Music at the Martin

Caleb Klauder and his All Star County Band

Caleb is coming back to Winnemucca, this time bringing his all-star band. One our our favorite people, a great musician, wonderful singer, and a song writer with an old beautiful soul, Caleb’s newest record “Dangerous Mes and Poisonous Yous” is spinkled with old standards, and mixed with his new songs, and it is impossible to know the difference. If you haven’t heard it, have a listen.

Caleb Klauder is bringing along a great band, made up of friends from Portland, and interestingly enough, nearly all of them have played the Martin before, but with other bands. Jesse Emerson of Amelia will be here on bass, Paul Brainard the great petal steel player that performs often with Richmond Fontaine, Sophie Vitells of the Crooked Jades will be on fiddle, Sammy Lind of Foghorn will be on guitar. The only stranger (to us) in the group is drummer Ned Folkerth who drums for Caleb as well as with the Lewi Longmire Band, Spigot, the Pinetop Seven, and few others.

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 Best Country Album of 2007 at the Portland Music Awards, 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.

Victoria Matlock ~ Broadway in Winnemucca

On her way from California to New York where she will appear in the new upcoming Broadway play “The First Wives Club,” Victoria Matlock has agreed to present a concert in Winnemucca. The concert is scheduled for 7pm on the evening of September 8th and will be at the Martin Hotel. Tickets are available at the Martin and Nature’s Corner at a cost of $10.

Some reviewers of The First Wives Club have had this to say:

TheatreMania — “an impressive Victoria Matlock”

Talkin’ Bway — “Matlock has a terrific voice”

The music in the Winnemucca concert will primarily come from The Marvelous ‘Wonderettes,’ Ms Matlock’s last play. Wonderettes features popular music songs from the fifties and sixties including such old favorites as: “Mr. Sandman,” “Lollipop,” “Dream Lover,” “Stupid Cupid,” “Lipstick on Your Collar.” Ms. Matlock was a member of the original cast of ‘Wonderettes’ and appears in the original cast recording (available from Amazon).

In her ten years as a professional actress Victoria Matlock has played in numerous other productions including:
Wicked (she played Elphaba, the lead in the national tour),
Evita (National Tour),
The Full Monty (National Tour),
Cats (Grizabella, who sings ‘Memories’),
Godspell,
The Sound of Music,
Baby Case, and more.

In 2007 she sang the National Anthem at a nationally televised game of the Boston Red Sox.

Ms Matlock is a graduate of the University of Northern Colorado where she majored in musical theater and computer science. Like other actresses she primarily lives ‘on the road,’ but she is officially a resident of Winnemucca where she owns a home. More information about her is available on her web site: www.victoriamatlock.com.

For this performance Ms. Matlock will be accompanied on the piano by long term Winnemucca resident Jeannette Jones.

There will be time between songs for the audience to ask questions. Here is an opportunity for young people (or the young at heart) interested in the stage to learn from a professional about the New York scene, auditioning, finding an agent, education, etc.

This concert is being presented under the joint sponsorship of Great Basin Arts and Entertainment and the White Sage Theater. The text of this press release was created by Victoria’s very proud father, John Matlock of Winnemucca. John is the primary producer of the plays staged and performed by the White Sage Theater.

Ray Abshire ~ Authentic Cajun Music

Ray Abshire is one of Cajun music’s purest accordionists and vocalists and a living link to it’s very roots. A member of one of Louisiana’s legendary musical families, Ray grew up surrounded by Cajun music’s pioneer artists. He has performed with most all of the old masters whose recordings now form the texts for students of today. In 1975, while at the pinnacle of Cajun music as accordionist with the legendary “Balfa Brothers Band” and helping to open windows for Cajun music in the nation’s musical consciousness, Ray left the bandstand. Abshire’s return to the stage has been hailed by both critics and fans alike. He is once again at the forefront and sharing his knowledge and skills with a new generation.

Recognized as a master musician and one of the resurgence leaders of Cajun music, Ray now enjoys conducting workshops, teaching at music camps and performing at major festivals both nationally and abroad. Ray’s music is unfiltered and has it’s own wholesome electricity. He plays it the way it was handed down to him and understands the importance of preserving one of this nation’s great “folk” musics. Each and every time you attend a Ray Abshire performance you are guaranteed the “real deal”!

Literary Nevada: Writings from the Silver State

Cheryll Glotfelty, CASE-Carnegie Professor of the Year for Nevada and Associate Professor of English, University of Nevada, Reno, will be holding a series of public humanities talks and conversations in Northern Nevada based on Literary Nevada: Writings from the Silver State. Literary Nevada is the first comprehensive anthology of Nevada literature. The events are co-sponsored by Nevada Humanities and the University of Nevada Press.

Talks will discuss Nevada through the lens of its literary heritage and include a conversation with the audience about Nevada’s stories. A focal point of the conversation will be about living in Nevada and its rural communities, and the stories that help us “re-see” our place.

Cheryll Glotfelty has published widely on western American literature in periodicals, essay collections, and reference works. Twelve years of literary sleuth-work went into the making of Literary Nevada: Writings from the Silver State, recently published by the University of Nevada Press.

“This book is a wonderful gift to Nevada’s people, to westerners in general, and to a confused nation seeking to understand its roots. It’s full of vivid, compelling storytelling that can lead readers to an imaginative understanding of Nevada and western life and literature as they have evolved. This is a very special defining book. We inhabit our own nation, and its literature is beginning to get due recognition. This book will be an important part of that movement.”
–William Kittredge, editor of The Last Best Place: A Montana Anthology

The Crooked Jades Familiar Old-Time Embraced by the Strange

“Grounded in tradition, old-time string band music and mountain blues but with open horizons that take them, subtly, to other parts of the planet, they have a haunting spookiness, an organic pulse, and most importantly a clear vision…Instrumentally they’re truly inspiring, getting original textures out of conventional stringband instruments and mixing them with (in this context) oddities like bass ukulele, harmonium, mbira, cello and Vietnamese jaw harp and bau zither. Vocally, they have that lonesome white blues sound which has its ancestry in Dock Boggs and the Carters but again they take it somewhere else…a consistently startling and addictive album.”
– The Crooked Jades “Shining Darkness” Reviewed by Ian Anderson
in UK magazine f ROOTS

Performing driving dance tunes and haunting ballads with an amazing array of vintage and eclectic instruments, The Crooked Jades are modern innovators in the old-time Americana world, creating a cinematic sound based on Americana roots infused with the diverse musical influences of Europe and Africa. Continue reading “The Crooked Jades Familiar Old-Time Embraced by the Strange”

Spring Creek~Rural and Cosmic Bluegrass

Spring Creek from Lyons, Colorado, are quickly gaining a reputation as the hottest young band in the Rocky Mountains. The quartet play a mix of bluegrass standards and compelling originals, and all four musicians are also accomplished vocalists. Spring Creek is built on the fundamentals of bluegrass, yet they create their own classic contemporary style. Continue reading “Spring Creek~Rural and Cosmic Bluegrass”

The Earl Brothers

The Earl Brothers, a 4-piece, all-original string band from Northern California, stands at the cutting-edge of a movement so new, it has yet to be definitively named. Whether one chooses to describe them as “Honky-Tonk Bluegrass,” “Hillbilly Gothic,” or “Neo-Traditional,” there is one thing on which everyone seems to agree. There is something about this band’s “less is more” approach to songwriting, singing, and musicianship that makes you stop whatever you’re doing and take notice.

For those who remember the goose-bumps they felt the first time they heard the high-lonesome sound of Bill Monroe or the otherworldly harmonies of the Stanley Brothers, that same thrill of discovery is being created all over again by the Earl Brothers. Unlike other traditional bluegrass bands that seek to re-create the music of the original bluegrass masters, the Earl Brothers are blazing their own trail, extending the genre, while simultaneously staying solidly within the gritty tradition that started in the 1940s and 50s. Listeners are left with a mix of exhilaration and bewilderment upon their first exposure to this new-yet-old form of music. As one listener remarked, “There is something mysterious that happens when the Earl Brothers take the stage. I don’t know what it is, but I don’t have to. I just know that something important is going on.”

In the short time since the release of their second album, Troubles To Blame (the eagerly anticipated follow-up to Whiskey, Women & Death), The Earl Brothers have received an overwhelmingly enthusiastic response from music-lovers, festival promoters, radio DJs, and music journalists across the country and abroad. The album rose to the top spot on the WDVX play list in Knoxville, TN, just a few short weeks after its debut on that station. CD orders and radio requests have been tumbling in from such far-flung locales as Australia, Belgium, France, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and even New York City!

The band is built around the unique vocal and songwriting attributes of the creative duo of Bobby Earl Davis (banjo) and Danny Morris (guitar). There is an indescribable “something” that happens when these guys sing together that makes the listener feel as if he or she has taken a step outside of the current time and place and somehow ended up in a different dimension that is unmistakably old-time but is simultaneously avant-garde. The subject matter is mostly limited to “dreadful” subjects—death, drinking, chasing and losing women—and an occasional honky-tonk gospel to atone for all of these transgressions. Rounding out the sound is the tasteful fiddle playing of Tom Lucas and the driving bass of James Touzel.

Give them a listen on their MySpace page:

Paul Geremia – Acclaimed Country Blues Fingerpicker

Blues Legend Springs Surprise Martin Show

by Henry Kingman

One of the world’s greatest living bluesmen will appear at The Martin Hotel this Saturday. Tickets for the 7 PM show, which was confirmed mere days ago, cost only $10, with all proceeds
going to the musician.

Paul Geremia has been a working musician for forty-three years. He plays finger-style country blues on 6- and 12-string guitars, accompanied at times by mouth harp and verse sung like he means it.

Something of a purist, Geremia plays with high fidelity to the masters – Robert Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Mississippi John Hurt, Howlin’ Wolf, Charlie Patton, and scores of others. In a life on the road, he has managed to dodge mainstream fame and fortune, while racking up more miles, friends, and musical accomplices than anyone but perhaps Ramblin’ Jack Elliot or Woodie Guthrie. Geremia is definitely in it for the music.

Besides playing the masters, Geremia writes original material, and has recorded about a dozen solo albums. His idiosyncratic style celebrates crooked beats, and musical quotes, asides, and humor. Some of the lyrics are pretty funny, too.

Between songs, Geremia likes to share his views on life, the times, and particularly the history of the blues. Things never get too dry or academic, though, because the stories are all so personal. Geremia has at some point played or recorded with every country blues picker from Piedmont to the Delta, it seems.

Geremia is himself a third-generation Italian American hailing from Providence, Rhode Island – the Providence Delta,” he likes to joke. Unusually for a “blues legend” of his stature, Geremia books his own shows, tours alone, and stays mostly with friends. He learned about the Martin from Roy Book Binder, who apparently described it as the best venue in the entire West.

We couldn’t agree more, and hope a good crowd will turn out, despite the last-minute notice, to appreciate one of the all-time greats in a rare West Coast appearance. The show is Saturday, May 30, 7 PM at the Martin Hotel on Railroad Street. Tickets are $10, and available now at the Martin, or at Nature’s Corner on Winnemucca Blvd.

Jackstraw ~ Bluegrass

When Jackstraw last performed to a sold out house at the Martin Hotel in December 2005, the audience, along with Jesse, Dave, Jon, and Darrin, were all left breathless, and grinning from ear to ear. We’ve had dozen’s of astonishing shows and hundreds of talented artists perform on our stage and these guys are right at the top. We can’t think of anything more joyous than spending another evening with Jackstraw.

A stand-up bass, mandolin, and two guitars, this is a bluegrass band with a unique approach to traditional bluegrass and traditional county music along with a suitcase full of great original tunes.

Intensity, dexterity, and pure joy

It’s what they call: High Energy Acoustic Bluegrass from the Pacific Northwest.

Give them a listen at Jackstraw’s MySpace page.

SEATS FOR THIS SHOW ARE BOUND TO SELL-OUT SO GET YOURS TODAY!

About Jackstraw

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.

Five 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.

Colin Ross ~ Evolution of the Blues

Evolution of the Blues is a presentation sponsored in part by the Nevada Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts American Masterpieces: Three Centuries of Artistic Genius

From its earliest roots to contemporary musical fusion, the Blues is the common thread in American music. Drawing from a vast repertoire of music played on a variety of traditional instruments, Colin Ross puts on an unforgettable show.

The show traces the history of the blues through an astonishing variety of styles. Whether it is energetic old time stride and boogie, the harmonic complexity of Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington, the gentle roll of Mississippi John Hurt, or the driving sting of Muddy Waters, the music is played with uncompromising technique, integrity, and soul.

Reno based composer and multi-instrumentalist Colin Ross plays a large and ever-shifting repertoire of original music, jazz standards and blues classics. Beginning with classical piano at the age of five, Colin has continued to study and grow throughout his career, playing a variety of instruments and styles. While maintaining a full time performance schedule, Colin has recorded and released five CDs on his own label, Oharaross Productions. Colin’s band features piano, electric, acoustic, 12-string and slide guitars, bass, drums, percussion, vocal harmonies, winds, and various folk and electronic instruments.

$10 Tickets are ON SALE NOW at The Martin Hotel and Nature’s Corner.

Here is a brief video of the “Evolution of the Blues Show” at the Brewery Arts Center in Carson City.