Entertainers
Joni
Harms
Joni
began preparing herself for a career in Western music by singing Patsy Montana's
"I Want To Be A Cowboy's Sweetheart" for cattle workers at her aunt's
hotel when she was only four. "I had a soft spot for cowboys even then"
she says with a laugh!
“I personally
can’t live without Western music,” says Joni Harms, whose new album
is Let’s Put The Western Back In The Country (Wildcatter Records). “I
like a lot of today’s country music, but the truth of the matter is that
I’m very serious about keeping the western side of country music alive.”
The sincerity in her voice is clear. On the 13 songs that fill Let’s Put
The Western Back In The Country, Harms talks about family and home, enduring love,
hard work and good, clean fun. From the playful “Cowboy Up” (recently
recorded by Chris LeDoux) to the chilling “The Wind,” Harms espouses
a sound that is fresh and real.
“The
majority of the songs include lyrics of the west, because I love to write about
things I’ve experienced,” she says. “Rodeo, cowboys and the ranch
way of living shows through a lot in my music.” Harms lives in Oregon with
her family on a ranch that was homesteaded by her great, great grandfather in
1870. They raise quarter horses and Christmas trees.
Sourdough
Slim
Swingin’
tunes! Cowboy crooning! Yodeling pyrotechnics! Laughs galore! Yes folks, all this
and more can be yours at the only show on the planet where you can witness a man
in a ten gallon hat, yodel, play accordion, dance a jig and twirl a lariat - all
at the same time. Sagebrush artist, Sourdough Slim, transport us to a whimsical,
infectious world where vaudevillian camp and cowboy lore intermingle. With a repertoire
of classic western songs and an exuberant, animated, crowd pleasing delivery,
Sourdough Slim has become one of the most popular cowboy entertainers of our time.
The East Bay Express calls him “The most entertaining cowboy singer-yodeler-accordionist
extant.” The Allentown Morning Call proclaims him to be a “One-man Western
extravaganza!” And the music director at the Carnegie Hall Folk Festival
commented, “Spectacular! His ability to entertain, charm and educate a New
York audience was nothing short of amazing.” From the moment this accordion
squeezin’ Will Rogers swaggers on stage, it’s apparent to everyone that
they’re in for a rollicking good time
Baloney
Creek
Madera
based Baloney Creek has been performing together for two years. They've entertained
at e bluegrass festivals, private parties, convalescent homes, churches, local
tv, etc. Their own personal bluegrass style has a twist of swing, a bit of blues,
and a collection of old time fiddle tunes incorporated.
The
band consists of four members. Richard Rhyne, from Montreal, Canada, accompanies
the band with his versatile guitar playing. He is both lead and rhythm guitar
player, and occasionally picks up the banjo for some variety.
Ed
Bell, born and raised in Kilgore, Texas, has been involved in music for several
years. He is one of the vocalists of Baloney Creek and also the mandolin player.
However, he can also saw a fiddle, pick on the guitar, or play a tune on the banjo.
Midge
Dittman is Baloney Creek's bass player, keeping time for all the band members.
A country girl raised on a farm, she originally set out to play the banjo, but
found her niche as a bass player instead. Midge has had the opportunity to participate
in bluegrass festivals nationwide, and has had the honor of playing bass and singing
back-up for her family band “Willow Bend”.
Dalisay
Richter is the lead vocalist & fiddle player of Baloney Creek. She has studied
classical music, but can't get away from bluegrass! Dalisay is currently California
State champion Fiddle Player; she'd held the state fiddling champion title for
four times and had the opportunity to travel with her music worldwide.
Jim
Cardwell
In
May of 1951, I was born alongside both Iowa corn fields and the state mental institution.
About the time I could talk, I was moved by well meaning parents to Southern California
for the benefits of urban education and west coast culture. There I lived the
full boomer life of a Navy brat, beach bum, Seven-Eleven clerk, Boy Scout, gardener,
cow hand, and high school jock.
Hoping
to avoid the jungles of Vietnam, I joined the U.S. Navy and became a corpsman
(most likely Navy rate to die in Vietnam). Upon arrival home from a shipboard
combat deployment in 1972, I began to write. I am one of the few to write about
that war with humor. At San Diego City College, I studied poetry and composition
with Steve Kowit. After several small roles in community theatre, I knew that
I wasn’t an actor. It was then I returned to my rural roots, and began nursing
school. Believing that medicine would be my highest calling, I did not seriously
write during the next ten years.
I now
live in the Northern Sierra foothills near Oroville California. For 28 years I
have worked as an emergency/ICU nurse. At home I raise organic salsa, olives,
a little livestock, and opinionated children. I cowboy part time for the Rafter
H brand out of Williams California and Adel Oregon.
My
poetry has been published in many journals including The Acorn, Remuda, Rattlesnake
Press, The Pegasus Review, The Nevada County Poetry Series, and The Journal Of
Nursing Jocularity. Over the last ten years, I have won multiple humor awards,
from honorable mention to first place, at the Berkeley Poet’s Dinner Contest.
Recently I’ve performed in Vinton, Visalia, Wilits, Grass Valley, Monterey,
Salinas, Shingletown, Sacramento, Oroville, Chico (California), Elko Nevada, and
Kamloops Canada. My cowboy poetry CD, “A Son Of California”, was released
last Spring. My first music CD is in the works. I am a member of the Western Folklife
Center, Cowboypoetry.com, Monterey Cowboy Poetry Festival, Academy Of Western
Artists, and the Western Music Association, because they’re all willing to
accept my money.
(Jim Cardwell told our
Big John that he's going to write a little something special for our Wild West
Weekend!)
Dave
Rainwater
Dave
Rainwater (aka 'Huckleberry The Hillbilly Fiddler' or 'Huckleberry of The West'.
Every now and then, an occasion calls for a fiddler with wild abandon. A fiddler
who will just simply play that darned thing with hoedowns and other frilly tunes.
Dave cuts loose as his alter ego 'cousin' Huckleberry. He'll stroll and come after
you as he croons (you can join in too !) Western melodies, old vaudevillian tunes
and Tin Pan Alley classics. He'll tap his toes and go off into flights of harmonica
fancies. He'll walk around like he's some PHD musicologist or folklorist with
anecdotal bits of American history and folklore. He plays from a repertoire too
numerous to mention. He says 'he's got a million of em'. He thinks he wrote that
line 'fiddling is like a box of chocolates ! You never know what you're gonna
get!' Huck has gained a large fan following in Tuolumne County having strolled
for several years now at Railtown 1897 in Jamestown on the steam trains and at
the 49er Chili Cook Off Festival in Groveland. He advises people that he is a
trained hillbilly expert and DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME. He has been told on a number
of occasions that a young boy or girl has taken up the violin because of him!
He couldn't think of a better reward in this life.......
Terry
Brown & Hilda Machado Brown
Terry
is a Country/Western Singer Songwriter ... and Los Banos grown Hilda is a trick
and fancy roper who has been nominated to be inducted into the "Cowgirls
Hall of Fame".
"The Louis L'Amour
of the Cowboy Singers"
That's
what fans everywhere are calling this Gracemont, Oklahoma native. "A Cowboy...Born
a Hundred Years Too Late" is the long awaited album dedicated to the cowboy
way of life by one of America's premier songwriters.
Nominated
for "Album of The Year" by the Academy of Western Artists, the 2000
release of “A Cowboy...Born A Hundred Years Too Late”, Terry's tribute
to the American West, contained the song "Silver Spur", which won "Song
of The Year", and is now being used as the storyline for a book and possibly
a made for TV movie. Terry was also nominated for "Male Vocalist of The Year",
"Rising Star" and won "Songwriter of The Year" honors.
Terry has the kind of voice that is perfectly suited
for the storyteller role. Its depth and emotional quality make you believe the
stories he sings and makes you want to hear them again and again.
Growing up on a ranch and being affiliated with rodeo
through his wife, Trick and Fancy Roper and Cowgirl Hall of Fame nominee, Hilda
Machado, Terry knows a little something about the cowboy spirit and has a deep
respect for our cowboy roots.
There have
been many artists who have helped preserve our western heritage through paintings,
music, poetry, books and movies, but with an imagination as big as the Oklahoma
sky, a guitar for a brush, and music as his canvas, few can paint a more beautiful
or realistic picture of the cowboy and the west than Terry Brown.
Rowdy
Kate
Sacramento’s
Rowdy Kate, making a big honky-tonk and traditional country splash in Sacramento
Rowdy Kate, led by natural and effervescent new-country sweetheart, Keri Carr.
She can belt 'em beautifully. Songs by Loretta Lynn, Patsy Cline, Ray Price, Gram
Parsons and Conway Twitty. Hearts will break.
Sounds like traditional country
from the 50's, 60's and early 70's
