Friday, Feburary 12th
Carolyn Wonderland Trio

$20.00 + 2.00 tax/handling = $22.00 Total

Carolyn Wonderland has the goods. A triple threat with her diverse songwriting, soulful vocals, and guitar goddess status - all featured on over twenty CDs, six of which are her releases - she has a pedigree in this business that's hard to match. A bit of a renegade, she likes to incorporate elements of Blues, Country, Swing, Zydeco, Surf, Gospel, Soul, and some nights, maybe even a Cumbia into the musical mix. Recent years have seen her stretching out musically working some expert whistling and scat singing into her shows. In addition to her trusty guitar, "Patty," Carolyn has been regularly playing her trumpet, and even occasionally the accordion, mandolin, or keys...she is threatening to take up nose flute if someone doesn’t stop her...

Wonderland's songs have been featured on NBC's "Homicide," Fox's "Time of Your Life," & Houston NORML even made a video PSA set to Carolyn's "Annie's Scarlet Letter." She has toured with acts like Buddy Guy and Johnny Winter, sat-in with String Cheese Incident, Robert Earl Keen, and Los Lobos, and even sang the "National Anthem" at Sturgis Bike Week 2003 -- her 10th anniversary playing Sturgis -- before Robbie Kneivel's record-breaking jump over one hundred Harleys. Recently, she was a panelist at the University of Texas LBJ Library's "Instruments of Freedom" Forum with Kinky Friedman, Marcia Ball, Jerry Jeff Walker and others. She's been lucky enough to jam with mentors and friends like Bob Dylan, Eddy Shaver and Ray Benson. She's co-written songs with Ruthie Foster, Cindy Cashdollar, Candye Kane and Guy Forsyth.

How lucky can one girl get? Well, with a lot of hard work, just this lucky. In her words, "I still get to play most every night, so the adventure continues. Every musical interlude is a new page, another chance to jump into the Ether." Originally from Houston, a city where she has won awards in The Houston Press for everything from Best Guitarist, Vocalist, Songwriter, Blues, to Release of the Year and Musician of the Year -- virtually sweeping the awards for 5 years from the time she was a teenager. Now residing in Austin, Ms. Wonderland says, "I moved to the land of free guitar lessons!"

In addition to leading her band, Carolyn is also in a few other notable groups. She's the primary singer on the Jerry Lightfoot's Band of Wonder "Texistentialism" CD with Jerry and Vince Welnick (Grateful Dead, The Tubes). She's a founding member of the Loose Affiliation of Saints and Sinners (with Papa Mali, Eldridge Goins, Guy Forsyth, and others), with several of her songs being featured on their "Sessions from the Hotel San Jose Rm. 50" CD. Carolyn is also the guitarist in the all-girl, southern rock band Sis DeVille, and a founding member of the Austin Volunteer Orchestra. When she's not playing music or driving around the country, she volunteers for the non-profit charity, Instruments for Orphans, serving on the board of directors. Frequently, you can also catch her doing Gospel Brunch at Maria's Taco X-Press with the Imperial Golden Crown Harmonizers on Sundays, raising money for local charities.

Her first love is her band, and with good reason. Years of touring are evident in both the maturity of the songs and the tightness of the grooves on 2003's "Bloodless Revolution." Not one to rest on her laurels, Carolyn is back in the studio working with Ray Benson on lucky CD number 7. You can preview some of the new songs at one of the many live shows on her perpetual tour.

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Saturday, Feburary 13th
Lynn Miles

$15.00 + 1.50 tax/handling = $16.50 Total

Born outside Montreal in Sweetsburg, Quebec, Lynn Miles grew up in a musical home. Her father played the harmonica and listened to his jazz collection while her mother was a lover of both opera and country music. Miles’ mother recalled once that she knew when Lynn had finally fallen asleep in her crib: Lynn stopped singing. During her elementary school years, Miles learned guitar, violin, flute and piano. She began performing in public at around the age of sixteen and when she was in her early twenties she studied with an opera singer to strengthen her voice and enrolled for a time at Carleton University in Ottawa where she studied classical music history and theory. Years later, Miles put this training to good use while serving as a voice teacher at the Ottawa Folklore Center. While at the center, she taught voice to many students including a then fourteen-year-old Alanis Morrisette. The lessons came just prior to the making of Morrisette’s first album.

Though Miles had been writing her own songs since the age of 10, she didn’t end up recording any of her own material until 1987 when she cut 9 original compositions for a demo at Happyrock Studio in Ottawa. An avid reader and music-lover, those early recordings were inspired by the books she loved to read, and the music she listened to on the radio. Miles continues to draw inspiration from music and literature to this day. On her latest album (Love Sweet Love) for example, the opening track, “Flames of Love,” was inspired by a long period of reading Sufi poetry. "I’m fascinated by the way the Sufis write about love," Miles says. "Their love is spiritual, and I reinterpreted it and wrote ‘Flames of Love,’ about jumping in the fire, Lynn Miles letting go and not being afraid and letting it get hot and not caring about what other people think. Just really going for it." The idea – and the song itself – is exhilarating and exciting, yet full of hidden corners and alleyways from where the joy can be blindsided without notice. But as Miles notes, "You don't learn from happiness."

If that's true, one gets the sense that Miles has learned a lot. In a career that has seen her move from Ottawa to Nashville to Los Angeles and back to Ottawa, and release albums as varied as the slick Night in a Strange Town (co-produced by Larry Klein, of Shawn Colvin and Joni Mitchell fame, and featuring renowned west-coast studio musicians David Piltch, Dean Parks, John Cody and Tal Bergman) and the stark Unravel, Miles has consistently been unflinching in putting it all out there: the unbridled ecstasy of new-found love, the fragile process of sweeping up the pieces when it breaks.

The accolades, meanwhile, continue to pour in. Her 1996 album, Slightly Haunted, was a Billboard Top 10 Pick of the Year. Unravel (released 2001) was praised by critics – All Music Guide describing it as "sounding as if it's been produced by Daniel Lanois in an Appalichian town" and "a diamond in the rough." Canadian folk-music icon Valdy once said, "I'm sorry for all the heartache she has to go through in order to get those juices going, but, yeah, she's marvelous." The New York Times may have said it best: "Lynn Miles makes being forlorn sound like a state of grace."

Her latest album, Love Sweet Love (Red House Records – February 7, 2006), is a road album. Songs like “Night Drive”, “Sweet and Tender Heart”, “8 Hour Drive” and “Never Coming Back” trace the metaphorical journey of the human heart, sketching a roadmap of modern relationships and heartache. Miles recorded Love Sweet Love with a first-rate collection of Canadian musicians: Unravel producer, guitarist, longtime-friend and collaborator Ian LeFeuvre and drummer Peter Von Althen (both of the Canadian band Starling); Chelsea Bridge double-bassist John Geggiem; Prairie Oyster guitarist Keith Glass and violinist James Stephens all lend their talents to Love Sweet Love. The result of this collaboration is a warm, hopeful sound in perfect harmony with Miles’ smart, heartbreaking lyrics.

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Friday, Feburary 19th
Dana Cooper

$15.00 + 1.50 tax/handling = $16.50 Total

Singer/songwriter Dana Cooper has wowed audiences throughout the U.S. and Europe recently with tunes from his newest album, Made of Mud, to be released on September 13th on King Easy Records. Cooper's ingenious guitar work and gutsy harmonica continue to augment his passionate voice and insightful lyrics. This collection of eleven songs produced by Richard McLaurin features acclaimed Nashville talents Dave Jacques, Paul Griffith, Eric Fritsch, Steve Hermann and Vickie Hampton.

Out of the heartland of America - the stomping ground of Truman and Twain - Cooper was playing his music in Kansas City clubs by the age of 16. Leaving behind a college art scholarship, Dana toured the country and landed in Los Angeles. In 1973, Elektra Records released his self-titled debut solo album featuring luminary players Russ Kunkel, Leland Sklar and Jim Horn. Cooper later moved to Texas to join forces with long-time friend Shake Russell. Their collaborations produced five highly successful folk-rock albums, including one on MCA in 1981. The two became one of the most popular acts throughout Texas and the Southwest appearing together on Austin City Limits. Dana and Shake continue recording and performing together to this day.

Over the years Dana has released many independent solo albums including the critically acclaimed Miracle Mile on Compass Records. This album was nominated for a Nashville Music Award as "Best Pop Album" and was picked by Performing Songwriter Magazine as one of the top twelve DIY recordings for the year. Cooper's latest CD, Harry Truman Built A Road, was named one of the best records of 2002 by The Tennessean in Nashville and was again chosen as one of the top twelve DIY recordings for that year.

Recent tours of Denmark, Ireland, Sweden and Germany have gained Cooper exuberant support from audiences and radio as well as collaborations and friendships with many songwriters in these countries.

Cooper has been named Best Songwriter in Houston, was nominated Best Male Vocalist by the Kerrville Music Foundation and was nominated by their Hall of Fame. His songs have been recorded by top-notch artists Mauro O'Connell, Jonell Mosser, Susan Werner, Jen Cohen, Christine Albert, Trout Fishing in America, Pierce Pettis, John Smith and Shake Russell.

Cooper's new album crowns those accomplishments with a suite of songs that span the entirety of his career. The most recent, "Sit This One Out," was finished during recording sessions last year; the earliest, "Step Into The Light," was written with Russell in San Francisco three decades ago. "I wanted purposely to include some of these older songs," says Cooper. "I thought they fit what I'm doing now. It's funny how a song that old will still be so timely." There is one unexpectedly timely tune on Made of Mud that Cooper didn't write: Woody Guthrie's "Pretty Boy Floyd." It's the first cover version Cooper has ever included on an album, although he's been performing it since his coffeehouse years in Missouri. "I thought some of the things that are going on now hearken back to the Depression, when there were outlaws in the country fighting against the banks and the big-money guys," he explains. "I see the time we're in now as similar to that time in a lot of ways."

Despite such disparate origins, the 11 tracks on Made of Mud bring a broad range of human experience into focus and clarity, coherence and concision. "There are songs about mortality and immortality, politics and religion and love, the struggle of living, and the possibilities of how much we can accomplish," says Cooper. "It's a journey through life, from song to song."

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Saturday, Feburary 20th
Slaid Cleaves

$25.00 + 2.50 tax/handling = $27.50 Total

Slaid Cleaves. Grew up in Maine. Lives in Texas. Writes songs. Makes Records. Travels around. Tries to be good.

Granted, there’s a whole lot of history and detail that could be shoehorned into that most minimal of bios to flesh out Cleaves' story. But all that’s really called for, from time to time, is a footnote or two to bring folks up to speed on his latest batch of literate, sepia-toned Americana songcraft. This year’s bounty comes baring the foreboding title of Everything You Love Will be Taken Away, but fans of the Austin-based singer-songwriter needn’t fear: Everything you love about the man’s singular voice and music is still very much intact.

It’s been five years since Cleaves’ last album of self-penned songs, 2004’s acclaimed Wishbones, which fans had waited nearly as long for in the afterglow of his 2000 breakthrough, Broke Down. But Cleaves’ slow-and-steady-wins-the-race pace has always yielded albums full of uncommonly fine-tuned songs built to stand the test of time, and Everything You Love . . . is par for his course.

Take the lead-off track, for example. “I think of that song as sort of a breakthrough,” he says of “Cry,” which jumps out as not only one of the most emotionally trenchant songs of his career, but also arguably one of his catchiest. “It showcases a shift in focus that I've taken with my songwriting. It's a bit more internal, personal. I actually recorded that song four separate times, because from the start it felt like something new and special, and I wasn't quite sure how to present it. But I always felt like this one could go all the way if I did it right. I thought it had the bones of a thoroughbred.”

One line in “Cry” lends the album its title and establishes a theme that runs throughout the record. “Whether it’s your loved ones, your way of life, or even just your sense of innocence and hope, every song in some way is about how it all gets taken away," says Cleaves.

To put the new record together, Cleaves teamed again with co-writing buddies like Rod Picott and Adam Carroll, as well as famed roots-rock producer Gurf Morlix. Additional tracks were cut with long-time road-guitarist Charles Arthur in Virginia, and Austin singer-songwriter and producer Billy Harvey was called in help find that elusive, perfect take on “Cry.”

Everything You Love . . . marks Cleaves’ debut on the newly launched co-op label Music Road Records, the brainchild of fellow Austin songwriter Jimmy LaFave. “I’m in on all the decisions,” says Cleaves. “It feels good to have so much more control over my fate now.  I figured, I cut my own hair, I fix my own car — so why shouldn’t I be the one responsible for getting this work of mine out into the world?”

Only time will tell how this new journey pans out; check back again in, oh, hopefully sometime before another five years have gone by. But in the meantime, there’s plenty to savor right here and now in the digital grooves of Everything You Love Will be Taken Away. Hold onto it for dear life, and savor every minute of it.

Richard Skanse, Editor, Texas Music

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Saturday, Feburary 27th
Kat Eggleston & Kate MacLeod

$15.00 + 1.50 tax/handling = $16.50 Total

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Friday, March 5th
Hot Club Of Cowtown

$25.00 + 2.50 tax/handling = $27.50 Total

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Friday, March 12th
Gerry O'Beirne & Rosie Shipley

$15.00 + 1.50 tax/handling = $16.50 Total

Born in Ennis, County Clare, along Ireland’s music-rich west coast, Gerry O’Beirne is a renowned singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist (6 and 12 string guitar, tiple, and ukulele, slide guitar among others). Gerry grew up in Ireland and in Ghana in West Africa, and has since lived in England, California, and Mexico. Gerry’s own compositions blend the passion found in traditional music with the freshness of contemporary song.

Many of his songs have been embraced by the contemporary folk community. Maura O’Connell recorded Half Moon Bay, Western Highway, Shades of Gloria, and The Isle of Malachy. Mary Black recorded The Holy Ground as a title track and Andy Irvine recorded it with Patrick Street. Cathie Ryan recorded Shades of Gloria and The Lights of San Francisco. Muireann Nic Amhloaibh has recorded Western Highway and The Isle Of Malachy on her album daybreak: fainne an lae.

Gerry has toured the globe as a solo artist and with the Sharon Shannon Band, Patrick Street, Midnight Well, Andy M. Stewart, Kevin Burke, Andy Irvine, and the Waterboys. He has performed at the White House, opened for the Grateful Dead, and played electric guitar with Marianne Faithfull. He composed and recorded the score to River of Dreams, an artistic response to the River Shannon commissioned by the Irish Department of Arts and Heritage, and he has written music for film and theater.

Gerry has appeared on Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion. His performance of Western Highway was chosen as an audio highlight on A Prairie Home Companion’s website: Gerry O'Beirne on Prairie Home Companion.

As a producer, Gerry has a large number of albums to his credit, including Promenade by Kevin Burke and Michael O’Dhomhnaill (winner of the Grand Prix Du Disque at Montreux), Irish Times by Patrick Street, Man in the Moon and Donegal Rain by Andy M. Stewart, First Foooting by Anam, The Connaughtman’s Rambles by Martin O’Conner, Up Close by Kevin Burke, Lifting the Veil and Sacred Space by Fiona Joyce, To Anyone At All by Clandestine, Fine Small Storm by Jen Hamel, The Willow by E. J. Jones, Silver Hook Tango by Australian singer-songwriter Kavisha Mazella, When Two Lovers Meet by Sarah McQuaid and most recently Lumina by Irish piper, low whistle player, and composer Eoin Duignan, which was hailed “a stunning achievement” by Hot Press, Ireland’s foremost music magazine.

Gerry’s first solo album, Half Moon Bay, featured his own songs and instrumental compositions. Half Moon Bay was citied as one of the 12 best releases of the year by Performing Songwriter magazine and was chosen as one of Folkworld’s Top Ten Albums of the year. He has now released his second album The Bog Bodies And Other Stories: Music For Guitar, which was named CD of the Month on the radio show Echoes.
Gerry has toured recently in Holland, Australia, New Zealand and the USA, performed solo at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, and has taught musical composition from visual art at Swananoa Music Camp. He is currently at work on an album with fiddler Rosie Shipley.

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Friday, March 26th
 Marshall Ford Swing Band 
CD Release Party

$20.00 + 2.00 tax/handling = $22.00 Total

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SUNDAY, March 28th - AT 6:00 PM

Laurie Lewis & Tom Rozum

$15.00 + 1.50 tax/handling = $16.50 Total

Since forming a musical partnership in 1986, when Tom first joined Laurie’s acclaimed band, Grant Street, Laurie Lewis and Tom Rozum have recorded 12 albums and performed around the globe. These Grammy-nominated artists (for their 1995 album The Oak and the Laurel) are widely regarded as among the leading lights of modern bluegrass and are highly-prized by their peers as sidemen and producers.

International Bluegrass Music Association executive director Dan Hays calls Laurie “one of the preeminent bluegrass and Americana artists of our time.” Acclaimed musician Sam Bush puts it more simply, calling her “a great singer, terrific fiddle player, fine songwriter, and one very good band leader.” Laurie also performed on both the Grammy-award winning, 1997 IBMA album of the year True Life Blues: The Songs of Bill Monroe, and the Grammy-nominated Ralph Stanley & Friends’ release Clinch Mountain Country.

New England native Tom Rozum "possesses an earnest tenor voice in the vein of contemporary bluegrass great Tim O'Brien, and peels off rhythmically crisp licks on mandolin and guitar." —Derk Richardson In 1998, he released his debut solo album Jubilee on Dog Boy Records. “Without reservation, one of 1998’s most rewarding acoustic releases.” —Amazon.com

In 2004, Lewis & Rozum released their third duo album, Guest House (their first for HighTone Records), a characteristically versatile and engaging offering of love songs, laments, social commentary, and freewheelin' fun in the spirit of old-time music. Laurie and Tom pay homage to such eminent influences as Woody Guthrie, Hazel Dickens, Grandpa Jones, and the inimitable Bill Monroe, adding their own distinctive touches to traditional favorites as well as performing several of Laurie’s nonpareil compositions.

Laurie and Tom are available for master classes and workshops in fiddle, mandolin, songwriting and vocal arrangements.

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Friday, April 2nd
Albert & Gage

$20.00 + 2.00 tax/handling = $22.00 Total

“Over the course of their twelve years time together and six album output, the pair have succeeded in expanding, and honoring, the time worn male/female dynamic with a natural chemistry that makes their songs seem intuitive and their live shows sizzle with energy.”
  The Alternate Root

“Christine Albert and Chris Gage - two of the best-singing people on the planet.”
   San Antonio Express-News

 “[Albert and Gage at Anderson Fair] snaps and pops with musical energy…The recording pulls off [a] wild and eclectic mix while remaining a cohesive and exciting exploration of the roots of popular, mostly American, music.”  Sing Out! Magazine

“Chris Gage and Christine Albert are masters of the art of the live show…The energy, humor, really fine duet singing, strong leads, original harmonies, strong sense of partnership, personality, and musicality that come across in this set make it a cut above many live projects…”  Dirty Linen

 “Always interesting harmonies, inventive musicianship, and thoughtful writing, sparked with a dash of fun, make [Burnin’ Moonlight] worth investigation for acoustic music and singer/songwriter fans.”  Dirty Linen

“They can rock, boogie, swing, trot down country roads and stride down sophisticated boulevards and make it all sound as it should: like parts of a unified whole rather than a mishmash of different styles…Albert and Gage have global class, musicality and charm on a CD that plays on the stereo like a house concert in a jewel box.”  Houston Press         

“Albert and Gage comprise one of the smartest local pairings on record…Gage's guitar and piano work are always solid, often brilliant, providing an effortlessly genre-crossing backdrop for Albert's gorgeous turns with the folk, soul, and blues that get near-equal countrified attention throughout.”  Austin Chronicle

“Together, they're electrifying, far more than the sum of their parts.”  Third Coast Music

“Christine Albert and Chris Gage demonstrate the art of good album making so effortlessly on Burnin' Moonlight, it's a lesson to remember.”  The Austin Chronicle

“Their vocals intertwine like two passionate lovers…and their performances are an upbeat celebration of songs and the art of singing them.  Albert's honey-drenched voice is one of the best in Austin…”  Houston Press

Complete reviews are available at www.albertandgage.com/reviews.htm

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Saturday, April 17th
Robin & Linda Williams And Their Fine Group

$25.00 + 2.50 tax/handling = $27.50 Total

Robin and Linda Williams are like your next-door neighbors - assuming your neighbors are the salt-of-the-earth and top-flight performers to boot. One minute you picture borrowing a cup of sugar from these two; the next, you're completely stunned by their jaw-dropping talent. Bottom line: You feel right at home at a Robin and Linda concert, and their music stays with you like an old friend.

Favorites of fans and promoters alike, they have crisscrossed the continent (and beyond) for more than three decades, performing the tunes they love & a hearty blend of bluegrass, folk, old-time and acoustic country. From The Grand Ole Opry to Austin City Limits, Music City Tonight to Mountain Stage, clubs, festivals and countless other venues, Robin and Linda never cease to wow audiences wherever they go.

Their chops don't stop at singing. They are first-class instrumentalists and superb songwriters, able to, as The Washington Post put it, "sum up a life in a few details with moving completeness." It's why their compositions have been recorded by the likes of Emmylou Harris, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Tom T. Hall, Kathy Mattea, Tim and Mollie O'Brien, George Hamilton IV and The Seldom Scene. Irish singer Mary Black included their haunting "Don't Let Me Come Home a Stranger" on her CD Full Tide.  

 

"Vocally and instrumentally, the Williamses combine impeccable musical discipline with a bare simplicity and an utter lack of pretension."
__ Stephen Holden, The New York Times

The couple met in 1971. Linda - originally from Alabama - was teaching school in South Carolina. Robin, who grew up in North Carolina, had been making the rounds on the national coffeehouse circuit. It wasn't long before they hit it off romantically. And the uncanny blend of their voices was icing on the cake. These days, they make their home in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.

Their first album came out on a small Minnesota-based record label in 1975, the same year they debuted on A Prairie Home Companion. Their association with the popular public radio program has landed them on major stages from Carnegie Hall to the Hollywood Bowl. As half of The Hopeful Gospel Quartet, they have collaborated on several CDs with the show's host, Garrison Keillor, and were prominently featured in the 2006 film "A Prairie Home Companion," directed by master filmmaker Robert Altman.

Of the many recordings Robin and Linda have offered up over the years, you'd be hard pressed to settle on a favorite. Whether their early productions like Shenandoah Moon and Dixie Highway Sign or later albums such as Sugar for Sugar and Devil of a Dream or the more recent Deeper Waters, The First Christmas Gift and Radio Songs (on Red House Records) each is a worthy addition to any music lover's collection.

"Among contemporary country performers,
Robin and Linda Williams shine like a diamond amid rhinestones.
Their sound is so sincere as to give the listener chills."
__ David W. Johnson, The Boston Globe

R&L (as their pals are apt to call them) are in constant demand, along with Their Fine Group, which formed after they teamed up with former Red Clay Rambler Jim Watson (bass, vocals and mandolin). The fourth chair of the Fine Group is a rotating chair filled by Jimmy Gaudreau (veteran of The Country Gentlemen, J. D. Crowe, The Tony Rice Unit, Chesapeake and Aldridge, and Bennett & Gaudreau) on mandolin and mandola, Tony Williamson (mandolin), Chris Brashear (fiddle), and Tom Corbett (mandolin). Whatever the configuration, the band keeps the joint jumpin'. Robin and Linda Williams: dynamic, hilarious and better than ever.

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Saturday, April 24th
Kasey Lansdale

$15.00 + 1.50 tax/handling = $16.50 Total