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This is the 18th season for the Corsair Concert Series in Tawas City, Michigan - presenting nationally-renown Bluegrass and Americana music in an old-time, up close atmosphere.
Presented by the Corsair Trail Council, proceeds from the concert series are used to maintain and operate the Corsair Skiing and Hiking Trails in the Huron National Forest.
Events are held at the Tawas United Methodist Church Family Center, on highway M-55, in Tawas City. Showtime is 7:30 pm. For further information please contact Gary Nelkie (989) 362-2001

..... click on artist's photo (below) for band info .....

January 30, 2010
Corsair Concert Series presents
NEWFOUND ROAD

When it comes from NewFound Road, it comes from the soul. You’ll be hard pressed to find a contemporary bluegrass band that plays and sings with more feeling and heart than this extraordinary ensemble. There aren’t many bands who can shake you to your emotional core the way this one can. NewFound Road is chock full of driving rhythms, haunting ballads and classic bluegrass, all brought into sharp focus by the band’s instrumental prowess and the soulful, rich, chesty baritone vocals of Tim Shelton. Exuberant energy, smart instrumental breaks and richly-textured vocals in a classy repertoire has put NewFound Road on a fast track to bluegrass stardom.
www.newfoundroad.com

March 20, 2010
Corsair Concert Series presents
THE BOXCARS

We are excited to present one of the first appearances of the newly formed bluegrass supergroup, The Boxcars. Adam Steffey, Ron Stewart, John R. Bowman, Keith Garrett and Harold Nixon make up what will surely be one of the top headliners in bluegrass music. With collective stints with Alison Krauss & Union Station (Adam Steffey, John Bowman), J.D. Crowe & The New South (Ron Stewart, John Bowman, Harold Nixon), Blue Moon Rising (Keith Garrett and Harold Nixon), The Isaacs (John Bowman) and most recently, The Dan Tyminski Band (Steffey and Stewart), this quintet starts out with an impressive rap sheet. Adam Steffey is a six-time recipient of the IBMA Mandolin Player of the Year award. His newly released project on Sugar Hill Records, "One More For The Road", is being acclaimed as the best bluegrass album of 2009 and is receiving a great deal of airplay. The recording features guest appearances by Alison Krauss, Ronnie Bowman and Dan Tyminski. We can expect The Boxcars to cover this material and branch out into their own unique style of contemporary bluegrass laced with Steffey's signature rhythm that can be traced back to his early days with Union Station. IBMA award-winning instrumentalist Ron Stewart will deliver rock solid banjo work, but will occasionally set down the banjo and pick up the fiddle on some tunes. It's always a rarity to have multiple strong vocalists in the same group, and The Boxcars will benefit from strong vocal performances from Keith Garrett, John Bowman and Steffey's signature baritone. Look for a new album release from The Boxcars in the first quarter of 2010.
Click on the orange image box for more information.

May 1, 2010
Corsair Concert Series presents
THE CLAIRE LYNCH BAND

By any measure, The Claire Lynch Band is high on the bluegrass world’s A-List, with musicians whose accolades include International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) Female Vocalist of the Year and two Grammy nominations for Best Bluegrass Album (Claire); Canadian Open Mandolin Championship and Florida State Championship on both fiddle and mandolin (Jason Thomas); the MerleFest Doc Watson Guitar Champion (Matt Wingate); and two IBMA Bass Player of the Year awards (Mark Schatz). These high caliber musicians will thrill the audience when they perform on stage in Tawas City on Saturday evening, May 1st, as part of the Corsair Concert Series. The 7:30 p.m. concert will take place at the Tawas United Methodist Church Family Center.
Claire Lynch has carved out her own niche in the bluegrass and acoustic music field and every new recording from Claire is greeted with anticipatory delight. She has been described as a perfect mix of Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris, and Dolly Parton, and there is certainly something to this. She moves constantly between the worlds of pop, country, jazz and bluegrass, and has done so for much of her career, which began in the 1970s. It's no wonder that she's been tapped to record and perform with everyone from Linda Ronstadt to Dolly Parton to Ralph Stanley -- but it's as a lead vocalist that she really shines. As Parton has said, Lynch has "one of the sweetest, purest and best lead voices in the music business today." She is equally gifted as a songwriter and her songs have been recorded by The Seldom Scene, Patty Loveless, Kathy Mattea, Cherryholmes, The Whites and others.
In the Winter of 2005, Claire signed her current contract with Rounder Records. The first release, New Day (March ’06), was a top favorite pick for several publications, scored a #1 song on the National Bluegrass Survey and an IBMA nomination for “Song of the Year”. Next came the anthology collection, Crowd Favorites (October 2007) which earned another couple of top ten positions on the survey. Claire describes her recent CD, Whatcha Gonna Do (September 2009) as “Americana-inflected bluegrass.” It took the #1 spot on the January 2010 BMP national bluegrass CD chart and was included in several “Top Pick” CD lists for 2009.
Whether she's on the road singing harmony with Dolly Parton or doing her own thing, Claire Lynch keeps good company and her magical, inimitable voice is acknowledged as one of the best.

AWARDS
-- Grammy nomination for Best Bluegrass Album of 1997 - Silver and Gold
--Grammy nomination for Best Bluegrass Album of 1995 - Moonlighter
--International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) Song of the Year Nom., 2006 (Train Long Gone)
-- International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) Female Vocalist of the Year, 1997
-- International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) Female Vocalist of the Year
nominee, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000. 2001, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009
-- National Bluegrass Survey Top 30 – 11 months - The Day That Lester Died (Crowd Favorites)
--National Bluegrass Survey – #1 Song - Train Long Gone - Nov & Dec 2006
--The Best of 2007 – Folkwax Magazine - Crowd Favorites
--Top 10 Pics for 2006 (#2) – Bluegrass Now Magazine for New Day
--Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music in America (SPGBMA) Female Vocalist
nominee 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2006; Song of the Year Nominee (Pee Wee and Fern) 1996,
(Train Long Gone) 2006.

TELEVISION AND RADIO APPEARANCES
--GAC Edge of Country, Oct. 2007
--With Dolly Parton: The Late Show w/ David Letterman, Tonight Show, Late Show w/ Conan O'Brien,
Austin City Limits, Today Show, Regis and Kathi Lee, ACM Awards 2000
--CMT "My Heart Is A Diamond" (Video), Rounder Records 1996
--TNN (The Nashville Network): TNN Country News, Prime Time Country, Music CityTonight w/ Crook
and Chase, Grand Ole Opry Live, Opry Backstage, Fire On The Mountain, Wildhorse Saloon
--KPIG, San Francisco, CA
--American Public Radio: Mountain Stage
--Public Television: Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee

Claire Lynch also appears on albums by:
Linda Ronstadt ~ Emmylou Harris ~ Alison Brown ~ Sara Watkins ~ Donna the Buffalo ~ Dolly Parton
Pam Tillis ~ Ralph Stanley ~ John Starling ~ Jim Hurst ~ Patty Loveless ~ Kathy Mattea ~ Jesse
Winchester ~ Charlie Sizemore ~ Pierce Pettis ~ Tanya Savory ~ Irene Kelley ~ Mark Newton ~ Kimberly
McCarver ~ Hazel Dickens Tribute ~ Kathy Kallick ~ Keith Little ~ Karen Staley ~ Donna Ulisse

In addition to releasing many of her own songs, Claire Lynch has written selections recorded by:
Patty Loveless, The Whites, Irene Kelley, Valerie Smith,
Kathy Mattea, Pierce Pettis, Cherryholmes, The Seldom Scene

Advance tickets ($15) for the Saturday, May 1st concert are available at Nordic Sports in East Tawas and Reed's On The River in Tawas City. Proceeds from the concert series are used to maintain and operate the Corsair Skiing and Hiking Trails in the Huron National Forest. For advance tickets and further information call (989) 362-2001.

What is “Americana Music”?
American folk music, also known as Americana, is a broad category of music that includes Native American music, bluegrass, country music, gospel, old time music, Appalachian folk, blues, zydeco and cajun. The music is considered "American" because it is either native to the United States or the music varied enough from its origins that it struck musicologists as something distinctly new. For example, traditional bluegrass instrumentation consists of the banjo which originated on the African continent, guitars from Europe, fiddling styles which have their roots in traditional Irish and other Gaelic fiddling techniques, and yodeling from the alpine regions of Europe. It is also considered "roots music" because it served as the basis of music later developed in the United States, including rock and roll, rhythm and blues, and jazz.

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