan O’Brien show and country music in Japan.
Her recorded work has won her critical acclaim and radio play in the folk world.
Sing Out! magazine says her CDs “…places her right up there with any of the songwriters out there performing their songs today.”
The Boston Globe says “That neo-traditional current is starting to be felt among the ranks of New England songwriters…among the hottest…New Hampshire fiddler-singer Joyce Andersen.”
And Minnesota Public Radio says “Youth and strength flow through her voice. She’s got power and conviction. . . She’s writing new songs and retelling old stories, and there’s” still something mysterious in her music that sounds like comes from an ancient and pure source.”
CeCe Gable, the Chanteuse of the Sierra, makes her triumphant return to Winnemucca’s famed Martin Hotel on October 8, 2011 at 7:00 p.m. Last year’s performance was “over the top” with great jazz stylings by Ms. Gable and her band.
This is a show you won’t want to miss with world-class jazz musicians:
This is sure to be an exciting evening of music for everyone who loves the timeless songs of the Great American Songbook, the Beatles, straight ahead jazz and some obscure cabaret tunes.
“Gable is a Reno and Northern Nevada treasure. A fine musician, a charming host for an evening of song from the Great American Songbook, this chic lady brings glamor to her work and a no-frills approach to lyrics and musical line that gives each song it’s very own moment supreme.” – Jack Neal
“CeCe is a storyteller. Her earlier studies in dance have clearly found their way into her approach to the song and jazz music, for she, like the dancer, attempts to get inside the sound in order to discover what the sound has to say…” – L. Martina Young
CeCe draws the listener into her captivating world of song with an incredible depth of emotion. She swings with rhythmic passion and also has the ability to caress a ballad with effortless interpretation. Influenced by many of the women and men of jazz, she offers her own voice on jazz standards and the American Songbook. She shines on any stage whether she is accompanied by a solo pianist, a trio or an entire orchestra… you’ll find you cannot get enough of this jazz experience.
Well known to audiences up and down the Pacific Coast and throughout the western states, CeCe Gable is rapidly becoming one of the premiere jazz singers in the region.
A native of Barberton, Ohio, and a graduate of Kent State University, CeCe lived in Winnemucca for a few years while she was working as an artist in residence in Winnemucca schools. While she was in Winnemucca she primarily taught dance and creative movement to budding young artist’s. CeCe now makes her home in the Reno/Tahoe area as a performing and recording artist.
A consummate jazz cabaret performer, she has sung in jazz clubs throughout the United States and Europe including New Orleans, Las Vegas, Palm Springs, Fiji, Munich, Athens and at New York City’s Iridium with Les Paul.
She has presented the works of George Gershwin, Thelonious Monk, Stephen Sondheim and Kurt Weill to rave reviews in a variety of venues. According to Metroland (Albany, NY), CeCe Gable is a performer who exudes warmth, sophistication, a generous stage presence and rare versatility. A unique, compelling performer with a style and sound all her own, CeCe has been compared to the song stylists of the ’50?s with a contemporary twist.
Admired as a “quiet surprise” by audiences nationwide, CeCe has become known for delivering an honest performance and has prompted more than one audience member to say “When you sing I see the music flow through you and I believe you.”
Richard Feldman, stage director and arts critic for The Record (Troy, NY) asserts that “CeCe Gable is one of those rare performers whose mellow vocals, stylistic sophistication, diversity of material and intimate delivery combine perfectly to convince us that she’s singing to each of us…personally.”
TICKETS ARE ON SALE NOW
Tickets are available for $15.00 at the Martin Hotel, Nature’s Corner, and Global Coffee. You can also buy them on-line at http://themartinhotel.com
Ray Bonneville is a Canadian born, Austin based singer, songwriter, guitarist and harmonica player, who is known for his “loose, darkly funky vibe” (All Music Guide).
His Red House release Goin’ By Feel was named one of the best CD’s of 2008 by DownBeat Magazine and featured the Americana hit “I Am the Big Easy,” which was #1 most played song on folk radio that year and won the Folk Alliance Award for Song of the Year. The tune was a powerful tribute to the resilience of New Orleans, where Ray lived for half a decade and picked up his funky fingerpicking guitar style.
Noted for having one of “the sexiest guitar styles around” (Acoustic Guitar). Ray is a unique player and has performed with such blues luminaries as B.B. King, Muddy Waters, and Robert Cray. He has quickly become a fixture in the Americana scene since moving to Texas, becoming one of the go-to session players for artists like Ray Wylie Hubbard, Mary Gauthier and Eliza Gilkyson.
Following the success of his digital single “Mississippi” (about the flooding of the Mississippi River), Ray releases his new full-length album Bad Man’s Blood. Like this summer’s single, the new songs have a down and dirty quality, capturing the hardships of every day life. Born in French Canada and raised in the United States, he writes from his experience as an immigrant, Vietnam War vet, taxi driver and bush pilot, drawing inspiration from the many places he has called home—Montreal, New Orleans, Colorado, Arkansas, Alaska,Boston, Seattle and Paris, France. Honing his songwriting craft for the last 35 years, Ray’s gritty storytelling and deep-grooving blues style has won him much critical attention. In 1999, Ray won the prestigious Juno Award (Canadian Grammy) for his third album Gust of Wind. His fourth release, Rough Luck, was also nominated for the coveted award. With his 2004 Red House debut Roll It Down, Ray made a name for himself in the US, garnering rave reviews from DownBeat and No Depression. Since then, his star has been on the rise, with his award-winning release Goin’ By Feel, his folk-charting cover of Bob Dylan’s song “It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry” (featured on A Nod to Bob 2: An Artists Tribute to Bob Dylan on His 70th Birthday) and now, with his new album Bad Man’s Blood.
A world-class guitarist, harmonica player and hard-hitting songwriter, it is no wonder that Ray has received rave reviews from blues, jazz and roots critics alike and can count among his fans such artists as Chris Smither, Tim O’Brien and Ray Wylie Hubbard.
A favorite at festivals and clubs, Ray is currently touring in support of his new album, playing shows across North America and Europe. For more information about Ray Bonneville and his new album, please visit his website at www.raybonneville.com.
Step back into the 1880’s and listen to the music that cowboys were really playing and singing and you may be surprised to hear a diverse and multicultural mix of blues, Irish fiddle melodies, African beats, gospel, old-timey, minstrel, and popular uptown parlor music. This is exactly the experience that an evening with the Gillette Brothers provides. Guy and Pipp Gillette are working to both entertain and educate their audiences about real life and the real people that populated old West. When the music is combined with some yodeling, bones playing, story telling, and medicine show barking, you will be both amazed and amused.
Guy plays the fiddle, banjo, guitar and the bones. Pipp plays the guitar, banjo, harmonica, tambourine and an Irish drum call the bodhron. On top of that, they both have beautiful, strong, and compelling singing voices.
The $10.00 tickets are on sale now at the Martin Hotel, Nature’s Corner, and Global Coffee. You can also buy them online at themartinhotel.com.
They have played at major events and venues around the country including: The 2008 Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington DC, The National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, NV, The Monterey Cowboy Poetry & Music Festival in Monterey, CA, The Santa Clarita Cowboy Poetry & Music Festival in Santa Clarita, CA, The Willow Tree Festival in Gordon, NE, The Arizona Cowboy Poets Gathering in Prescott, AZ; The Cherry Blossom Festival in Macon, GA; The National Arboretum in Washington, DC, The Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, WY, and The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, OK, The Museum of South Texas in Edinburgh Texas.
In August 2005, the Gillette Brothers traveled to Japan representing the State of Texas at the World Expo – Aichi/Nagoya, performing their music at the US Pavilion. In October 2008, the Gillette Brothers toured Somerset, England for two weeks, performing in village halls and the Bridgewater Arts Center.
They have demonstrated chuckwagon cooking at the Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City; the Ranching Heritage Museum in Lubbock, Texas; The Museum of South Texas in Edinburgh Texas; Dalton Days in Longview, Texas; and the Cherry Blossom Festival in Macon, Georgia.
Their cooking has been spotlighted in Persimmon Hill, the magazine of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum; The National Cowboy Hall of Fame Cookbook by B. Byron Price; A Taste of Texas Ranching by Tom Bryant and Joel Bernstein; and the Spirit of the West: Cooking for Ranch House & Range by Beverly Cox and Martin Jacobs.
The Gillette Brothers were recipients of the 2009 AMERICAN COWBOY CULTURE AWARD for western music from the NATIONAL COWBOY SYMPOSIUM & CELEBRATION. They were awarded the 2003 and the 1998 Will Rogers Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Advancement of Contemporary Cowboy Music Best Duo/Group by The Academy of Western Artists. They have also received the National Cowboy Symposium’s American Cowboy Culture Chuck Wagon Award.
The Gillette Brothers run The Camp St. Cafe & Store in Crockett, Texas a live music venue, much like the Martin Hotel, that has featured some of the top performers in the country. They live on the ranch that their grandfather established in 1912 in Lovelady Texas, a ranch that has a collection of buildings that have often been compared to the National Ranching Hertage Center in Lubbock Texas.
They were also instrumental in getting a life-sized statue of Blues Legend Lightnin’ Hopkins erected in Crockett.
He has recorded forty albums; wrote one of the first trucking songs, Cup of Coffee, recorded by Johnny Cash; championed the works of new singer-songwriters, from Bob Dylan and Kris Kristofferson to Tim Hardin; became a founding member of Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue; and continued the life of the traveling troubadour influencing Jerry Jeff Walker, Guy Clark, Tom Russell The Grateful Dead and countless others.
