Coty Hogue
Tickets: $12 advance, $16 at the door.
Click here to purchase advance tickets.
Coty Hogue‘s got something different in her. Maybe it’s from growing up in a Montana town several orders of magnitude below “small;” maybe it comes from immersing herself in a folk music tradition that extends back for centuries. Whatever it is, you’d be hard-pressed to put your finger on it.
But when Coty picks up her banjo and lets her voice out, there it is. You’d think she’s a pretty young gal, but her voice gives her away when she sings those fine old Appalachian songs. That voice, pitched low and steady, keeps raising chills. Then she’ll apologize for playing too many sad songs in a row and launch into a fast-picking barnburner. Frequently accompanied by Aaron Guest (12-string guitar) and Kat Bula (fiddle), Coty’s song selection runs the gamut of American roots music- a little blues, a pinch of swing, a spoonful of classic Opry.
Coty grew up with horses and big sky in Philipsburg, Montana- population just over 900. She left in the early half of the decade for an education in Bellingham, Washington. That sweet, subdued little city- long known for its thriving roots music community- became home. Over the next few years, Coty played all over town, traded songs with anyone she could find, and learned how to play any stringed instrument she could get her hands on.
In 2009, Coty packed up her bags and headed east to Boone, North Carolina, where she received Masters in Appalachian Studies. Along the way, she recorded an album, Going to the West, with frequent collaborator Aaron Guest; toured the West Coast; performed at the 2010 International Folk Alliance Conference, the Subdued Stringband Jamboree, and Seattle’s historic Folklife Festival; and in 2011, will have her music featured in the independent film, Neon Sky.
If you get the chance to see Coty Hogue, don’t miss it. It’s a rare sort of performer who will keep you transfixed through several full sets of music. She’ll burnish out-of-the-way gems and set them on fire again with her skilled interpretation. She’ll sneak in tunes of her own composing that you’ll swear you’ve heard before.
She’s got the simple elegance and understated mastery of her craft that distinguishes much more established players, and it is this- a young voice flavored with the tannins of an old soul- that quietly sets her apart.
Alex Caton w/ Sabra Guzman
Tickets: $10.00 advance, $12.00 at the door
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In celebration of her new CD, Music For The Sinners and The Saved, Virginian Alex Caton is hitting the trail with West Coast’s own Sabra Guzman. Alex and Sabra will take you to the other side and back with driving fiddle tunes, haunting clawhammer banjo, down-home mountain songs and uplifting gospel numbers. They infuse their musical roots with the lonesome sounds from the hollers of Virginia for shows that are original, exciting, intensely personal and always traditional.
Alex Caton first put a bow in her hands at the age of four and played violin through her college years at Binghamton University. As her interest in Irish and Old Time music grew, she changed her tunes (and her instrument name) and began playing and teaching fiddle on the side. But it wasn’t until she moved to the Charlottesville, VA area to work on a PhD in Anthropology that she found her true calling. Alex fell in love with the music scene in Charlottesville and soon cast aside her career as a professional archaeologist (she worked up and down the East Coast of the United States, as well as in West Africa) to focus on fiddle music full-time. Since 2001, Alex has lived in Gordonsville, VA, teaching Irish, Old Time and Gypsy music out of her home and playing with a wide variety of local groups including the Irish band, The Ryegrass Rollers.
RedDog CD Release Party
Tickets: $8.00 advance, $10.00 at the door.
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Please join us with RedDog as they celebrate the release of their debut album, Hard Times.
RedDog plays traditional music from the American Southeast—music that connects old-time tunes with the blues, with spirituals, and with stories. Specializing in sweet, haunting vocal harmonies and free-wheeling instrumentals, the band features Doug Yule on fiddle, Cary Lung on mandolin, and Tom Collicott on guitar and banjo.
Doug Yule grew up on the East Coast playing and singing from an early age. In 1968, standing on the wrong street corner, he was captured by The Velvet Underground, a cult rock band. Doug played bass with the Velvets for a time, then stayed on a rock ‘n’ roll track until he encountered the fine arts of carpentry and cabinet making. In the last few years he’s discovered a passion for the fiddle and for violin making. When he’s not knee-to-knee with RedDog playing tunes, Doug builds violins, violas, and cellos at Lasley & Russ Violin Shop in Seattle.
Cary Lung is from a small farm town in the San Joaquin Valley of California where he learned to sing and harmonize with his grandfather. In the mid-1960s he met Kenny Hall, the legendary mandolin player, who became his mentor. Cary recorded with the Sweets Mill String Band and, with the Portable Folk Festival, performed at festivals and in coffeehouses across the country. In the late 70s he changed directions and opened a magical toy store in Tucson. But the mandolin kept calling. He moved to Seattle in 2003 and tuned in to his musical roots.
Hard Times, RedDog's debut studio album, will be available for sale.
Tom Collicott has spent most of his adult life in Seattle behind a camera, carving out a successful career as a photo-illustrator and website designer. About 12 years ago he picked up the guitar of his youth. He found himself spending more and more time spellbound by the Southern roots music that has found a home in the Pacific Northwest’s thriving old-time music scene. And he found himself drawn to the close vocal harmonies. In addition to playing guitar and banjo in RedDog, Tom also performs with Seattle’s raucous Atlas Stringband.
For more information about the band, visit www.reddogseattle.com.
