Red River Songwriters Tour

Susan Gibson is a Grammy award winning singer/songwriter from Wimberley, Texas and a respected performer and writer with one of the top-selling country songs of all time under her belt - she wrote "Wide Open Spaces" that the Dixie Chicks cover and has four solo albums released nationally. Susan tours year-round and performs at a variety of festivals, listening rooms, and house concert venues. This past year she has toured the U.S. through the Midwest, northwest, southeast, and eastern Canada as well as regionally all over Texas. She was also inducted into the West Texas Music Hall of Fame as 2009's Entertainer of the Year. She was honored to be asked to perform in Washington, D.C. for the Inauguration festivities in 2013 and released her fifth album, "The Second Hand: Live at the Bugle Boy" in March 2014.

Career Highlights

- CMA Songwriter of the Year for "Wide Open Spaces"
- BMI Writer of the Year 1999
- 2009 West Texas Music Hall of Fame
- Official Folk Alliance Showcase Artist 2010 and 2011
- Touring nationally since 1999

I write songs for a living, and have been doing so since 2004. I have two favorite guitars, one being a 1964 Gibson Country and Western, which (with the help of a fine luthier) I was able to return to a playable condition after finding it in a state of total disrepair. I love the way it sounds, and I think it likes having me around, as well. My second guitar is a 2004 Gibson J45, which held a starring role in the movie Infamous. Unfortunately, Infamous lost the Hollywood Truman Capote Sweepstakes, and Capote beat it out of the gate. Infamous saw limited release and went to DVD pretty quickly. That being said, the guitar is probably still more famous than I am, even in all of it's DVD glory. If The Smoking Gun ever publishes an extravagant concert rider with my name on it, rest assured that the requests for seedless watermelon slices and Caciocavallo cheese came from the guitar, and not from me. I love music. I love hearing songs that are intelligent, thought provoking, and honest. They give me hope, and their songwriters give me inspiration. I recently finished recording my third album, which I plan to release soon. I decided to call it An Audio Guide To Cross Country Travel. I think it's a clever title, but I am often wrong about these types of things. I live in New Braunfels, Texas with my wife, three dogs, a cat, and a generous school of fish that I try not to forget to feed when my wife assigns me the task (the fish, that is… the dogs let me know if I'm forgetting about them in their unmistakable way). We like it here. I travel a lot for my job. There's not much of a point in writing songs if you don't share them with an audience. Besides, the dogs can't clap, I can't hear the fish, and the cat generally doesn't care about what I do… and everyone needs a little positive affirmation in their lives from time to time. So, I hope to see you at a show. If you'd ever like to say hello, you can reach me via email ( info at drewkennedymusic.com ), smoke signal, telegraph, or carrier pigeon. Whichever is easiest for you.

Kelley's strong, beautiful voice is a unique blend of formal musical training and the local flavor of the Memphis music scene. Formal dance and vocal training from the age of eight and summers at a theatre arts conservatory in Memphis provided the basics, but impromptu sit ins led to the formation of Drasco. After graduation from the University of Memphis with a marketing degree, Kelley and Drasco front man, Jed Zimmerman, joined forces for a five year run as Jed and Kelley. The duo toured the country in an RV and cut two full-length records with Keith Sykes in Memphis. Along the way, Kelley taught herself to play the mandolin and developed a solid live-show stage presence. When the Jed and Kelley duo split, Kelley headed for Austin, and ran into a group of singers who would call themselves The Trishas. The voices blended and the magic happened. When she's not on stage with The Trishas, she can be found playing solo/duo shows here and there with a rotating cast of friends. She currently lives in Buda, Texas with her dog Josey and her husband Tim.

The dark, sad song of the White Throated Sparrow can be heard just about everywhere on the Canadian prairie around Winnipeg, the wind-swept hometown of Brandy Zdan (Zuh-dan). And like that bird's melancholy melody, Zdan's voice echos that similar theme, and has guided her on a musical migration across Canada, The States, and Europe.
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Emerging for the first time as a solo artist, Lone Hunter seems an apt description for Zdan's first record. Through each song Zdan picks up her past, looks to her future and explores some of life's harshest yet most beautiful truths. Poetic at times, her fearless desire and experience unfolds into the songs, creating something for the listener that tempers heartache and hope into one stronger emotion.

"This is a very impressive collection of simply recorded, uncluttered, quality songs that are all quite confidently satisfied to have their fragile bruised cores on display, and all the better for it."- Americana UK

?Richly-textured vocals stand foremost in each song and then are tightly bound to rich guitar tones, solid drums and subtle electronic melodies. The simple arrangements add powerful thunder to the beautiful lightning storm of vocals. This is especially evident on tracks like I Remember When You Used To Love Me' , the lap steel/pedal steel duet of 'Does Everything Break' , or the confessional 'Lone Hunter.' A departure from standards and perfect genres, Lone Hunter fits into a space all it's own.

" it's a one-woman tour de force"- Richard Skanse for Lone Star Magazine

?Recorded & Produced by George Reiff (Ray Wylie Hubbard, Band of Heathens) in Austin, TX, Lone Hunter features guest musicians as members of The Trishas & Ricky Ray Jackson on pedal steel guitar (Phosphorescent, Alejandro Escovedo), with Zdan holding it down on all the other instruments. Zdan will be on tour in support of the EP in Europe in the late fall.
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In 2011, Zdan was recruited as a triple-threat side woman by Austin-based female super-group The Trishas for her six string, lap steel, and accordion skills. Zdan also co-founded Twilight Hotel with Dave Quanbury and together they recorded 2 juno-nominated albums (Canada's Grammy equivalent) --2008's Highway Prayer and 2010's When the Wolves Go Blind-- forging a sound that critics likened to "old leather, worn and soft" and earned them the handle "rulers of their own genre."