The best purveyor of cowboy music in America today.
7:30 PM, Thursday, August 23, 2012

The $15.00 tickets are on sale now at the Martin Hotel, Nature’s Corner, and Global Coffee. You can also buy them online at themartinhotel.com.

Don represents the best of what Great Basin Arts and Entertainment is all about. He is a truly great singer, guitar player, folklorist, storyteller, engaging entertainer, and one of the finest gentlemen we have ever met.

This Grammy nominated singer-guitarist continues to build a legacy that enriches our vision of the American West. In tales of the day-to-day lives and emotions of those who have lived it, his ballads paint a sweeping landscape of both mind and heart, keeping alive the sights, sounds and feelings of this most American contribution to culture and art. The quality of this cowboy balladeer’s music stems from the fact that he is so much more than a singer. Bobby Weaver of the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City, summed up Edwards’ importance as “… the best purveyor of cowboy music in America today.”

An historian, author, and musicologist, unusually well – versed in cowboy lore and musical traditions, Don brings a rare complement of knowing and loving his craft. Mostly though, there is the soul of a poet; a man who has never succumbed to the temptations of presenting a glamorized or romanticized version of the West. Edwards deals with bad weather, petty motivations, sadness, nostalgia and longing, as parts of the landscape like any other.

The son of a vaudeville magician, Don was aware as a child of a vast cross-section of music from classical to jazz, and blues to western-swing. Many of those influences enter his own music as they did the music of the West. Edwards was drawn to the cowboy life by the books of Will James and was presented the Will James Society’s “Big Enough Award” which is presented annually to someone who personifies the Western and Cowboy way of life and their achievements. He also loved the ‘B’ Westerns of the silver screen, particularly those featuring “sure-‘nuff cowboys” like Tom Mix and Ken Maynard. He taught himself guitar at age ten, and in 1961, he got his first professional job as an actor/singer/stuntman at Six Flags Over Texas. In 1964, Don released his first recording on REN Records of Dallas.

Don became part owner of The White Elephant Saloon in the Fort Worth Stockyards where ballad hunter and historian, John Lomax collected cowboy songs. Subsequently, Esquire magazine named The White Elephant one of America’s 100 best bars. Edwards also began playing throughout Oklahoma and Texas, and with the birth of the Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada, he achieved widespread recognition. He has now entertained throughout the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, New Zealand, Europe and the Far East.

Don Edwards has two recorded anthologies of cowboy songs, Guitars & Saddle Songs and Songs of the Cowboy, included in the Folklore Archives of the Library of Congress. These anthologies have been re-recorded and expanded for Western Jubilee Recording Company as the 32-song double CD/cassette, Saddle Songs. This project was awarded first place as the Best Folk/Traditional Album at the annual 1998 INDIE Awards Ceremony. National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City has awarded Edwards five prestigious Wrangler Awards for Outstanding Traditional Western Music. He has received multiple awards from the Western Music Association for Male Vocalist and Performer of the Year. Edwards, along with co-presenter, Waddie Mitchell, was seen on the network-televised Academy of Country Music Awards and was the featured performer for the Los Angeles’ Golden Boot Awards. In April 2000, Edwards was immortalized onto the Walk of Western Stars by the City of Santa Clarita, CA.

Don has presented seminars at Yale, Rice, Texas Christian and other universities. His recordings under the Warner Western label, Goin’ Back to Texas, Songs of the Trail , The Bard & The Balladeer and West of Yesterday spawned a new audience for his craft. The summer of 1997 found Don Edwards in Livingston, Montana portraying the role of Smokey in Robert Redford’s film The Horse Whisperer. In addition to his acting/singing role, Don is featured on the MCA soundtrack. In May of 1998, to coincide with The Horse Whisperer theater release, Warner’s compiled and released The Best of Don Edwards while Western Jubilee offered Don’s My Hero Gene Autry recorded live at Mr. Autry’s 90th Birthday. His next two recordings for Western Jubilee resulted in two more visits to Oklahoma City, both receiving the Outstanding Traditional Western Music Recording of the Year – A Prairie Portrait (April 2001) with Waddie Mitchell and the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra and Kin To The Wind, Memories of Marty Robbins (April 2002). In the Fall of 2002, Western Jubilee released an important special project: Don Edwards and Bluegrass icon, Peter Rowan teamed up on High Lonesome Cowboy. This recording traces the roots of Western music from Appalachia to Abilene and includes legendary musicians, Norman Blake and Tony Rice. High Lonesome Cowboy resulted in a Grammy nomination for 2002 – the first time Cowboy music has ever been nominated for this prestigious award. In 2003, Western Jubilee offers Saddle Songs II – Last of the Troubadours, 32 more Classic Cowboy Songs, which was followed by Don’s newest book, Saddle Songs – A Cowboy Songbag. 2005 found Don Edwards’ solo concert and personal appearance schedule the busiest to date. The Warner Herzog film production, Grizzly Man was released featuring Don’s recording of Coyotes at the conclusion of the movie. In April 2007, Don Edwards newest Western Jubilee recording Moonlight And Skies received the Wrangler Award (his sixth) for Outstanding Traditional Western Album of the Year from the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. The album contains Coyotes along with 12 other little gems Don found along the trail.

The richness of Don’s voice coupled with an unforgettable stage presentation makes Don Edwards America’s number one Western singer and concert attraction. The accolades have been simply added bonuses for Edwards, who sings what he does out of love and respect for the genre. Don’s career continues to blossom, and luckily for all who care about it, he has because of his sincere approach, added much to the literature and music of the West, passing on to the rest of us a rich legacy.

As a result of serendipity the Gillette Brothers and the Hi*Beams will cross paths in Winnemucca on the same night, and so we’re doing the right thing, the only thing, and that’s hosting two shows on the same night! You can start slow and stable at the Martin, and end up Rocking and Rolling at Winner’s.

Cowboys, Minstrels, Medicine Shows
7:00 PM, Friday, August 10, 2012 at The Martin Hotel

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.

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.
Continue reading “Gillette Brothers”

Rollicking Honky Tonk! Rocked Up Texas Swing!
Hippies and the Deadheads Rejoice!
9:30 PM Friday, August 10, 2012
WINNER’S CASINO HOTEL LOUNGE!

They’re Back! This time in a new spot, with ROOM TO MOVE and a place to get up and DANCE!

Last summer when we hosted Halden Wofford and the Hi*Beams they just about rocked the Martin down. This year, through a generous partnership with WINNER’S HOTEL and CASINO, we’re gonna present a late night show that could be the high light of the year, but we’re gonna need you there to make it happen! And, just like the shows we present at the Martin, all the money from your tickets will go to the band! So, when you step up and buy a ticket, or pay the cover at the door, remember you are helping to support a bunch of crazy wandering musicians that have traveled thousands of miles just to show you a good time!

The $10.00 tickets are on sale now at the WINNER’S GIFT SHOP, the Martin Hotel, Nature’s Corner, and Global Coffee. You can also buy them online at themartinhotel.com.

Halden Wofford & the Hi*Beams ride out from the cutting edge cowtown of Denver, Colorado. Rootsy and real, neither revivalist nor retro, the Hi-Beams brand of country music is as boundless and electrifying as America itself. Continue reading “Halden Wofford & The Hi*Beams”

High Octane Americana
7:30 PM, Saturday, July 14, 2012

Purchase your tickets Now! On-line from The Martin Hotel

Houston Jones is a California based high octane Americana quintet. Formed in 2001, the band performs a strong original repertoire that ranges from bluegrass and folk to blues and gospel. Houston Jones features,from left to right in the photo, Glenn Houston (lead guitar), Peter Tucker (drums and percussion), Travis Jones (lead vocals and acoustic guitar), Chris Kee (standup bass, cello and guitar), and Henry Salvia (keyboards and accordion).

“As good as any singing and picking I’ve heard in my thirty years in the music business. Do your friends a big favor, and turn them on to this band!” – Bob Brown, Owner, Rancho Nicasio, and manager, Huey Lewis and the News

A big hit at every festival they’ve played, including Telluride, Sisters, American River, Mill Pond, Strawberry (where they were voted “best new discovery” and “best vocalist”).

Glenn Houston has received the “Best Guitarist” award for 2009 from the Northern California Bluegrass Society. He is an accomplished player with influences ranging from T-Bone Walker, Albert King, B.B. King and Michael Bloomfield to Doc Watson, Albert Lee and James Burton. A co-founder in 1979 of the group Hearts on Fire, Glenn was nominated for “Best Lead Guitar” by the California Country Music Association (CCMA). While Glenn was with the group, Hearts on Fire earned a prestigious Bay Area Music Award (Bammie). Over the years, Glenn has shared billing with Hank Williams, Jr., Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, The David Grisman Quintet, Doc Watson, Earl Scruggs, John Hartford, Ricky Skaggs, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and The Tubes. In recent years, he has performed live and in the recording studio with Grammy Award winner Ramblin’ Jack Elliott; he co-founded and played lead guitar for the critically acclaimed acoustic group The Waybacks; he has performed with blues legends Mark Naftalin and Nick Gravenites; and he has earned a second nomination for “Best Lead Guitar” from the CCMA. And yes, he plays left-handed upside down.

Travis Jones’ musical background and history reads like a William Faulkner novel. He began singing gospel music at age four with his mother Lottie Mae Adams, a blues singer who recorded several discs on Paula Records. Travis became known not only for his vocal abilities but also for his telling of old testament bible stories at revivals and tent meetings all across the south. He started his first group at sixteen – a Paul Revere and the Raiders tribute band. Travis served 6 years in the US Army; he was stationed in Europe where he performed with the soul and funk band Smoke, which eventually became the back up band for the famous R&B group The Manhattans (“Let’s Just Kiss and Say Goodbye”). Upon leaving the armed forces, Europe, and Smoke, Travis made his way to Northern California where he has resided since 1979.

During his time in California, he has performed with a wide array of artists. He’s shared the stage with Asleep at the Wheel and Waylon Jennings – Night Ranger and the Doobie Brothers – John Hartford and Levon Helm, just to name a few. He has recorded with various artists, as well as releasing two self titled albums – “Lost Highway, The Legendary Music of Hank Williams” and “Dance All Night” – along with five CD releases with Houston Jones. Travis lives in Alameda CA, on his sailboat, with Samson the wonderdog.

Rolling Stone Magazine described Peter Tucker as “one of the most creative percussionists to emerge in rock music.” Originally from Massachusetts, Peter’s eclectic pro career began in the early 60’s working with the Boston-based band The Monks featuring Brad Delp (who later became lead singer for the rock group Boston.) Peter also recorded in New York with Tim Hardin and worked with Richie Havens, Austin Delone, Grungy O’Muck and others. Peter has also worked with the ground-breaking rock band Guns and Butter, recording two albums on Atlantic Records. Later, on the West Coast, Peter played with the R&B band Pacific Gas and Electric and with Declan Mulligan and The Beau Brummels with whom he put out the Vince Welnick-produced single, “Back To Life.” Peter has continued to play folk, jazz, country, blues and rock with many Bay Area Bands such as Large and in the Way, The Ray Price Club, Celtic Scandal, The Ron Price Band, The Lost River Band, The Gary Gates Band, Dallas Wayne, and most recently, The Waybacks, The Cowlicks, and of course, Houston Jones. Peter is a session drummer too, in many Bay Area recording studios, and especially for local music entrepreneur Kathi Goldmark where he has recorded with Warren Zevon, Skunk Baxter and authors Amy Tan, Steven King, and Norman Mailer.

A classically trained cellist with a degree in ethnomusicology, Chris Kee has performed and recorded with a bewildering array of artists, including Peter Rowan and Norah Jones. He is a long time collaborator with Telecaster wizard Jim Campilongo, playing with Jim in the legendary Ten Gallon Cats and various post-Cats ensembles. With drummer Peter Tucker, he was in the original rhythm section of those practitioners of acoustic mayhem, The Waybacks. In various musical incarnations, he has opened for Jerry Garcia, Lyle Lovett, Los Lobos, Bela Fleck and J.J. Cale, to name but a few.

Henry Salvia was born a dim-witted but honest child in the Cagolugo section of Detroit. As a child, he threatened his parents with becoming a drummer until he discovered that the piano was larger and heavier, so naturally he began to play it. After a long and undistinguished career performing in luxurious hotels and corner dives throughout the Metropolitan area, he decided to move to Los Angeles to expand his opportunities, and wound up in San Francisco. Several years of playing rock and Top 40 in Detroit was ideal training for his role in the Billy Band , who played both kinds of music (country and western). After being replaced by a pedal steel guitar (though no one in the Billy Band played it, it looked better on stage than Henry), he moved to a roots rock band called the Hurricanes , where he was surprised to discover his wife singing for the band. So, he married her. It seemed the honorable thing to do.

All of this experience playing rock and country made him the logical selection as the piano player for the Johnny Nocturne band, who specialize in R&B, soul, and jazz. Henry’s frenetic yet lyrical style (describe by bandleader John Firmin as “a cross between Carmen Cavallero and Cecil Taylor”) is featured on several of their albums. Henry has had the honor of working with artists such as Bo Diddley, Rickie Lee Jones, Johnny Colla (of Huey Lewis and the News), Big Jay McNeeley, Jessica Mitford, Tommy Ridgely, Al Kooper, Peter Coyote, Big Lou the Accordion Princess, Jan Fanucci, and (his favorite) Johnny Adams.

High Energy Bluesgrass
7:30 PM, Saturday, June 23, 2012

Purchase your tickets Now! On-line from The Martin Hotel

After ten years on the road and five albums, Jackstraw is a Northwest institution. This coal-fired Portland quartet plays the kind of music as deep and old as the silt washing out of a defunct Appalachian strip mine. Most of the time it’s bluegrass, but not always. As often as the boys rip through a Stanley Brothers chestnut, they tap into their own deep collection of originals, swerve into honky-tonk or barn-burn a rock ‘n roll classic. Throughout the band’s history, critics have been quick to praise their energy and speed, often drawing comparisons to punk music. It’s true, Jackstraw does play fast. But the band never replaces musical depth and feeling with showmanship.

Jackstraw is not afraid to explore new territory, but they won’t turn on their musical forbears and the hallmarks of bluegrass –great songs, great picking, and great singing. It is this steadfast adherence to their principles that has kept Jackstraw fans coming back for a decade and consistently wins the band new hearts. A Jackstraw show is truly an inclusive, multi-generational experience.

The band’s devoted following includes bluegrass purists, alt-country fans, kids who want to dance, and people who know a good tune when they hear one. Jackstraw was born when rhythm guitarist Darrin Craig and lead player Jon Neufeld met mandolin picker David Pugh and bassist Jesse Withers in 1997 at Artichoke Music, a Portland guitar store and acoustic music institution.

Not long after their formation, Jackstraw recorded their first album and hit the road. Six records later, the band has toured throughout the United States, playing roadhouses, listening rooms and clubs as well as festival stages. Along the way, they have shared bills with many bluegrass greats such as Del McCoury and Tim O’Brien and included legends like Danny Barnes (Bill Frissell, Robert Earl Keen, Bad Livers) and Tony Furtado (Earl Scruggs, Alison Krauss) as temporary band mates.

Friday, May 18, 2012
7:00 PM at the Martin Hotel

Purchase your $10 tickets Now! On-line from The Martin Hotel

David Jacobs-Strain, a consummate finger-style and slide guitarist, plays in the blues tradition but isn’t from it. You’ll hear echoes of Skip James, Charlie Patton, Tommy Johnson, and a song or two by Fred McDowell or Robert Johnson in his solo performances. But as a modern roots singer-songwriter, “I come from the language of the country blues, but it’s important not to silence other influences,” he says.

His obsession with sound serves a deeper purpose than a mere desire to display technical wizardry. “For me, there’s something about rural blues that has a transcendent quality, a wide open sound. Think of the rhythm of a train. There’s a cross between spiritual and secular music in Fred McDowell. Compared to commercial electric blues, the Delta blues are more interesting modally and have a spiritual depth to them. You can also hear anger, humor, and empathy. I’m going after the texture, the tone and feel of that.”

“I’ve always been drawn to the trance-oriented, heavier, Delta blues—to the driving, passionate, raw, distraught sound of somebody like Son House,” he says. “When you’re in the flow of the music, there’s an ecstasy to it. Of course, when I was 12, I thought I knew what Robert Johnson’s ‘Come on into My Kitchen’ was all about.” The 24-year-old Jacobs-Strain has refined his youthful expression of raw energy, passion, and technique into powerful, nuanced performances.

He grew up in Eugene, Oregon, in a community that was centered on cultural change and environmentalism. He sees a distinct connection between the principles embodied in his upbringing and the democracy of the blues. “I’m really into hand-made culture—and real people making real music. The voice. One guitar. Even at their simplest, the blues have always been a vehicle for expressing your own situation, whether as an individual or a community. There’s such power in that.”

Jacobs-Strain is a veteran of the national club and festival circuit. He’s been billed with T-Bone Burnett and Bob Weir, and has opened for acts such as Los Lobos, Lucinda Williams, Taj Mahal, Etta James, Boz Scaggs, and the Blind Boys of Alabama. By the time he was 19, he had played at the Philadelphia Folk Festival and MerleFest. His other festival credits include the Strawberry Music Festival, the Newport Folk Festival, the Telluride Blues Fest, the Vancouver Folk Festival, the Montreal Jazz Festival, and the Lugano Blues to Bop Festival in Switzerland. He’s also served as faculty at guitar workshops, most notably at Jorma Kaukonen’s Fur Peace Ranch. In 2008, he was chosen by Boz Scaggs to open his summer tour.

“How do you continue to find inspiration in sound? Why does a certain musical phrase grab you by the hair and heart and brain? How do you continue to make it new? How do you honor the people who poured themselves into the music in the first place?” Jacobs-Strain asks. Whenever he strives to answer these questions, you’ll want to be there to listen.

Friday, April 27, 2012
7:00 PM at the Martin Hotel

Purchase your $10 tickets Now! On-line from The Martin Hotel

Mike Beck is well-known for his memorable ballads that capture old California, and the cowboy way of life. He has performed in numerous foreign countries, and throughout the United States. Mike recently returned from doing some shows in Norway and Sweden.

Two of Mike Beck’s songs were listed in the “13 Best Cowboy Songs of All Time” in the April 2009 issue of Western Horseman Magazine (“In Old California” – a song about Jo Mora – and “Don’t Tell Me.”) His song, “Patrick” was listed as one of “The Top 15 Roadworthy Cowboy Songs” in the July 2008 issue of Cowboys & Indians Magazine. His song, “Amanda Come Home” was featured on NPR’s Weekend Edition, and is dedicated to all of the women who served in Iraq. In the Spring 2010 edition of The Cowboy Way, Bill Reynolds writes, “His love of the ways of the vaquero and the Pacific Slope region of the West comes through his songs in superb guitar work.”

Born and raised in Monterey County, California, at age 13, Mike Beck went to the Monterey Pop Festival and liked what he heard. He picked up a guitar and never looked back. Since that time, he has been composing and performing a wide array of folk, rock and Americana music. Mike’s songs reflect his life as a professional musician and a working cowboy in Montana and Carmel Valley near Big Sur.

According to Ramblin’ Jack Elliot, “Mike Beck plays the guitar like a Byrd. His strings do things that mine could never do. They obey the slightest finger-touch commands like a fine reining horse.”

Beck is riding high after being recognized by Western Horseman magazine in a recent article naming “The 13 Best Cowboy Songs of All Times” along with songs written by luminaries such as Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Allison Moorer, Lucinda Williams and Ian Tyson.

“I had two songs on that list, which was kind of cool,” said Beck. “to be alongside some of the other people on that list, like Tom Russell, Ian Tyson. I thought, that’s nice company. That was nice of them to say that.”

Visit Mike Beck online http://www.mikebeck.com

(I found this rather amazing video on YouTube, posted by pagenmaestro; with the notes here below the video. – bill)

I met Mike Beck right after this performance in Austin, Texas, in June of 2004, when he delivered among other originals a gripping solo performance of “Old Man,” a song about one of the resin jaws he met while cowboying in Montana. We stood outside in the humid night heat and, along with horseman Magne Hellesjo of Norway, talked music and horses, and shared some cold beers. A year or so later the three of us convened again at Magne’s farm in Norway where, between horse clinics, Mike joined me and other members of Poisoned Red Berries in the recording of my first produced studio album. Mike’s been working with his band, The Bohemian Saints, for a few years now, playing mainly in California with occasional tours. Mike Beck has also just released a beautiful solo album of songs, called “Free”. If you like the sound of “Old Man,” check out the new solo album. Mike’s songs offer a unique perspective on life, opening on a wisdom earned genuinely through a life of horse whispering, work with Ian Tyson and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, and Beck’s own take on the old ways of the cowboy life in America. Learn more about Mike and his music at http://www.mikebeck.com

 

Note: If anyone objects to this video presentation due to copyright infringement, please make contact and it will be promptly removed. DL

Early Honky-Tonk Country Music
7:00 PM, Saturday, April 14, 2012

Purchase your tickets Now! On-line from The Martin Hotel

Caleb Klauder’s warm sound, authentic and familiar, feels all at once contemporary and vintage, as though it’s coming from the porch next-door. Raised between Orcas Island, Washington and Little Cumberland, Georgia, Klauder took his first steps in Knoxville. If his music could invent a genre, it would be New-school Americana, infusing old standards with Northwestern attitude and spinning out modern classics made elegant with Southern charm. Klauder writes his rough-hewn lyrics among the chickens scratching in his garden in Portland, Oregon, where he works as a musician and carpenter and is raising his 13-year-old son, Elijah.

Winner of the Portland Music Awards Outstanding Achievement in Country Music in 2008, Caleb Klauder has been on tour for the last fifteen years performing with Calobo, Pig Iron, The Caleb Klauder Band, The Foghorn Stringband, and with Dirk Powell. He’s opened for acts such as JJ Cale, Iris Dement, David Bromberg, and the Del McCoury Band and has shared the stage with Tim O’Brien, Kevin Burke, The Wilders, Uncle Earl, and Justin Townes Earle. Klauder regularly collaborates with Dirk Powell, Riley Baugus, Betse Ellis, Reyna Gellert, and Justin Townes Earle.

Klauder has toured extensively with both the Foghorn Stringband and the Caleb Klauder Country Band throughout the US, the UK, Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Malaysia playing a variety of stages including the Tonder Music Festival, the Newport Folk Festival, the Rainforest World Music Festival, the Chicago Folk and Roots Festival, Pick-a-thon Roots Music Festival, The Seattle Folk Life Festival, The Bristol Rhythm and Roots Festival, Bumbershoot and the ROMP Festival.

Purchase your tickets Now! On-line from the Martin Hotel

The James King Bluegrass Band
7:00 PM Friday, March 30, 2012

From the moment you first hear his voice, you know you are hearing bluegrass the way it was meant to be sung. James King sings bluegrass as only a handful of others before him – Carter Stanley, Red Allen, Del McCoury – ever have. Bluegrass Unlimited has called him “the most impressive lead vocalist to emerge in traditional bluegrass this decade”.

Line up:
James King – Guitar, Vocals
Donald Dowdy – Mandolin, Tenor Vocals
Clay Lillard – Banjo, Vocals
Eddie Biggerstaff – Upright Bass, Vocals

The James King Band has been entertaining now for over 14 years and has been taking people by storm with their style of traditional bluegrass music. Whether it be a James King Signature ballad or a good ole foot stomper, James and the band really know how to make a crowd respond to their style and show. They get the crowd into their music and show in every form. The James King Band is based around the soulful sounds of James King’s lead vocals.

Although James King was largely unknown until his smash 1993 Rounder debut, “These Old Pictures”, King has been around the music all of his entire life. He was born near the very heart of Bluegrass Country in the town of Martinsville, VA. After a stint in the Marines, King began to pursue his musical career in earnest in 1979. In the mid-1980s, King recorded two albums along with Ralph Stanley and his band for Webco Records, “Stanley Brothers Classics” and “Reunion”, which were followed by his debut with his own band, 1988’s James King Sings “Cold, Cold World.” But it wasn’t until he decided to work on a project with Johnson Mountain Boys’ Vocalist Dudley Connell that he found his true voice, on what Bluegrass Unlimited dubbed “the breakthrough album of the year.” King’s startling power and emotional purity in his voice led to great reviews, live performances from coast to coast, and a 1995 IBMA nomination for emerging Artist of the Year. James won the honor of being the 1997 IBMA Emerging Artist of the Year and the 1998 SPBGMA Traditional Male Vocalist of the Year.

Donald Dowdy was born April, 1987, and is the son of Victor Dowdy of the Bluegrass Brothers. He started playing mandolin at the age of 7. In addition to the James King Band, Donald has worked for such bands as Southern Comfort, The Locust Mtn. Boys, and the Bluegrass Brothers. When not traveling with the James King Band, Donald enjoys hunting, fishing, and spending time with his seven month old son, Breyden James Dowdy. Donald wishes to thank his family and friends for their support, and the ‘Master of All’, our Lord Jesus Christ for his talent.

Clay Lillard, of Cascade, Virginia, started playing banjo at the age of 12. He won first place banjo at Wayside Park Fiddlers Convention in 2006, at the age of 15. He has several influences on banjo, including his father Steve Lillard, who passed away nine years ago June. Clay spends most of his off- time picking and learning ‘new’ sounds of the traditional banjo.

Playing bass for the James King Band is Eddie Biggerstaff. Eddie is from Cleveland County N.C. and now living in Waco N.C. Eddie grew up singing in church with his father and grandfather in a quartet and knew early on he had a gift of singing. He went on to becoming involved in many regional bands such as Brushy Creek and Carolina Crossfire. Eddie has spent the last seven years with the band Blueridge, touring the U.S. and Canada. Eddie has been up for Bass playing of the year twice by SPBGMA in Nashville T.N., and in 2006, the recording Getting Ready was nominated by the IBMA for Gospel recording of the year. Eddie’s resume also includes Rambler’s Choice, Larry Rice, and working with the great mandolin player Herschel Sizemore. He was asked to play bass at the Roanoke Bluegrass Weekend concert, which features most of the elite in bluegrass music today. Eddie is a seasoned professional who adds energy and a distinctive edge to the band.

James King may be the greatest “mountain soul” singer of his generation, bringing a deep understanding of the hardcore bluegrass tradition to his hard-driving blend of bluegrass and honky-tonk country music. “Thirty Years of Farming”, his latest release on Rounder, is a fresh collection of overlooked treasures and classics-to-be, each infused with the raw emotion that has come to be his trademark. Here is one of the most exciting sounds in bluegrass today.