Adam Gardino, Phil Volan & Joleen Bell and The Sister Brothers

Adam Gardino, Phil Volan & Joleen Bell and The Sister Brothers

December 14

 (Pictured above: International Finger Style Guitar Champion, Adam Gardino)

In celebration of the holidays we decided to continue the Black Rose tradition of a holiday potluck and music. For this particular event we invited Black Rose favorites and champion players Adam Gardino (1^st place winner International Fingerstyle Competition at the Walnut Valley Festival 2012), Phil Volan  (2^nd place winner International Fingerstyle Competition at the Walnut Valley Festival 2002), Joleen Bell & of course, the Sister Brothers (Charlie Hall, Dick Carlson and Marianne Danehy).

This evening will start out with a holiday potluck, so bring your best Christmas goodies to share –appetizers, crockpots, cookies, cake- whatever you enjoy during the holidays followed by a Christmas open stage. We’ll put on the coffee, have some punch and enjoy an evening of great music and food in the nostalgic atmosphere of the Black Forest Community Center.

About the performers:

Adam Gardino has been dazzling audiences across Colorado and Kansas since 2005.  Sharing the stage with such acts as Grammy winners Doug Smith, Pat Donohue and Al Petteway, he blends a wide mix of music from acoustic blues, to jazz, classical, country and rock.  In 2012 he took 1^st  Place at the International Fingerstyle Competition at the Walnut Valley Festival , where players from all over the U.S., Canada, Europe and Japan come and compete every year for a chance to be named among the best in the world.  His sound has been likened to that of Leo Kottke, Tommy Emmanuel, Chet Atkins and James Taylor.

Performing since the age of 15, his stage craft has been constantly shaped and reshaped for every show and concert.  His solo acoustic compositions and arrangements show intense musical insight and depth.  Doug Smith, International Fingerstyle Guitar Champion praised Adam "I was blown away when Adam played my arrangement of Cole Porter's ‘Anything Goes’ - better than I do!"

Watch  Adam play “Dentist Chair Blues” - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQDlL2ku95s                                         

Watch Adam play the “Peter Gunn Theme” - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJyRkWKtmS4

Phil Volan and Joleen Bell is a husband and wife team known for their skilled fingerstyle guitar technique and beautiful tight harmony. Phil earned 2nd place at the National Fingerstyle Guitar Championship in Winfield, Kansas in 2002. Joleen also competed several years later as one of only two women, to very enthusiastic listeners.

Along with her angelic voice, Joleen plays several instruments including banjo and lap dulcimer. She has a B.A. in music from Naropa University, Boulder, CO. In addition to four CDs with Phil, she has two solo discs and one with Tom Simms. Several of her instrumentals, co-written with Phil, have been used internationally on various media.

Readers of the Colorado Springs Gazette and Independent newspapers voted Phil Best Male Singer and Best Folksinger for two years running. And in 2002, Phil won the Peak Area Performance and Artists Award (PAPA) in the Popular Music category. Several of his songs have been featured on N.P.R. broadcasts and have been used in film and commercials internationally. He has nine CD releases, and session work on many others.

See more about Phil and Joleen by visiting their web site: http://www.philvolan.com/index.htm

Dick Carlson, Marianne Danehy and Charlie Hall are the Sister Brothers.

Dick played with Black Rose (the band) for all ten years of its existence, with Palmer Divide for five years.  Between the two bands, he played a hundreds of gigs and released five albums.  His rock-steady bass playing has been compared to “the heartbeat of a blue whale”; we’re not sure whether that’s good or bad.  His ankles are still recovering from his days as an all-Nebraska basketball star; his coach was quoted as saying “Dick almost never shoots when he doesn’t have the ball.”

Marianne teaches Suzuki violin and fiddle in Colorado Springs.  In a prior life, she worked as an engineer for Hewlett-Packard.  She grew up playing classical violin and more recently “found her people,” namely those who stay up late playing folk, Celtic, country and bluegrass music.   She performed with the all female trio, Blue Sage, prior to playing with Charlie and Dick.  Charlie and Marianne founded the Colorado Roots Music Camp, and she teaches fiddle there every year.

Charlie is a co-founder and past president of the Black Rose Acoustic Society, and co-founder and director of the Colorado Roots Music Camp.  He was a finalist in the 2000 National Finger Style Guitar championship, and was nominated Bluegrass Guitarist of the Year in 1996 by the Colorado Bluegrass Music Society.  He played with Black Rose for ten years and has played with Joe Uveges, Phil Volan and the nearly-famed Trio Reynoso. 

The Sister Brothers celebrate good country songs served without artificial ingredients.  They play a swing tune or two, fiddle tunes, some bluegrass, some folk. They sing songs that review the salient characteristics of Iowa, orphanhood, old-fashioned love, lost love, found love, misplaced love, love that crushes you like a monochromatic Kansas farmhouse dropped by a tornado, loneliness, bandits, the South, the South again, birthdays and their concomitant rehashing of the prior twelve months’ personal failures, small towns, big towns, ginormous towns and the Wrong Side of the Tracks.  And the South.

So come on out to Black Forest and join us on December 14 for excellent musicianship and great goodies!

Joanna Springer

Holiday Potluck begins at 6:00 p.m.

Show starts: 7:00 p.m.

Tickets at the door: $4.00 for Black Rose Members, $7.00 General Public, $5.00 for students.