Dakota Blonde Saturday, February 11 at 8 pm L2 Arts & Culture Center
The vibrant harmony trio of Mary Huckins, Don Pinnella and Tony Raddell return with their down-to-earth, sentimental, and humorous tunes that reflect their influences of folk, bluegrass, and country. Award-winning songwriters, their song “Somebody’s Brother” won the 2001 Walnut Valley Festival New Song Showcase and Mary Huckin’s song “Dig Real Deep” was a finalist for the 2002 MerleFest Chris Austin Songwriting Contest.
They’ve shared the stage with myriad artists of great caliber, from Nickel Creek to John McEuen, and Jimmy Ibbotson to Tony Furtado, to name but a few. They were also showcased at our Denver Folk & Roots Music Festival (now known as RootsFest) in 2008, headlined by Bruce Cockburn and Nanci Griffith, where they brought the house down!
Join us for an intimate evening of music with Mike Butterworth and Jason Walsmith of the Nadas performing an acoustic concert.
Des Moines rockers The Nadas set out last January to record their seventh LP, Almanac, virtually live. The rules were simple: the band would write, record and release one song a month all year. What’s more, every step of the process would be streamed live on the band’s website and with unprecedented access to the creative process; fans were allowed to become an integral part of this album. By joining the band’s web-based Almanac Project, fans could monitor their blog and read the band’s project journal.
Comments and criticisms on everything from lyrics to instruments were welcomed and even, in a few choice cases, incorporated into The Nadas’ music. In September of 2009, select fans that had joined the Almanac Project were extended an exclusive invitation to a special songwriting session arranged to write that month’s addition to this most unique album.
Despite (or perhaps because) of the rigorous, self-imposed deadlines and wildly public creative process, the 12 tracks produced on Almanac finds The Nadas in top form.
Their previous efforts The Ghosts Inside These Halls (2007) and Listen Through The Static (2005) have found the band (rounded out by bassist Jon Locker, drummer Jason Smith, and violinist Becca Smith) alternating between alt-rock and alt-country. Now, Almanac finds the band fully embracing muscular, anthemic rock.
Ruthie Foster and Paul Thorn have forged a compelling path for the next generation of songwriting blues and soul artists. Rich with honest spirituality and possessing vocal abilities that have critics comparing her to Ella Fitzgerald and Aretha Franklin, Ruthie’s passionate songs and scintillating live performances always make for an uplifting experience. Paul Thorn is an authentic new voice in the modern blues scene, bridging classic forms with twenty-first century sensibility. Performing on their own and together with Ruthie’s band, it's an evening of raw musical emotion, soulful singing and finely honed musical virtuosity guaranteed to be good for the spirit!
RESCHEDULED FROM AUG 20. Tickets from the Aug 20 show will be honored at this show
One of the most celebrated country-folk performers of her day, singer/songwriter Iris DeMent was born on January 5, 1961, in rural Paragould, AR, the youngest of 14 children. At the age of three, her devoutly religious family moved to California, where she grew up singing gospel music; during her teenaged years, however, she was first exposed to country, folk, and R&B, drawing influence from Loretta Lynn, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, and Joni Mitchell. Upon graduating high school, she relocated to Kansas City to attend college.
After a series of jobs waitressing and typing, Dement first began composing songs at the age of 25. Honing her skills at open-mic nights, in 1988 she moved to Nashville, where she contacted producer Jim Rooney, who helped her land a record contract. Dement did not make her recording debut until 1992, when her independent label offering, Infamous Angel, won almost universal acclaim thanks to her pure, evocative vocal style and spare, heartfelt songcraft.
Despite a complete lack of support from country radio, the record's word-of-mouth praise earned her a deal with Warner Bros., which reissued Infamous Angel in 1993 as well as its follow-up, 1994's stunning My Life. Her third LP, 1996's eclectic The Way I Should, marked a dramatic change not only in its more rock-influenced sound but also in its subject matter; where Dement's prior work was introspective and deeply personal, The Way I Should was fiercely political, tackling topics like sexual abuse, religion, government policy, and Vietnam.
In 1999, she collaborated with country man John Prine on his album, In Spite of Ourselves. Dement recorded four duets with Prine that earned her a Grammy nod the following year.
Since its inception in 2002, the Matt Flinner Trio has been forging new pathways for the standard bluegrass trio. Mandolinist Matt Flinner, guitarist Ross Martin and bassist Eric Thorin cover a wide variety of musical styles—all with the common ground of American roots as well as originality. Bluegrass, jazz and Celtic music are all present here, but not necessarily overtly or in a contrived sense. Call it Americana Music, or New Acoustic, or Chamber Grass, or just call it Great Music; whatever label you put on it, it is guaranteed to be fresh and original, and definitely something you’ve never quite heard before.
The trio began doing “Music du Jour” tours in 2006, in which each member of the group writes a new composition the day of the show, and all three new pieces are performed on that evening’s concert. After several of these tours the trio recorded its first CD, Music du Jour, on Compass Records in 2009. They have now performed over 75 “du Jour” shows and continue to explore new frontiers and new sounds in acoustic string band music. Their second CD, Winter Harvest, is due for release on Compass on January 31, 2012.
From the gift of an A&L acoustic guitar from his blues/R&B guitar-playing flat-picking and composer father and sharing time and technique, through Led Zeppelin rock and Grateful Dead roll. To time in bands, mastering improvisation and other concepts, to loving the blues and discovering bebop, modern jazz, straight-ahead bluegrass and the classics of Bach and Beethoven: What Grant Gordy actually has been doing is continuous study.
In there was 1996's DGQ-20, the three-disc set by the David Grisman Quintet, the album Gordy says completely changed his life. "I was hearing all these cool new chords and complex arranged tunes and great players and something about it just fit for me. It even got me started thinking about writing my own tunes," he says.
Gordy put together his own quartet in 2006 that gigged for a couple of years and then got the call from David "Dawg" Grisman to sub in and then ultimately join the Quintet as guitarist. Says Grisman of Gordy, "[His] guitar stylings offer a rare blend of flat-picking virtuosity, jazz exploration and classical sensibility."
His self-titled album, released in 2010, made the top of Acoustic Guitar Magazine's Senior Editor Scott Nygaard's personal list of the best 10 albums of 2010.
