Their story begins like something you’d read on the back pages of the secret scrolls of folk music destiny:
Mystical dreamer, mathematician, tai chi practitioner, piano teacher, computer programmer, guitar picker and wandering cowboy sage from Texas/Oklahoma seeks poetry-loving, type A ex-head cheerleader, graphic designer, classically trained violinist and karaoke queen with Florida roots and California cool for musical adventures, journeys of the heart, and the betterment of the human condition…
Tracy Grammer saw Dave Carter perform three songs at a songwriter’s showcase shortly after she moved to Portland, Oregon in 1996. “Here were stories that could stand alone as poetry, sung with compassion, intelligence, and a hint of Texas twang,” Grammer says. “I knew instantly that I was in the presence of greatness; I knew I had received my calling in life.” They met on their way out the door and by late 1997 had entered into a mutual “marriage in music.”
Their unique strengths and diverse backgrounds came together in powerful synergy. Carter conjured mystical, romantic, true fictions while Grammer complemented his expert guitar, banjo, and voice with beautifully intoned violin, mandolin and emotionally potent vocals. Building on Carter’s impressive songwriting wins at Kerrville, Wildflower and Napa Valley, the duo recorded their first album, When I Go, in Grammer’s kitchen. The simple, no-frills recording garnered the unknown duo a full-page feature article in the Los Angeles Times, naming Carter “a major lyrical talent” and declaring their self-released album a “discovery of the year.”
The duo signed to Massachusetts-based label Signature Sounds in 2000 and released two chart-topping albums of what they called “postmodern, mythic American folk music.” In addition to heavy airplay across AAA, Americana and folk radio stations, the duo was highly celebrated by the press. The Boston Globe declared that “If the voice of modern folk is changing – it is going to sound a lot like Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer.” The flood of praise resulted in a full calendar of concert dates and an invitation to join folk icon Joan Baez on her spring 2002 east coast tour as both featured artists and band members. Grammer found herself in the spotlight as the instrumental soloist and backing vocalist, while Carter’s compositions were being performed alongside songs by Bob Dylan, Townes Van Zandt, Merle Haggard and Steve Earle — an incredible endorsement by one of the foremost curators and interpreters of modern American songwriting.
Then, on the morning of Friday, July 19, in a room at the duo’s favorite hotel in Hadley, Massachusetts, Carter returned from a run complaining of chest pains. Soon thereafter, he died in Grammer’s arms from a massive heart attack, just three weeks shy of his 50th birthday.
Grammer embraced the musical community’s collective loss, anchoring musical tributes at the Philadelphia Folk Festival, the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival (which continues to honor Carter annually) and the official Portland memorial tribute, which featured Joan Baez, Richard Shindell and others.
Grammer continues to perform Carter’s songs and has produced three solo and two duo albums since Carter’s death, including the critically acclaimed tribute CD Flower of Avalon with John Jennings as co-producer and Mary Chapin Carpenter contributing backing vocals and liner notes. In 2012 Red House Records releases Little Blue Egg, an album of previously-unreleased Dave & Tracy recordings. The CD includes eleven tracks, with five additional songs to be released throughout 2012 as part of a year-long celebration to mark the 10th anniversary of Carter’s death and what would have been his 60th birthday.
Once considered one of America’s great bluegrass bands, Stoney Lonesome push the boundaries of the genre by combining pure tradition with emotional honesty and lyrical innovation. Kate MacKenzie’s vocals soar like a bluegrass Bonnie Raitt, graceful and bluesy. Kevin Barnes lends his uncanny talents on banjo, vocals and dobro. Lead guitarist/mandolinist Chris Kaiser, fiddler Brian Wicklund add solid blending vocals of their own and with bassist Patty Shove, provide unusually creative rhythmic force and a melodic ingenuity creating one of the quintessential bluegrass albums of the ’90s.
Stoney Lonesome achieved great recognition a rabid fanbase over years of touring the United States and Japan as well as through regular performances on A Prairie Home Companion. They released two superb on Red House, Lonesome Tonight (1991) and Blue Heartache (1992). Both albums generated unprecedented excitement and were considered some of the best bluegrass albums in the country.
Storyhill is a folk duo that brings infectious melodies, smart story songs and heartbreaking harmonies together in one perfect package. Their beautiful music and passionate performances have won them much critical acclaim and devoted fans (“Hill Heads”) all over the country. Chris Cunningham and John Hermanson grew up and started performing together as teenagers, while living in Bozeman, Montana. Both were musical from the get-go, singing with choirs, playing in bands and mastering many musical instruments—piano, guitar, trumpet, violin, harmonica, bass and accordion. Although their 7th grade world geography class is what ostensibly brought them together, it was their musical passions that made them close friends and lifelong musical collaborators. They recorded their first tape as Chris and Johnny in 1989, upon graduating from high school. Although they then temporarily parted ways—Chris going to Spain and John to Minnesota for college—they continued to play music. Chris, who had previously played piano with John, took up the guitar and focused on his songwriting, soaking up the Spanish culture. Meanwhile, John was making a name for himself on the campus of St. Olaf College, where he was pursuing a music degree for violin performance. He got regular gigs in town, performing his own original material. He encountered such success selling his and Chris’ first album that he encouraged Chris to come out and join him so they could play together. Chris did, and together they developed a strong fan following on campus and in the nearby Twin Cities as an acoustic songwriting duo. After graduating in 1993, they toured the country, playing the college circuit. For three years they toured constantly and recorded several self-released albums, selling an impressive number at their shows. Exhausted from the travel and finding themselves pulled in different directions, Chris and John, or Storyhill as they were now known, embarked on a series of farewell concerts (much to fans’ dismay). Chris moved west to Seattle for a year, then returned to settle back in Bozeman where he continued to play his own songs, fronted and recorded with a small acoustic band (Sixth Sense) and shared tours with Minneapolis-based singer-songwriter Justin Roth (resulting in a live recording—2 forms of ID). John, on the other hand, went east, moving to Norway for a year. There he wrote material that would result in his first solo album, recorded when he returned to Minneapolis. He began performing solo and with his band Alva Star.
Meanwhile, Storyhill fans continued to clamor for more so Chris and John played a few sold-out reunion shows in Minnesota and Montana. Discovering the old chemistry was still there along with some new creative energy, they reformed Storyhill and fully committed themselves to touring and recording as a duo. They enlisted the help of rock/pop songwriter and Grammy winner Dan Wilson (Semisonic, Dixie Chicks, Trip Shakespeare) to produce Storyhill’s next album, their first to be released on independent roots label Red House Records. The album, simply named Storyhill, was a return to the basics that have made Storyhill so popular—strong melodic songs. While the album was largely acoustic, Wilson provided some piano, bass and guitar parts, and Eric Fawcett (N.E.R.D., Mike Doughty, Spymob) played drums and percussion. Released in 2007, it received rave reviews and was selected as the Best CD of the Year by the Indie Acoustic Project. It also led them to win the prestigious Kerrville New Folk Songwriting Contest, which launched such acclaimed songwriters as John Gorka, Robert Earl Keen and James McMurtry. They have also performed on national radio shows like Mountain Stage.
Now, with the release of their new album Shade of the Trees, Storyhill confirms that they are one of the most important songwriting duos today. Mixing old-fashioned storytelling with hauntingly spare acoustic arrangements, they sing about love, war and the many sorrows that accompany them.
In addition to their work with the duo, Chris and John continue their separate pursuits in Montana and Minnesota. Chris has built his own studio and accompanying guesthouse in Bozeman, where artists come from all over to record their music. John works as a producer and continues to play with Alva Star and rock band The Hopefuls.
Sally Rogers is a remarkably accomplished musician, songwriter, storyteller, and educator. Over her career she has recorded more than a dozen albums and has established herself as a preeminent voice in folk music. Noted for her command of guitar and mountain dulcimer, she also takes turns on a variety of instruments including banjo and harmonium. Rogers has toured extensively, performing as well as teaching workshops with adults and children. She has also appeared on A Priairie Home Companion and Mountain Stage as well as a favorite at folk and storytelling festivals.
Originally from Western Michigan, Rogers earned a degree in music education from Michigan State University. After graduating, she stayed in the area, performing and running the Elderly Instruments School of folk music. By the early ’80’s she was touring and recording for the Chicago based Flying Fish Records. Her second album, In the Circle of the Sun received the ‘Best Folk Album’ of 1982 award from the National Association of Independent Record Distributors (NAIRD). For her 1987 album Closing the Distance, also on Flying Fish, Rogers teamed up with fellow singer/songwriter Claudia Schmidt. Their collaboration was picked by public radio stations throughout the country as among the ten most popular albums of the year. Working with Schmidt also brought Rogers to Red House for the first time, when they recorded While We Live in 1992. Rogers also collaborated on albums with husband Howie Bursen, recording Satisfied Customers and When Howie Met Sally for Flying Fish.
In 1988, Rogers reached a whole new audience with her first children’s recording, Peace by Peace. The album received wide critical and popular acclaim, and Rogers soon became a favorite children’s performer, known as one of those extraordinary individuals who can squeeze music out of a stick and song out of an eighth grader. Her second children’s recording, Piggyback Planet, featured environmental songs for kids and received the 1990 Parents’ Choice Gold Award for Audio Recording. She followed this with What Can One Little Person Do?, which garnered another Parents’ Choice Gold Award as well as the 1993 NAIRD Award for ‘Best Children’s Recording’. Performing for children, Rogers not only found another outlet for her music, but another venue in which to teach, and she has developed a variety of programs for kids, ranging from women’s history to dulcimer building and playing.
Her last Red House release We’ll Pass Them On is a solo record that finds Rogers focusing her attention on the power and the beauty of the folk tradition. Many of the songs on the album are those that first interested her in folk music and inspired her to discover more; others are Rogers’ originals, songs written in the spirit of folk tradition and which sound as timeless as those which are centuries old.
Ruth Moody is a two-time Juno Award winning singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Founding member of the internationally renowned, Billboard-charting trio The Wailin’ Jennys and former lead singer of the Canadian roots band Scruj MacDuhk (which would later become The Duhks), she has performed in sold-out venues around the world, made numerous critically-acclaimed albums, received five Juno Award nominations and has appeared more than a dozen times on the national radio show A Prairie Home Companion.
Although best known for her work with The Wailin’ Jennys, Ruth is an artist of exceptional depth and grace in her own right. Critics have lauded her ethereal vocals, impressive multi-instrumentalism and her talent as a songwriter. Written with a maturity and wisdom that belies her age, her songs are timeless, universal, and carefully crafted, all sung with an intimacy and honesty that is unmistakably her own.
Ruth has been recognized by the USA Songwriting Competition and the International Songwriting Competition for several of her compositions, including “One Voice,” which has gone on to be a signature song for The Wailin’ Jennys. It has been covered by countless artists and sung in concert halls, churches and schools throughout the world. Her song “Storm Comin,’” from The Jennys’ latest album Bright Morning Stars, recently won first place in the gospel category at the International Songwriting Competition.
In 2010, Red House Records released Ruth’s first solo album, The Garden, to rave reviews. Produced by David Travers-Smith, it was nominated for a Juno Award, a Western Canadian Music Award and three Canadian Folk Music Awards. Its title track was the fourth most played song of 2010 on North American folk radio. Once again teaming up with David Travers-Smith, Ruth followed up with These Wilder Things, a remarkable record featuring her touring band and special guest appearances by Mark Knopfler, Jerry Douglas, Crooked Still’s Aoife O’Donovan and The Wailin’ Jennys.
Rosalie Sorrels is one of the most notable and vibrant voices in the American folk music scene. She has traveled this country, usually driving herself, for over 40 years. Wherever she has stopped she has made lifelong friends, whether they be artists, writers or political activists. Gamble Rogers referred to her as “the hillbilly Edith Piaf,” and the Boston Globe has called her “one of America’s genuine folk treasures.”
Rosalie was born in Idaho and still lives there today in a log cabin her father built, 30 miles outside of Boise. She began her career as a folklorist in the 1950’s and has accumulated an encyclopedic knowledge of the folk idiom, ranging from English ballads to Mormon songs to the work of contemporary songwriters. Her interpretation of these songs and stories, along with her own impressive body of original work, serve to create and preserve the oral folk tradition.
An independent spirit, Rosalie left her husband in the mid 1960’s and went on the road with her five children to begin a career as a musician, playing at the Newport Folk Festival and other legendary venues. Her homes in Boise and then in Salt Lake City were the stopping places for just about any creative person who came through town, including not only musicians but some of the pivotal figures of the Beat Generation. Many of them have remained her friends and sometime collaborators. Oscar Zeta Acosta, Hunter Thompson and Studs Terkel wrote introductory liner notes for her albums. Robert Creeley wrote a poem about her. The noted composer and filmmaker David Amram played French horn and flute on one of her early albums. Studs Terkel has included interviews with her in two of his books, American Dreams Lost and Found and the most recent, May the Circle Be Unbroken. The late great folk icon Bruce “Utah” Phillips was her close friend for over 55 years and collaborated with her on many projects, including The Long Memory, an album they released together on Red House Records that features obscure union songs and stories of the working class.
In recognition of her role as a creator of and collaborator in the American culture of the second half of the twentieth century, the University of California at Santa Cruz has set up a Rosalie Sorrels Archive as part of its Beat Generation Archives. The University of Idaho awarded her an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts degree in 2000, and the next year The Boise Peace Quilt Project presented her with a peace quilt, adding her name to the distinguished list of workers for peace and justice who have been presented with quilts.
Despite a bout with cancer and a cerebral aneurysm that nearly killed her, Rosalie has recorded 24 albums and written three books, including Way Out in Idaho, published in honor of the Idaho centenary, a monumental collection of songs, stories, pictures, and recipes gathered in the course of three years spent traveling around her home state and listening to its people. Her 2004 album My Last Go Round was nominated for a Grammy for Best Traditional Folk Album and was a musical journey through her 40-year career in folk music, featuring some of her favorite friends including Jean Ritchie, Christine Lavin and Loudon Wainwright III.
Although the self-described “travelin’ lady” has officially retired from touring, she returned to the studio in 2007 to make an album to benefit her friend Utah Phillips, who had congestive heart failure. Although he died on May 23, 2008, his songs are given a new life on Rosalie’s album Strangers in Another Country: The Songs of Bruce “Utah” Phillips. Known as one of the foremost interpreters of Utah’s songs, Rosalie remembers songs even he had forgotten. The collection features some of his lesser known, rarely performed classics, many of which have only been available on obscure recordings and are only now available on CD. Produced by Roma Baran and featuring special guests Kate & Anna McGarrigle, Peggy Seeger and others, Strangers… is an instant classic and represents Rosalie’s finest singing, full of the beauty, strength and honesty that has made her one of this century’s most important American voices.
Suzzy and Maggie Roche have been singing together for most of their lives. Together with sister Terre, they formed The Roches and recorded ten albums, performing all over the US and Europe for over twenty years. The New York Times named their debut, The Roches, “Album of the Year” and they were hailed as the “Best Vocal Group” by the New York Music Awards. Will You Be My Friend, a recording of songs for children of all ages, was given “The Parent’s Choice Gold Award” and their Christmas recording, We Three Kings, has become a classic. They have recorded and written music for movies and TV . . . including their own episode of Steven Spielberg’s Tiny Toons and the score for the 1988 film Crossing Delancey. They have performed and recorded with Philip Glass, Paul Simon and The Indigo Girls and have appeared on Oprah Winfrey, Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show, Late Night with David Letterman and The Dick Cavett Show.
Suzzy has recorded two solo projects released on Red House Records, Holy Smokes and Songs from an Unmarried Housewife & Mother, Greenwich Village, USA (named “Album of the Week” by The New York Times). Suzzy has also performed with the infamous Wooster Group throughout Europe and in New York City and she starred opposite Amy Irving in Crossing Delancey.
In January of 2002, Maggie & Suzzy released the critically acclaimed CD Zero Church, an unusual collection of prayers set to music. Zero Church was the result of work they began at The Institute On The Arts & Civic Dialogue, founded by Anna Deavere Smith and Harvard University. Guest artists included siblings Terre & David Roche, Dr. Ysaye Barnwell of Sweet Honey In The Rock, Lynette DuPree who starred in the Broadway hit Bring In Da Noise, Bring In Da Funk and Ruben Martinez, journalist and author of Crossing Over: A Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail.
Their 2004 Red House release, Why the Long Face features the Roches striking harmonies and singular songwriting. The album focuses on what Suzzy describes as the “ever thinning line between opposites: comedy & tragedy, hope & despair, the political & the personal, the truth & the lie, success & failure, the simple & complex – just to name a few.”
The popular vocal jazz trio Rio Nido emerged from the heady days of the Minneapolis West Bank music scene of the early 1970’s, playing at the legendary New Riverside Cafe and Extempore Coffeehouse. With Tom Lieberman on vocals and guitar, Prudence Johnson on vocals and Tim Sparks on vocals and guitar, Rio Nido specialized in Classic Jazz and Swing of the 1930’s and 40’s. In 1977 they recorded I Like to Riff which featured arrangements of The Boswell Sisters, The Cats and the Fiddle, Stuff Smith, Al Jolson and Nat King Cole. Performed with a stellar lineup including Butch Thompson, Eddie Berger, Willie Murphy, Peter Ostroushko, Jim Price, Gary Raynor, Hearn Gadbois, and members of the Wolverines Classic Jazz Orchestra. Recorded by Dave Ray, Chris Hinding and Michael McKern, I Like to Riff was produced by Charlie Campbell and Doug Ackerman for Campbell’s Shadow Records label with artwork by famed music poster artist John Hanson.
Tom Lieberman left the group in the late 70’s and after a brief hiatus he was replaced by Roger Hernandez on vocals and drums. Beginning in 1980, Rio Nido switched to a quartet format of guitar, bass, drums and vocals and focused on the vocalese style of Lambert, Hendricks and Ross and Eddie Jefferson as well as Do-Wop classics like 60 Minute Man, which showcased Hernandez’ rich baritone. Prudence Johnson blossomed in this period as arguably the best jazz singer ever to come out of Minnesota.
In 1983 they released Hi-Fly on Red House Records, which featured original lyrics by Jim Nance, Mary Jo Knox, and Sparks set to the music of Slide Hampton, Bud Powell, Charlie Parker, and Randy Weston. Hi-Fly featured Dave Maslow on bass and vocals, Dave Karr on flute and tenor sax and Jimmy Hamilton on piano. Rio Nido’s last recording was Voicings, recorded for the Pro Arte Jazz label, one of the first early, all-digital recordings released in the then new compact disc format.. They were joined by a who’s who of Minnesota Jazz greats including Tom Lewis on bass, Jimmy Hamilton-piano, Dave Karr-tenor sax, Gary Berg-tenor sax and chromatic harmonica, Phil Hey-drums, Dave Jensen-trumpet, Kathy Jensen-tenor sax and flute, Pete Enblom-trombone, Billy Carrothers-keyboards, Dave Birget-bass vocals, and Marc Anderson-percussion.
With a rich career spanning four decades, Virginia-based duo Robin & Linda Williams have made it their mission to perform the music that they love, a robust blend of bluegrass, folk, old-time and acoustic country that combines wryly observant lyrics with a wide-ranging melodicism. Today some might call it “Americana,” but these two revered music masters were living and breathing this elixir 20 years before that term was turned into a radio format. With the release of their new studio album Back 40, the Williams celebrate their musical legacy with a newly recorded album that features fresh treatments of their early classics (many from albums long out of print) and favorites by other writers, as well as a brand new song, “The Old Familiar House on Christmas Day.”
Produced in Nashville by Grammy-winning producer Jim Rooney (Nanci Griffith, Iris DeMent, Bonnie Raitt, John Prine, etc), the Williams are backed by the able trio of Todd Phillips (David Grisman Quintet, Tony Rice Unit) on standup bass, Al Perkins (Flying Burrito Brothers, Emmylou Harris & The Nash Ramblers) on Dobro and pedal steel, and bandmates Chris Brashear on mandolin and fiddle and Jim Watson (former Red Clay Rambler) on vocal harmony.”
Producer Jim Rooney says of the album, “I love listening to them sing this collection of songs. I have several favorites – their takes on ‘Urge For Going’ and ‘Boots Of Spanish Leather’ are as good as any I have heard. ‘The Real Thing’ and ‘Green Summertime’ get me every time. Don’t get me started! Pretty damn good to have this freshness and energy after all the years and miles.”
Their stirring concerts have earned them a huge body of fans over the years. But as gifted songwriters Robin and Linda have earned an even rarer honor — the devotion and deep respect of their musical peers. Their songs have endured and been recorded by the likes of Emmylou Harris, Tom T. Hall, George Hamilton IV, Tim & Mollie O’Brien, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Kathy Mattea, and The Seldom Scene. As live performers they are second to none, keeping a busy tour schedule and also guesting on A Prairie Home Companion, which they’ve appeared on since the public radio show’s early days (they’re also featured in the A Prairie Home Companion film).
Back 40 is a milestone release by this celebrated Southern duo.
RED HORSE IS…
ELIZA GILKYSON (Austin, TX) Eliza Gilkyson is a politically minded, poetically gifted singer-songwriter, who has become one of the most respected musicians in roots, folk and Americana circles. The Grammy-nominated artist has appeared on NPR, Austin City Limits, Mountain Stage, etown, XM, Air America Radio and has toured with Richard Thompson, Patty Griffin and Mary Chapin Carpenter. In February of 2003, she was inducted into the Austin Music Hall of Fame. The induction placed Eliza alongside an exclusive list of Austin Music Hall of Fame greats, including Willie Nelson, Townes Van Zandt, Nanci Griffith, Billy Joe Shaver, Butch Hancock, Joe Ely and others. In 2006, she was recognized with 3 Austin Music Awards and 4 Folk Alliance Music Awards, one of which was for “Song of the Year” for her tune “Man of God.” Eliza’s meditative tune “Requiem,” written as a prayer for those who lost lives in the devastating tsunami in Southeast Asia, was recorded by the nationally recognized choral group Conspirare and was nominated for a Grammy. It was also featured on NPR’s All Things Considered. Her most recent Red House release Beautiful World was hailed as masterpiece by All Music Guide and was called “one of the best folk albums of 2008” by the Utne Reader.
JOHN GORKA (Stillwater, MN) John Gorka is a world-renowned singer-songwriter who was raised in New Jersey and came out of New York City’s Greenwich Village folk scene that produced such songwriters as Suzanne Vega and Shawn Colvin. His award-winning songs have been recorded and performed by such notable artists as Mary Chapin Carpenter, Nanci Griffith and Mary Black. John has recorded eleven solo albums, six on Red House Records. His latest, So Dark You See, featured the song “Ignorance & Privilege,” which was highlighted as one of the top folk songs of 2009 by NPR Music. The album also includes unique musical takes on some of his favorite songs and poems, including Robert Burns’ “A Fond Kiss” and Utah Phillips’ “I Think of You.” It also includes “Where No Monuments Stand,” his musical version of the poem “At the Un-national Monument by the Canadian Border” by Oregon Poet Laureate William Stafford, which was written for the documentary on Stafford’s life called Every War Has Two Losers.
LUCY KAPLANSKY (New York, NY) Lucy Kaplansky is an acclaimed singer-songwriter, as well as a former clinical psychologist, whom the New Yorker has described as “a truly gifted performer with a bag full of enchanting songs.” She has recorded seven albums for Red House, two of which (Ten Year Night and Every Single Day) were awarded Best Pop Album of the Year by the Association for Independent Music. In 1998 Lucy teamed up with Dar Williams and Richard Shindell to form the supergroup Cry Cry Cry. The resulting album was an astonishing commercial and critical success, resulting in a national tour of sold-out concerts. Since then, Lucy has appeared on the CBS Morning Show, NPR’s Weekend and Morning Editions, Mountain Stage, and West Coast Live, and has sung harmony on albums by Bryan Ferry, Nanci Griffith and Shawn Colvin. Lucy’s latest album, Reunion received stellar reviews, combing folk and country-roots with songs about the importance of family and family history.
Prudence Johnson’s career has taken her from honky-tonks to Carnegie Hall, from the theater stage to the Silver Screen, from the Midwest to the Middle East. She is a regular guest on Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion, broadcast on National Public Radio stations across the country, and appears as one of the “regulars” in Robert Altman’s 2006 A Prairie Home Companion movie. Her film credits also include Robert Redford’s A River Runs Through It in a role she was born to play—a singer!
With her roots in folk and country music, Prudence developed a passion for jazz and the work of the 20th century’s great songwriters when she met guitarist Tim Sparks, with whom she co-founded the vocal jazz group Rio Nido. A decade and three albums later, she ventured out on her own and turned again to the music of her roots, making three records for Red House including Songs of Greg Brown and Little Dreamer, a collection of internationallullabies.
In the 90’s she could be found on the concert circuit, in the jazz clubs, on the theater stage and in the classroom—she graduated summa cum laude from Hamline University in 1998. If the collision of her artistic and academic interests left her looking a bit dazed, it all came into focus when she turned her attention to the music of Hoagy Carmichael and was awarded a McKnight Fellowship for Performing Musicians, enabling her to record Moon Country, a collection of Hoagy’s songs.
With a renewed appreciation for the Great American Songbook, she found an ideal collaborator in pianist Dan Chouinard. They released ‘s Gershwinin 2004 and appear together on concert stages across the country, performing the music of Carmichael, Gershwin and other greats, and taking side trips to the café music of France and Italy with Dan on accordion. They co-wrote and perform together Another Song About Paris, a loving look at the City of Light through stories and songs.
In 2005, Prudence gathered together an all-star ensemble for Gales of November, producing the CD release, and directing and co-starring in the theatrical concert production along with Claudia Schmidt, Ruth MacKenzie, Kevin Kling, Peter Ostroushko and others. Gales opened at the Fitzgerald Theatre in St Paul and toured Minnesota in partnership with MN Public Radio.
Prudence lives in Minneapolis and is working on a play and a few new recording projects, enjoying her work with A Prairie Home Companion, and having a wonderful time bringing the music she loves to new audiences.
Peter Ostroushko is an Emmy Award winning composer and is regarded as one of the finest mandolin and fiddle players in acoustic music. He has toured all over North America and Europe, has played on over a thousand albums and has earned an international reputation as a versatile and dazzling musical master.
Peter’s recording contributions stand tall alongside the great Nashville session men of his generation, and he’s at home in virtually every style of music. His first recording session was an uncredited mandolin performance on Bob Dylan’s masterpiece Blood on the Tracks. Since then he’s played country (with Jethro Burns, Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson, Chet Atkins and Johnny Gimble); bluegrass (with Norman and Nancy Blake, Tim O’Brien and Hot Rize); folk (with Greg Brown, John Hartford, Robin & Linda Williams and Taj Mahal); jazz; and most recently, classical—performing with the Saint Paul Paul Chamber Orchestra, Minnesota Symphony Orchestra and Kremlin Chamber Orchestra in Moscow.
He is at his best when he plays his own compositions – a rich musical stew of various ethnic influences. His family immigrated to the U.S. from the Ukraine after World War II and he was raised in Minneapolis’ Ukrainian neighborhood. As a child he listened as family members gathered on weekends to play traditional folk music. Ostroushko blends these roots with other Old World sounds (from Scandinavian schottisches to Irish hornpipes) and he mixes in classical, jazz, bluegrass, folk, swing, and old-time. He calls this gumbo of musical styles slüz düz, a phrase borrowed from his mother meaning, roughly, “over the edge” or “off his rocker.”
Ostroushko’s resumé is dizzying in its size and scope. He has played lead ukulele with the Minnesota Orchestra (under the direction of Sir Neville Mariner) and has toured with them under the direction of Edo DeWart, playing mandolin in a Mahler symphony at Carnegie Hall. With the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, he’s performed a number of his own scores and played with violin virtuoso Gil Shaham as a guest soloist. He’s barked like a dog on Late Night with David Letterman and appeared on Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood (whose other rare musical guests have included Wynton Marsalis and Yo-Yo Ma). He’s composed and performed scores for a number of theater companies across the country, including The Children’s Theater Company in Minneapolis, Actors Theatre Company of St. Paul (with whom he traveled to Edinburgh’s famed Fringe Festival), The Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Madison Repertory Theater and ACT Theatre in Seattle. He’s appeared on radio and television shows including Mountain Stage, Good Evening, TNN, Lonesome Pine, Austin City Limits, and A Prairie Home Companion, where he was a regular performer and one of the show’s music directors.
Peter’s recordings reflect the breadth of his influences, eclecticism, and sheer talent. His highly acclaimed 1994 release, Heart of the Heartland, won a NAIRD (National Association of Independent Record Distributors) Indie Award for Acoustic Instrumental Album of the Year, and was used by filmmaker Ken Burns in his 1997 PBS documentary Lewis and Clark. Pilgrims on the Heart Road, the second release of the “Heartland” trilogy, also garnered heavy praise, earning a place on Pulse! Magazine’s Top Ten List for 1997. The album Sacred Heart completed the trilogy. Cinematic in nature, it has the ability to transport the listener across geographic space effortlessly. With its lush, spiritual instrumentation, the album virtually soars. In 2002, Peter released the critically acclaimed Meeting on Southern Soil with flat-picking legend Norman Blake following with Coming Down from Red Lodge in 2003. In 2005, Peter won an Emmy Award for his original score for the PBS series Minnesota: A History of the Land, which movingly conveyed the feeling of Minnesota’s epic landscapes and history, giving voice to places and people long gone. He followed that up with Postcards: Travels With a Great American Radio Show, taking his photographic style on the road, sending his impressions of America’s cities and small towns through his driving instrumental tunes. His 2010 release When the Last Morning Glory Blooms contained personal tunes he wrote for friends and family that seem universal in their ability to convey love, playfulness, and the yearning for home. Now Peter most recent album is the record of his career–a 3-CD box set called The Mando Chronicles, featuring 22 guest musicians and over three hours of music.
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