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February
2010
by Bonnie Brock
www.arizonafolklore.com
Concert Schedule &
Information
Announcements
Links & Contacts
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BONUS
NEWS
If you
get this email early enough on Sunday (sorry it wasn’t more timely, but we
just got the word), you can hear Sue
Harris (who will appear at the AFP next weekend, 6-7 February)
online on the Arizona Music
Café. The program will air from 3-5 PM Arizona
time. It appears that Sue
will be in the first time slot. In Phoenix, you can turn to AM 960 or just
follow the link above to listen online.
Dolan’s
“Wintertime and
Snowing” concert this past weekend turned out to be for
real. Bev Parks took some great photos and has placed them on her Desert
Aura Web site, and we thought you might be interested in seeing how we
look with a little snow on the ground. Go to www.desertaura.com to browse her
numerous albums, or click here to go directly to her AFP
Gallery.
© Bev Parks,
2010 |
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CONCERT SCHEDULE
AND INFORMATION
(click on a date
for more information about the AFP event; click on a name for the artist’s
Web site)
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Sue Harris
starts us off in
February (6-7) with a program that is always sure to please.
Sue
 has it all: she starts with beauty and stage presence,
and then adds her phenomenal instrumental and singing and storytelling
abilities.
What really sets
Sue Harris apart from the
others, however, is her “song bag.” She’s now writing more of the songs
herself, but she still excels at going out and finding songs that suit her
style and personality and then truly making them him own. The songs may be
romantic, whimsical, humorous, or based entirely on fact, and a few are
downright quirky.
If you haven’t seen
Sue before, be sure to come
out. We think you’ll be added to her rapidly growing list of loyal fans.
Sue wears another “hat” besides the one
in this photo. She is the founder and owner of Little Mama Products. If
you’ve noticed delicious aromas around the AFP lobby, they probably come
from Sue’s soaps. Her process
is so unique and special that she has been featured on Home & Garden
TV.
rincon
creek studios © 2009, photo courtesy of Catherine Lilbit
Devine |
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“Gathering
Day” at the Arizona Folklore
Preserve.
Every year, on the
Friday of the biggest musical weekend in Cochise County, the Cochise Cowboy Poetry and Music
Gathering, the AFP presents a full day of cowboy poetry and music, and
for the last few years we have closed on Saturday and Sunday so our
patrons can experience the Gathering without missing an exciting AFP
event.
Our doors will open
at 9:00 AM, with four one-hour
concerts scheduled as follows:
10:00 AM: Doris Daley
11:15 AM: Bill Barwick
12:45 PM: The Tumbling
Tumbleweeds
2:00 PM: Prickly Pair and the Cactus
Chorale
The cost for the
entire day is only $40. This is a truly exciting lineup, with four highly
accomplished acts.
We’ll break for
lunch at 12:15 for a half-hour. A catered lunch is available for an
additional $10 (sign up for the lunch when you make your
reservations).
Details about the
artists (all awards listed are from the Western Music
Association):
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Doris Daley from
Alberta, Canada, was named “Female Cowboy Poet of the
Year” in 2009, and also won “Best Cowboy Poetry CD”
in 2009 for her book, “Beneath a Western
Sky.”
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Doris Daley performs at
Western events in Canada and the United
States. A few of her bigger
events: THE cowboy poetry
gathering in Elko, Nevada; Smithsonian Folklife Festival in
Washington, DC; and a Command Performance for Canada’s Governor
General.
She
made her debut at the AFP at last year’s “Gathering Day” and that
was also her first time to appear at the Cochise
Gathering.
Doris is featured on three YouTube
videos, including “A Letter to Mr.
Russell,” a humorous poem she wrote as a letter to the great
Western painter, Charlie Russell, about
progress.
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Bill Barwick is probably best
known for his great singing voice, but his songwriting certainly
adds significantly to his art. There is a sample of that
songwriting, “There Ain’t No
Quit,” available on YouTube (both music and lyrics by Bill
Barwick).
Perhaps
an even better sample of Bill’s music and performance is his
humorous “George’s
Rule,” also on YouTube. (Bill makes a plug at the end of this
video for his work as the announcer for the “Westerns” movie
channel, another interesting aspect of his
career.)
This
will be Bill’s first appearance at the AFP, and it’s sure to be a
treat for the lucky audience. |
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Bill Barwick from
Colorado was named “Male Performer of the
Year” in 2009.
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The Tumbling
Tumbleweeds from California won both the
“Crescendo Award” and the “Marilyn Tuttle Harmony Award” in
2008. The core founding members consist of, vocalists
“Tumbleweed Rob” Wolfskill, Big Daddy Cade” Parenti and Chris
Acuff, with “Babyface” R.J. Mills on guitar and
vocals. |
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The Tumbling
Tumbleweeds made their AFP debut in September 2009, and they
were a huge hit.
While they
have some pretty good videos available on their Web site, via
YouTube, many people who attended their AFP concerts declared those
videos do not do them justice. So visit their “Moving
Pictures” page and watch a little TV, remembering they are even
better in person.
The
Tumbleweeds have received a lot of great press, and perhaps the best
is this item from the Pasadena
Star News.
You can also
sample some of their recordings on their MySpace page (5
complete songs).
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Prickly Pair and the Cactus
Chorale made their AFP debut at the 2009 “Gathering
Day.”
With
their lively tunes (especially with Les Hamilton on fiddle,
following the tradition of three earlier generations of his family),
they are the perfect choice to end the AFP event. Locke is the lead
vocalist, guitarist, and chief songwriter of the group, and
Norman, on upright bass, completes
the trio as “The Cactus Chorale.”
There’s
a page on their
Web site with three videos: a montage of their music, a story told
by Les, and a song with Locke as lead
vocalist.
Watch
these videos and listen to some of the samples of their CDs, and it
will be clear why this group has won major awards and earns praise
from national publications and top
artists. |
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Prickly Pair and the
Cactus Chorale from Wyoming won the “Yodeling
Award” way back in 1998 and won the “Marilyn Tuttle Harmony
Award” in 2009. The Prickly Pair, Les and Locke Hamilton, are
joined by Norman
Winter. |
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 Trails & Rails
return to the
AFP on February 20 and 21.
Most of their music
can be categorized as cowboy (trails) or trains (rails). They put the two
together into a program that is delightfully entertaining and educational
to boot. Bring your children and grandchildren so they can get a fun
lesson in How the West was Won.
In addition to
winning the Duo Harmony Award (Walt and Paula) of the Western Music
Association in 2005, they have garnered numerous other nominations and
have made it to the top five in many categories including Best Traditional
Group and Best CD.
Trails & Rails
members reside in San
Diego, and they travel extensively throughout the
Southwest. They have been featured at many Western festivals and events,
including the Cochise Cowboy Poetry and Music Festival, the Tombstone
Western Music Festival, and the Cody
Stampede.
In
the photo: Walt Richards, Paula
Strong, and Ken Wilcox (Greg Crowder
Photography) |
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 Dolan Ellis,
Arizona’s
Official State Balladeer and the AFP’s founder
and artist-in-residence, makes his monthly AFP appearance on Feb 27-28. We
chose this photo, in which Dolan seems to be “up to something”
specifically for this weekend’s “Songs I Seldom
Sing” concerts. With more than 300 original Arizona songs and
just about the same number of covers in his vast repertoire, some get
shuffled out of play for long periods of time. This is a chance to revive
some of the old favorites, and it’s always a fun show. If you have a
request, please ask when you make your
reservation.
The
consummate entertainer, Dolan brings a high level of energy to the stage,
with mostly original Arizona songs, many of them taking
advantage of his strong baritone voice and dramatic flair. But Dolan also
sings romantic ballads (some about women and some about the state he
loves), and his voice becomes smooth and beautiful. He backs himself on a
12-string guitar, and uses large-screen photography to illustrate many of
his songs.
Dolan achieved fame
in the American West in the early 1960s, touring as a solo folk artist,
and that led to his being chosen as one of the original members of The New
Christy Minstrels®. He stayed long enough to record five albums (some of
them gold) and win a Grammy for best group, and is back with them now,
touring nationally with four other original
members. |
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Coming
Events
Check
the Performance Schedule
page on the AFP site for the latest information.
Mar
6-7: Tony Norris
Mar 13-14:
Joyce Woodson
Mar
20-21: Dolan Ellis, Arizona’s
Official State Balladeer
Mar 27-28: Call of the West
Apr 3-4:
Kip Calahan
Apr 10-11: Jim Jones
Apr 17-18: Sid Hausman
Apr 24-25: Dolan Ellis, Arizona’s
Official State Balladeer
May 1-2: Ted Ramirez (also known as founder
of the Santa
Cruz River Band)
May 8-9: Gary
McMahan
May 15-16: Richard Lee
Cody and Mary Kaye
May 22-23: Dolan Ellis, Arizona’s
Official State Balladeer
May 29-30: TBA
Jun
5-6: TBA
Jun 12-13: TBA
Jun 19-20: Dolan Ellis, Arizona’s
Official State Balladeer
Jun 26-27: TBA
Jul
3-4: Dolan Ellis, Arizona’s
Official State Balladeer |
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About our
Concerts:
Our concerts are held
on Saturday and Sunday afternoons at 2:00 PM, unless otherwise noted. Cost is $15 for
adults and $6 for children 17 and under. Reservations are recommended and
can be made by calling 520-378-6165, or sending an email to reservations@arizonafolklore.com.
For additional information, please visit our Web
site.
From time to time we
make a last-minute schedule change. The Performance Schedule
page on the AFP site is always up to date. If you already have
reservations, we will contact you to let you know about the
changes. |
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Announcements: |
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AFP
Posters:
AFP posters are available on
the Internet. We began creating them in mid-January 2009, and will
maintain all in our online archives. |
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Lodging:
If you
need lodging for your
visit (or
your guests’
visit) to
the AFP, we hope you’ll consider the following, both very generous
sponsors of the AFP.
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Our artists
often stay
at the Ramsey Canyon
Inn, that lovely Bed & Breakfast Inn just about a quarter
mile west of the AFP. You can enjoy their gourmet breakfast, then
take a strenuous hike or an easy one in the morning
before coming to our matinee. Shirlene, the owner, has always been a
very good neighbor.
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The Windemere Hotel in
Sierra
Vista is now housing our artists on many
weekends. Those of you who have attended the Cochise Cowboy Poetry
& Music Gathering probably know that the Windemere has been the
host hotel for that event for many years. |
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On the
Air:
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We
are grateful to Paul
Orlando at KTAN Radio 1420 AM in
Sierra
Vista, who has supported us for many years
with public service announcements.
Each
week, they take our press release and a music clip we send, and
create a PSA that they play several times during the
week. |
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Links and
Contacts:
Arizona Folklore Preserve (home
page)
Map, Directions,
General Information
Performance Schedule
(always up-to-date)
Dolan Ellis, Arizona’s Official State
Balladeer
Guest
Artists: (see the links within
this newsletter)
Email
Links:
AFP Reservations ( or
call 520-378-6165)
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Snail
Mail Address:
Arizona Folklore
Preserve
P.O.
Box
235
Sierra
Vista, AZ 85636
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