Ray Price and the Cherokee Cowboys will be taking the stage
at the Municipal Auditorium Saturday, with special guests
The Quebe Sisters Band
The performance is brought to Greenville courtesy
of the Kenneth Threadgill Concert Series.
In memory of Kenneth Threadgill, born in the
community of Peniel just north of Greenville, the Friends
of Main Street sponsor this concert series, bringing to Greenville
the music that made Austin famous.
Threadgill is legendary in Austin. In fact,
Threadgill’s Tavern on North Lamar was one of the first
venues to showcase the kind of music that put Austin on the
map, with numerous artists getting their start there, including
Janis Joplin.
Price, who currently resides in Mount Pleasant,
is well known in the area and in December 2009 he received
an honorary doctorate from Texas A&M University-Commerce.
Price was born in Perryville, Texas, and spent
his childhood years working on his family farm before moving
to Dallas as a teen. He attended North Texas Agricultural
College in Arlington before leaving college to join the Marines
in World War II.
He returned to his studies in 1946, but his
love of music could not be denied and he eventually left school
to pursue his dream. He eventually landed a spot on the prestigious
Big “D” Jamboree, where he gained national exposure.
In 1951 he signed with Columbia Records.
After moving to Nashville he became close friends
with Hank Williams and the pair co-wrote the hit song, “Weary
Blues from Waitin.’” At one point, the pair even
shared a house in Nashville.
Ray’s band, “The Cherokee Cowboys,”
was a training ground for artists and musicians. Names such
as Willie Nelson, Roger Miller, Johnny Paycheck, steel guitar
masters Buddy Emmons and Jimmy Day and guitarist Pete Wade
were all regular members of the band.
Price is credited with producing the most emotional
honky-tonk music ever made, the lushly arranged country-pop
ballads that have now become standards in country music.
Price is still one of the most active touring
artists in all of country music, taking his music to the White
House, major casinos, symphonies, performing arts centers,
fairs and large clubs and arenas.
In 1996, Price was inducted into the Country
Music Hall of Fame, the highest honor available in country
music.
“It would be hard to overstate Ray Price’s
importance to the history of country music,” said Michael
McCall, historian for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.
“He’s widely credited with advancing traditional
country music in the 1950s, when he drew on honky-tonk and
Western swing to create a distinct sound of his own based
on the shuffle rhythms introduced in classic songs like “Crazy
Arms” and “City Lights.” That sound continues
to fill Texas dance floors to this day. Later, Ray went on
to show how well his rich, smoothly textured voice sounded
on lush, string-laden adult ballads like “For the Good
Times” and “I Won’t Mention It Again.”
Price still has the velvet voice that earned
him such recognition and his sound has remained remarkably
unchanged, commanding the respect of the young country artists
of today’s music.
“For nearly 60 years now, he has led one
of country music’s all-time great bands, the Cherokee
Cowboys, who have set standards for musicianship, especially
in the use of fiddles and pedal steel guitar,” said
McCall. “Ray Price and the Cherokee Cowboys still sound
great today, also. We have been blessed to have his artistry
continue to provide us with great country music for all these
years.”
The Quebe Sisters Band, pronounced Kway-bee,
are made up of Grace, Sophia and Hulda Quebe. The trio play
the fiddle and sing vintage style three-part harmonies that
wow audiences while Joey McKenzie plays guitar and Drew Phelps
rocks the bass.
Performing a blend of Western swing, vintage
country, bluegrass, jazz and swing standards and Texas-style
fiddling, the Quebe Sisters have taken the American music
scene by storm.
The sisters have received the Crescendo Award
by Western Music Association, as well as the Western Swing
Album of the Year from the Academy of Western Artists.
Some performance highlights include appearances at the Grand
Ole Opry, the Kennedy Center, NYC’s Lincoln Center,
the Ryman Auditorium, the Eddie Stubbs’ Show on WSM,
the Smithsonian Folklife Festival and The Birchmere, just
to name a few.
Story courtesy Amber Pompa, Herald
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