Donna sent me the newspaper's article and I have cut and pasted some of her great article here.
Chet O’Keefe to perform at
summer solstice concert
Singer-songwriter to embark on international tour in
September
By
Donna Gable Hatch
Features Editor
MEDINA —
Singer-songwriter Chet O’Keefe will perform at a summer solstice concert from
6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Saturday at
Echo Hill Ranch, 966 Echo Hill Road, home of the Utopia Animal
Rescue
Ranch.
O’Keefe, a longtime friend of the
ranch, will combine a bit of storytelling with a mix of his brand of acoustic
folk, western and jazzy-bluesy music.
“The concert is not a fundraiser
for the ranch,” said Nancy Parker-Simons, known as “Cousin Nancy. “We just love
Chet, and we love his music, and we want as many people to hear the music as
possible.”
Tickets to the concert are $20
per person. Blankets and lawn chairs are encouraged. Outside food and beverages— no glass
bottles — are welcome.
“The concert will take place at
the rescue ranch, outside, where our rescued dogs are, so the dogs will get to
enjoy his fabulous music concert, too. They just love Chet.”
Originally from the Northeast,
O’Keefe toured with humorist and country music singer Kinky Friedman — who owns
Echo Hill Ranch and co-founded Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch — throughout Sweden
and Norway.
Since meeting, the two have been
great friends, and O’Keefe said he often stays at Friedman’s ranch when he’s in
the area.
“I’ve got a number of songs I
wrote this winter while staying at Echo Hill Ranch in Medina, many of them are
stories about people I’ve met in my travels, or about the state of the world as
I see it,” said O’Keefe, who won the International Bluegrass Music
Association’s Song of the Year Award in 2010. “I’ve done a lot of traveling in
my life, and I feel these songs weave together a picture of life in America
from unique and heartfelt perspectives.”
O’Keefe spent nine years in Nashville,
followed by a short stint in Dallas, and lived for three years in “the Great
Northwest”— Northern Washington — until making his way to the Hill Country.
He also has performed with the
legendary Bo Diddley and has opened for Nancy Griffith on her tour in Ireland.
“Over the last six months, I became
friends with Nancy and Tony, who run the rescue ranch, and it just seemed like
the natural place to have the show,” he said. “The dogs will quiet down after people
arrive, and I don’t mind a
little
barking. I’d rather have that than a TV on in the room. Plus I’m a bit of a
stray dog myself, so I feel at home there.”
O’Keefe will return to Sweden in September
for a two-week tour. “I’ve been over there three times in the last two years,”
O’Keefe said, “That’s where I met Kinky in the first place — I was opening for
him over there, and he invited me down to the Kerrville and Austin area to get
familiar with it and start playing around, which I’m doing.”
O’Keefe has a new CD, titled “Because
of You,” which features two previously unreleased songs written by Blaze Foley,
which he wrote the music for. The CD was released digitally at chetokeefe.bandcamp.com.
“I’m also doing a lot of writing these
days and will have several new collections of work out soon, one being an
interpretation of Woody Guthrie’s ‘Columbia River Collection’ album,” O’Keefe
said. “That record really hits home for me, since our family farm is on the Columbia,
and these new songs reflect the many changes along the river and in the state
of Washington that have taken place over the last
70 years.”
➤ Info: For more information about O’Keefe, visit
http://chetokeefeblogspot.com
After I read the article, I went outside to do the chores with Tony. And the whole time that I was working out there I worried about the weather for the concert. So, when we came back inside The Cabin, I called Kinky and told him about me worrying about the weather. "It's simple, Nance. Have it over here. You can do the concert in the dining hall....Why don't you and Tony come over and check it out?"
A few minutes later while Tony and I were inside the dining hall, talking about it being a really great place to have the concert, Kinky and Brian walked inside. "Kinky, this is the perfect place for the concert!" I said. "Thank you, so much for helping us out."
"Wait! Hold your horses," Kinky said. "Brian has just suggested that we use the Gazebo instead. Let's go outside and check it out." The Gazebo is right next to the Dining Hall, so we didn't have to go very far. As the four of us walked around inside the Gazebo, we all agreed that it would be a super place, too. "Let's do it here and if it looks like it is going to rain, we'll use the Dining Hall as backup," Kinky said. I was thrilled and relieved, at the same time, because Kinky had solved our problem and erased all of my stress.
So, this afternoon, while Tony was at the chiropractor, I e-mailed a concert update to everyone to let them know that we had moved the concert to the Gazebo. And that is about it for tonight.
Y'all have a great evening!
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