The Bands
Michael Martin Murphey
Michael Martin Murphey has had a successful music career that has spanned four decades and included such musical genres as folk, country, rock, popular, western, and cowboy music. As a singer, songwriter, and producer, he has contributed some of the best-loved songs of his generation. His songs have been recorded by Kenny Rogers, John Denver, Cher, Lyle Lovett, Flatt and Scruggs, Claire Hamill, Hoyt Axton, Roger Miller, Bobbie Gentry, Michael Nesmith, and The Monkees. Murphey is the narrator of the short film Spirit of the Cowgirl at the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in Fort Worth, Texas.
Murphey played a major role in the resurrection of the cowboy song genre, recording and producing some of the most successful cowboy music of the past forty years. His album Cowboy Songsinspired a whole series of albums. For his accomplishments in the Western and Cowboy Music field, Murphey received five awards from the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, formerly known as the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City
Frank Solivan & Dirty Kitchen
Frank Solivan & Dirty Kitchen play a wide variety of New Acoustic American Roots Music focusing on bluegrass and acoustic country, yet blues, folk, swing, and jazz also shine through as influences. Powerful vocal harmonies, expressive songwriting, smooth ballads, and instrumental prowess lend this versatile group of musicians to any type of venue. Each member is an inventive powerhouse.
Anderson Family Bluegrass
The Anderson Family, from Grass Valley, California, is a popular crowd-pleasing northern California bluegrass band performing together continuously since early 2005. Mark and Christy Anderson and their four kids, Paige, Aimee, Ethan (Bo) and Daisy, are making new friends and fans every day with their unbeatable combination of outstanding lead and harmony singing, impressive instrumental abilities, savvy stagecraft and boundless energy and charisma.
From events like the annual CBA Father's Day Bluegrass Festival in California to San Francisco's Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in Golden Gate Park to the International Bluegrass Music Association convention in Nashville, the Anderson Family has won over audiences nationwide with a traditional bluegrass sound and a fresh, modern approach.
Wild Horse Drive
Wild Horse Drive is new to the Reno-Sparks area of Nevada. As the name suggests, this band is focused on a “driven” style of bluegrass that features the vocal and instrumental talents of it's four members, fast tempos and tight syncopation. Wild Horse Drive’s set list is comprised mostly of traditionally styled bluegrass tunes played with contemporary polish. With influences such as Tony Rice, Lonesome River Band, Blue Highway and J.D. Crowe, the band seeks tunes that pay tribute to the roots of the genre.
Homemade Jam
HomeMade Jam has been playing the Northern Nevada area since 2003. Their eclectic mix of tunes covers a broad spectrum from driving banjo & fiddle tunes to tender laments, from Irish ballads to Western Swing. They'll play traditional bluegrass, countrygrass, cajungrass, popgrass, rockgrass, highwaygrass, railroadgrass, airplanegrass, spiritualgrass, hippiegrass, Beatlegrass, soonergrass, latergrass, and, of course, what band would be complete without a nod to O Brother Where Art Thou?-grass!
Anchored by Tom's rock solid bottom end & Kenny's diverse percussion, balanced by Ron's broad range of guitar magic, and capped off with Jim & Rick's eccentric instrumentals, all the boys take a turn at the center mic. Ask Tom for "A Good Man Like Me," or Jim for the "Milk Cow Blues." Get Kenny to sing "Kathiann" or Ron to tell you about "The Train That Carried My Girl From Town." And until you've heard Rick sing "Carolina In the Pines" or "New Mexico Rain" you're not yet ready to die and go to heaven!
Monday Night Volunteers
The NNBA's dedicated group of volunteer musicians has been playing at local nursing homes and assited living facilities almost every Monday night for more than 20 years.
Come see this amazing band of men and women and hear the music that has been bringing joy and happiness to legions of our senior citizens for more than 2 decades!
The Gabardine Sisters
The Gabardine Sisters Radio Show sprang to life in the fall of 2009 inspired by an old film of the Carter Sisters in 1930s attire singing "My Clinch Mountain Home." Joyce Furlong, Karla Bowman and Teresa Nichols created the Radio Show around a repertoire of their favorite old-time songs.
The sisters have grown and changed since then, adding sister Anne Pinkerton and brothers Dennis Grundy and Ed Crandall in 2011. The show has also evolved into three (so far) versions: The Original Radio Show, The Homespun Harmony Gospel Hour, and The Cotton Creek Trail Ride.
Shows are fun and interactive, sort of a cross between "O, Brother, Where Art Thou?" and A Prairie Home Companion. The Gabardines enjoy getting the audience involved!
Run Boy Run
With captivating three-part female harmony, masterful fiddle work by a two-time Arizona State Fiddle Champion, and roots in traditional, jazz, classical, and folk music, Run Boy Run offers a riveting and exciting performance of traditional and original music.
Run Boy Run is the winner of the 2011 Telluride Bluegrass Festival Band Contest.
The Note-Ables
The Note-Ables is a phenomenal performing group made up of adults with disabilities. The group first met in April 1999 when they started jamming and writing their own songs together. By the summer of 1999 they had started playing small gigs in the Reno/Sparks area and have since expanded to performing 30-40 gigs each year. In addition to being professional and crowd pleasing, the group’s activities have also increased the visibility of people with disabilities and added to the dynamic arts community in the Truckee Meadows.
With a blend of covers and original songs, the musical style of The Note-Ables ranges from blues to country to jazz to classic rock. The group has played at venues throughout Nevada, and performances vary from a full 10 piece band at larger venues to a simple guitar and vocal duo at more intimate settings. The Note-Ables can be seen regularly in the Reno/Sparks area at venues such as Sparks Farmers Market, Wingfield Park, the Atlantis Casino Resort Spa, Artown events and at the University of Nevada, Reno, just to name a few.
