DENVER, COLO. (3/31/09) — Swallow Hill is pleased to welcome Gypsy jazz master John Jorgenson and his Quintet on their Daniels Hall stage for a performance on Friday, May 8 at 8 p.m.

John Jorgenson is a founding member of the Desert Rose Band (alongside Chris Hillman) and the Hellecasters, and is six-year member of Elton John’s band. Known as a pioneer in the American Gypsy jazz movement, artists ranging from Barbra Streisand to Bonnie Raitt and Earl Scruggs have sought out Jorgenson’s guitar work. Jorgenson is a highly regarded and sought-after session musician whose resume includes numerous platinum-selling and Grammy-winning CDs. He was chosen to portray Django Reinhardt in the feature film, “Head in the Clouds,” and is a prominent instructor whose lessons have been featured in myriad well-respected guitar magazines.

At a John Jorgenson Quintet performance, audiences are amazed by his dazzling guitar work as well as his mastery as a clarinet player and vocalist. Whether playing his own accessible compositions or classic standards, Jorgenson and his band make music that is equally romantic and ecstatic, played with virtuosity and soul. John Jorgenson was awarded a Grammy this year in the Best Country Instrumental category for his participation in the recording of “Cluster Pluck,” written by Brad Paisley.

Other members of the Quintet are guitarist Kevin Nolan, violinist Jason Anick, bassist Simon Planting and drummer Rick Reed. Nolan is one of the most highly-respected rhythm guitarists in Gypsy jazz. He spent 10 years as part of the acclaimed Robin Nolan Trio and has performed and given master classes worldwide. Anick is the latest addition to the Quintet, having joined in 2008. A prodigious graduate of the prestigious Hart College, he is quickly making a name for himself as an exciting jazz violinist. Planting is a world-renown bassist in the world of Gypsy jazz, known for his tenure with respected Gypsy traditionalist, Fapy Lafertin, and the progressive Robin Nolan Trio. Reed spent many years in New York City playing jazz before relocating to Nashville, where he has performed with a diverse range of artists including Shelby Lynn and Ray Davies.

DENVER, COLO. (3/24/09) – Swallow Hill is pleased to welcome back Steve Forbert, the beloved Southern singer/songwriter once crowned “the next Dylan,” for a performance on their Daniels Hall stage on Saturday, May 2 at 8 p.m.

Forbert broke into pop consciousness 30 years ago with his second album, Jackrabbit Slim, and its infectious Top Ten single, “Romeo’s Tune.” He remains a master of songs offering clear-eyed insight and plain-spoken, heartfelt eloquence. The well-traveled Nashville-based troubadour maintains a busy touring schedule of more than 100 dates a year with his special characteristic wit, a sense of social consciousness and the ever-present romantic optimism that has endeared him to two generations of folk/rock fans.

His latest recording, The Place and The Time, is a compelling follow up to his 2007 album on 429 Records, Strange Names and New Sensations. The Place and The Time is full of the kind of down-to-earth songs with heartfelt vocals and engaging melodies that define his best work, an especially endearing set of songs that celebrate and recapture a sense of magic.

For this project, Forbert enlisted Robby Turner as his co-producer to help him achieve the distinctive period sound for which he was searching. Forbert explains, “I’ve been trying on the last few projects to make a bona fide ’70s singer/songwriter record. I’d say I’ve accomplished this most completely with Robby’s help on The Place and The Time. We went for a simpler production that allowed for a bit more space in the sound. He understood that I was inclined back towards that era of James Taylor, Gordon Lightfoot, America and Seals and Crofts.”

Forbert also enlisted some special guests for the record, including backing vocalist Bekka Bramlett, acoustic guitarist Anthony Crawford, cellist Jenny Lynn Young and legendary electric guitarist Reggie Young, who played on such enduring classics as “Son Of A Preacher Man,” “Slip Away,” “Suspicious Minds,” “In The Ghetto,” and many Willie Nelson favorites like “The City of New Orleans.” His distinctive guitar tone is one of The Place and The Time‘s many sonic treats as Young evokes classic R&B sounds while still serving the songs in the here and now. In addition to handling co-production duties, Turner (who played steel guitar on Strange Names and New Sensations) makes essential contributions on bass, six string bass, national steel guitar, keyboards and backing vocals. Mike Ragogna of The Huffington Post writes, “This is all prime Steve Forbert who’s writing at his best…”

Songwriter and guitarist Don Conoscenti will open for Forbert.

WHAT:
Rickie Lee Jones has been added as a headliner for Swallow Hill’s Third Annual RootsFest, alongside Hot Rize and Leo Kottke. Due to an unforeseen family emergency, Shawn Colvin will be unable to perform at this event.

Jones broke into the music scene in 1979 with her self-titled debut that captured the Grammy Award for Best New Artist, and was instantly hailed by critics as a “highly touted new pop-jazz-singer-songwriter” and “one of the best–if not the best–artists of her generation.” Since that time she has garnered multiple Grammy nominations, winning another in 1989 for Best Jazz Vocal Performance for “Makin’ Whoopee!” Other accolades include being ranked #30 on VH1′s 100 Greatest Women of Rock N Roll and receiving Italy’s prestigious Tenco Prize in 2001, honoring her musical career.

A profoundly original trailblazing artist, Swallow Hill is thrilled to have her on the billing for RootsFest, which also marks their 30-year anniversary in the Front Range music community. Consequently, Jones has connections with fellow headliner, Leo Kottke. She collaborated with him on her 1993 release, Traffic from Paradise, and produced his Peculiaroso (1994).

WHEN:
Saturday, March 28 at 6 p.m. sharp

WHERE:
Ellie Caulkins Opera House, 1050 13th Street, Denver, Colo. 80204

CONTACT:
Rodolfo Betancourt, Marketing Director, gwen(at)swalllowhillmusic.org
Laura McGaughey, Associate Director of Communications, laura@swallowhillmusic.org
303-765-2488

PHOTO:
http://www.swallowhillmusic.org/images/artists/highrez/JonesRickieLee001.jpg

DENVER, COLO. (3/19/09) – Swallow Hill is pleased to present Mike Seeger for both a live performance and a special artist workshop. Seeger will be in concert at their Daniels Hall venue on Friday, May 1 at 8 p.m. His “Southern Guitar Styles” workshop will take place the following Sunday, May 3 at 10:30 a.m.

Mike Seeger has devoted his life to singing and playing Music from True Vine—the home music made by American southerners before the media age. Grown out of hundreds of years of British traditions that blended in our country with equally ancient African traditions, these songs and sounds are unique to the United States.

A founding member of the pioneering traditional music group, The New Lost City Ramblers, Seeger played an integral role in helping to revive interest in a variety of traditional music that is now played by thousands of young musicians across the country. His career spans more than 40 albums, both solo and with others, and has been honored with six Grammy nominations, most recently for Retrograss in 2000, an album he did with David Grisman and John Hartford.

In 1995, he received the Rex Foundation’s Ralph J. Gleason Lifetime Achievement Award, established by the Grateful Dead to recognize “those who exemplify the qualities of talent, vision, innovation that Ralph so tirelessly supported.” In the words of the award citation, Seeger “…remains one of our great musical and cultural resources. To see him perform is to experience the richness of our traditions.”

In his “Southern Guitar Styles” workshop, Seeger will teaching the basics of Maybelle Carter’s and Elizabeth Cotten’s guitar styles. Seeger actually made bedroom reel-to-reel recordings of Cotten’s songs in her house and is an expert on her music and Mother Maybelle’s guitar techniques.

WHAT:
Wovenhand, featuring 16 Horsepower’s David Eugene Edwards, has been added to Swallow Hill’s spring lineup of shows. Wovenhand is “like Nick Cave and Johnny Cash in a shootout in Deadwood…” says Treble (2006). This appearance will be a special acoustic set, with tickets advance $14/$12 members and day of show $16/$14 members. Tickets go on sale on line on Friday, March 20 and at the box office and over the phone on Wednesday, March 25. Visitwww.swallowhillmusic.org or call 303-777-1003 x 2.

WHEN:
Friday, May 29 at 8 p.m.

WHERE:
Swallow Hill Music Association’s Daniels Hall, 71 East Yale Avenue, Denver, Colo. 80210

CONTACT:
Rodolfo Betancourt, Marketing Director, gwen(at)swalllowhillmusic.org
Laura McGaughey, Associate Director of Communications, laura@swallowhillmusic.org
303-765-2488

Discounts are available for Swallow Hill members. Buy in advance and save! This media advisory is also available online at http://www.swallowhillmusic.org/newsroom/newsmain.htmand also as a RSS Feed athttp://www.swallowhillmusic.org/xml/newsroom/rss/SwallowHillNews.xml.

DENVER, COLO. (3/12/09) – Since 1979, Swallow Hill Music Association has hosted the best acoustic, folk and roots music performers in the Rocky Mountain Region. Late spring and early summer kicks off with our annual May Day Celebration and the legendary Mike Seeger, through other great songwriters and roots performers from Patty Larkin to Chuck Mead of BR549, from former Nitty Gritty Dirt Band member Jimmy Ibbotson to the incomparableMary Gauthier. World sounds abound from five-time Grammy nominee Will Clipman and flamenco master René Heredia, and our annual Shady Grove Picnic Series, presented in memory of Carol Gossard, returns with a kickoff by Finders and Youngberg, joined by Martin Gilmore.

Tickets go on sale on line at www.swallowhillmusic.org on Friday, March 13 and will be available by phone at (303) 777-1003 x2 or at our box office at 71 E. Yale Ave., Denver, Colo., 80210, beginning Wednesday, March 18. Tickets for the Shady Grove Picnic Series are at the door only.

HIGHLIGHTS

Mike Seeger
Friday, May 1 at 8 p.m.
Pete Seeger’s brother and founding member of the New Lost City Ramblers has played an integral role in helping to revive interest in a variety of traditional music that is now played by thousands of young musicians across the country. His career spans more than 40 albums, both solo and with others, and has been honored with six Grammy nominations, most recently forSouthern Banjo Sounds in 1998 and Solo: Oldtime Country Music in 1991. Mike Seeger will also be conducting a special “Early Southern Guitar Styles” workshop at Swallow Hill the following Sunday, May 3 at 10:30 a.m.

John Jorgenson Quintet
Friday, May 8 at 8 p.m.
The enormous Grammy-winning guitar talent is joined by his amazing quintet, making for music that is equally romantic and ecstatic, played with virtuosity and soul. Jorgenson is a founding member of the Desert Rose Band and the Hellecasters, and a six-year member of Elton John’s band. He is also known as a pioneer in the American Gypsy jazz movement and was chosen to portray Django Reinhardt in the feature film, Head in the Clouds.

Patty Larkin w/Judith Owen
Saturday, May 9 at 8 p.m.
The sophisticated songstress goes in new directions with her latest kaleidoscopic album, Watch the Sky. She wrote, produced, engineered and edited the album, writing and recording much of the material as it came to her. Opening the show is Judith Owen, about whom The New York Times says has “…the kind of wailing folk-jazz voice that slices away surfaces to touch vulnerable emotional nerve endings and leave you quivering.” (Consequently, an interesting factoid: Owen is married to Harry Shearer.)

Chuck Mead (of BR549)
Friday, May 22 at 8 p.m.
The “Hillbilly Renaissance Man” comes to Colorado to share his solo roots music. A co-founder of the three-time Grammy nominated BR549, the honky-tonk heroes who almost single-handedly lit and carried the blowtorch for the mid-‘90s alternative country explosion, Mead is now going solo with his release, Journeyman’s Wager. Mead has more than a decade under his belt as one of the most uncompromising and consistent talents in the American roots music movement.

Jimmy Ibbotson w/Jim Ratts & Butch Hause
Saturday, May 30 at 8 p.m.
Ex-Nitty Gritty Dirt Band member Jimmy Ibbotson returns to Swallow Hill with the incomparable Jim Ratts & Butch Hause of Runaway Express (and much more). His voice is often credited with giving new country music a direction to model and over the course of the 27 albums the NGDB put out with Ibbotson, there were many accolades, including Grammy wins, Country Music Association wins, Academy of Country Music wins, and gold and platinum records.

Shady Grove Picnic Series presented in memory of Carol Gossard
Wednesdays from June 3 to August 26, Four Mile Historic Park, 6:30 p.m.
Our annual series is back with a kickoff on June 3 with Finders and Youngberg, a newly formed folk/bluegrass/country music partnership between two talented couples whose paths have finally converged and begun to carve a distinct mark. Joining them will be Swallow Hill faculty member and Long Road Home guitarist, Martin Gilmore. Bad Livers founding memberDanny Barnes entertains with his unique imagination, instrumentation and song on June 10. On June 17, Moira Smiley & VOCO delivers ethereal harmonies and a delicious vaudevillian mixture of cello, accordion, and banjo to perform original, improvisation-built songs steeped in Appalachia and Eastern Europe. Denver’s favorite Deadhead cover band, Shakedown Street, will go acoustic for the series on June 24.

Missy Raines & the New Hip w/Boston Boys
Thursday, June 4 at 8 pm.
A beloved figure in bluegrass and a pioneering force in acoustic music, Missy Raines is probably best known as a member of Claire Lynch’s popular Front Porch Band. She’s now stepping out to make a longtime dream come true, creating a fusing of bluegrass virtuosity, jazz-tinged groove and a song-driven sensibility with a hot band, The New Hip, featuring Ethan Ballinger, Michael Witcher and Dillon Hodges. The Boston Boys, featuring Sam Grisman (David Grisman’s son), will open the show.

Denis Mazhukov
Friday, June 5 at 8 p.m.
Swallow Hill Music Association and the Honorary Russian Consulate present the Russian king of piano rock ‘n’ roll, Denis Mazhukov. He started playing piano at age six. In 1994, he and his band, the Off Beat, began playing and soon appeared in the best nightclubs and most prestigious venues in Moscow. In 1997, Denis played with Chuck Berry at the International Film Festival in Moscow. He also opened for Jerry Lee Lewis, who is quoted as saying, “Denis, you played just like I did when I was young.”

Spring Creek Bluegrass Band
Saturday, June 6 at 8 p.m.
Spring Creek is becoming one of the hottest bluegrass bands out of Colorado and Swallow Hill is pleased to welcome them back to their Daniels Hall stage. Though they clearly appeal to traditional bluegrass fans, the Spring Creek musicians mix in a little something for everyone at their live shows. Expect to hear an Elton John or Gillian Welch cover squeezed in between a blazing fast Carter Stanley instrumental and a rip roarin’ Bill Monroe tune. The band won the Telluride Bluegrass Festival band contest back in June and won their second Planet Bluegrass title on July 29th at the 35th annual RockyGrass Festival held in Lyons.

Mary Gauthier
Friday, June 12 at 8 p.m.
A unique lyricist, Gauthier’s ability to illuminate even moments of devastation and despair in beautiful hues has garnered acclaim from her peers, critics and fans. Her new Lost Highway album, Between Daylight and Dark, finds her aiming her compass at the sky and searching for home, another step in her evolution as one of our brightest and best singer/songwriters. This is her Swallow Hill debut performance.

René Heredia
Saturday, June 27 at 8 p.m.
The magic of flamenco returns as one of the most acclaimed flamenco guitarists and Spanish Gypsy dance master René Heredia returns to Swallow Hill, joined by a troupe of top-level flamenco dancers. Heredia has been awarded many honors and performed for dignitaries all over the world. Recently he was invited to be the lead guitarist and guest artist with Stewart Copeland, founder of The Police in his national tour of the U.S. dubbed, The Rhythmatists.

Upcoming Concerts:

DENVER, COLO. (3/10/09) – Swallow Hill, in partnership with the Rocky Mountain Storytellers Conference, is pleased to present a special evening with Holly Near in story and song on Saturday, April 25 at 8 p.m.

Holly Near is a unique combination of entertainer, teacher and activist. An immense vocal talent, she is a skilled performer and an outspoken ambassador for peace who brings to the stage an integration of world consciousness, spiritual discovery and theatricality. She has received numerous awards for her work for social change, including honors from the ACLU, the National Lawyers Guild, the National Organization for Women, NARAS, Ms. Magazine Woman of the Year, and the Legends of Women’s Music Award, and she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize 2005.

This special concert will close the weekend of events for the Rocky Mountain Storytellers’ New Horizons in Storytelling Conference, held at Swallow Hill, April 23 through April 25. This year’s Conference programming has been expanded to include three evenings of concerts, two full days of performances and workshops, a bookstore, and opportunities for studio recording of your stories. For more information about the Conference, visit www.rmstory.org. CDE credit is available for the conference.

DENVER, COLO. (3/5/09) – With his trademark Panama hat, the cult vaudevillian performer Leon Redbone will make his Swallow Hill debut on Saturday, April 18 at 8 p.m. on their Daniels Hall stage.

The enigmatic Redbone delivers unique interpretations of early 20th century music in the vein of jazz and blues standards and Tin Pan Alley classics. Heavily influenced by Emmett Miller, his origins and life story are shrouded in mystery. Redone has 15 albums to his name and he’s probably most known in the mainstream for projects like the “Mr. Belvedere” theme and a cover of the song, “Baby It’s Cold Outside,” with actress Zooey Deschanel for the closing credits of the popular Will Ferrell film, “Elf.”

Indeed, Redbone is a ubiquitous pop culture icon who is careful to preserve his mysteriousness, with rumors peppering his career. At one point it was believed he was actually comedian Andy Kaufman (who sometimes took on other identities). His concerts blend performance, comedy and skilled instrumentals. Opening for Redbone is Phelyx The Magician, who is the number-one close-up mentalist magician in the Mountain States.

DENVER, COLO. (3/3/09) – The Daniels Hall stage at Swallow Hill will resound with rootsy, multi-flavored music delivered by four amazingly talented and unique performers as Laura Love, Mollie O’Brien, Orville Johnson and Rich Moore perform for one special evening together on Friday, April 17 at 8 p.m.

Mollie O’Brien is a world-renowned vocalist, a song interpreter of such diverse taste and flexibility that it is difficult to pigeonhole her style. She grew up singing in church choirs and coffeehouses, moved on to jazz, swing and R&B in New York, and eventually settled in Colorado, singing mountain folk and bluegrass with her brother, Tim O’Brien (of Hot Rize), forming her own R&B band and appearing as a regular guest on Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion,” all the while releasing a slew of highly acclaimed CDs and touring throughout the world.

Laura Love is a Seattle-based African-American funk bassist with a phenomenal voice and a great love for traditional American folk, bluegrass, jazz, R&B and country music, although her early influences were the Jackson Five, Sly and The Family Stone, and James Brown. Love has been releasing CDs on major and indie labels, and has been touring internationally since the early 1990s with her full band and as a duo with a variety of accomplished side musicians.

O’Brien and Love have known each other for years by way of crossing paths at music festivals and through the many friends they share in common. When one is supremely talented in any field, it is often difficult to find a sparring partner who can not only hold their own but will challenge you to stretch your boundaries. It is a rare delight for an accomplished singer when they are able to work with another vocalist of equal ability. And so, when they are performing in each others’ home towns, O’Brien and Love often invite each other up for a few guest spots during their concerts.

This spectacular evening of music will feature Love with the incredible country/blues guitar man, Orville Johnson, playing her original “folk-funk: material as well as a selection of traditional spirituals, folk, and bluegrass tunes, joined by Mollie O’Brien and her guitar man,Rich Moore. O’Brien and Moore will perform pieces from their vast repertoire of gospel, jazz, R&B, country, and blues, and will also be joined by Love and Johnson.

Expect to hear everything from Love’s soulful “Saskatchewan,” an intimate account of what life might have been like for her great-grandmother as she was being released from slavery, to O’Brien’s barn-burning rendition of Wilson Pickett’s “Mustang Sally.” Those with an appreciation for folk, jazz, R&B, bluegrass, and country, superb vocals, excellent guitar picking, and a love of laughter can’t miss this not-likely-to-be-repeated anytime soon show.