Americana Angels

Rita Hosking and Cousin Jack  Kitchen tables, loggers, trailers, springs, loss, miners, culture clash, hope, forest fires—Rita Hosking’s show is about all that and more. She has a voice like a “soulful howl from the mountains” (California Bluegrass Association), and “comes by her mountain-music sensibility with true authenticity, with original songs deeply rooted in her family’s frontier experience” (FestivalPreview.com). A descendant of Cornish miners who sang in the mines, Rita grew up with a deep regard for folk music and the power of voice. And her delivery is simply intense. “From the first time I heard Rita sing, her voice gripped me and did not let go” (Joe Craven). Rita’s latest record, Come Sunrise, was selected Best Country Album in the 2010 Independent Music Awards and 3rd Coast Music Magazine called her Female Artist of the Year for 2009. She’s readying a new release for September 2011, which, like her last album, was recorded in Austin with producer and guitarist Rich Brotherton of the Robert Earl Keen Band. Rita’s band, Cousin Jack, features Sean Feder on banjo and Dobro, fiddler Andy Lentz, and Bill Dakin on bass.

The musicians in the Evie Ladin Band are remarkably talented and quirky interpreters who tease out gorgeous beds of new trad music. Keith Terry (bass, Body Music) is a renowned percussionist/rhythm dancer and the founder of the International Body Music Festival; Dina Maccabee (fiddle) combines mastery on the violin with voice and body percussion in Real Vocal String Quartet and others; Erik Pearson (guitar, banjo) is a musician’s musician, and plays with the Crooked Jades and storyteller Dianne Ferlatte. And of course there’s Evie herself. Evie Ladin is a banjo player, step-dancer, singer, songwriter and square-dance caller with a lifetime of experience in traditional American cultural arts. She grew up in a trad folk scene up and down the Eastern Seaboard of the US, travels the world, and calls the rich arts scene in Oakland, California home. She also tours with The Stairwell Sisters, all-gal old-time teardown, teaches banjo, singing and dance at home in Oakland when you can find her there, and is ready to make the next record!

Hailing from the Mendocino coast, The Blushin’ Roulettes deliver old-time tunes with a modern twist deeply rooted in a feminine perspective. Songwriter/guitarist Angela Rose belts her sweet and sultry tunes of damsels in their bliss and distress in a warbling vibrato often compared to Iris Dement and Dolly Parton. The often quirky, funny stage presence and earnestly loving interplay among band members reflects the small-town closeness of the kindred rotating cast of characters, which includes Buddy Stubbs (who has played with such greats as Neil Young and the Byrds) on soulfully gritty lead guitar and Cas Sochacki on dobro and sassy baritone duets.

The Roulettes receive regular airplay on California such as KPFA,KHUM, KZYX, KMUD and KOZT and have recently, and frequently, been touring the West coast, expanding their “home region” and their fan base.