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Updated: 01 July 2009

On July 24, Steve Gillette & Cindy Mangsen will grace our stage, and I do mean grace it. Their special concerts with us have been a study in musical and personal grace, and now we’re thrilled to have them back as a featured act at one of our regular events.

Steve and Cindy have been performing together for 19 years, bringing together their love of traditional music and their wealth of original songs. Accompanying themselves with guitar, concertina and banjo, their live performances are known for rich harmony, compelling songs and a good dose of humor.

Steve Gillette’s songs have been performed by Ian and Sylvia, John Denver, Garth Brooks, Tammy Wynette, Gordon Lightfoot, Anne Murray, Tony Rice, Kenny Rogers, Linda Ronstadt, Spanky and Our Gang, Jerry Jeff Walker, Jennifer Warnes, Don Williams and many others. But Steve's own versions are some of the best, with his warm baritone voice and his unique finger-picking guitar style (using a flat-pick and two fingers). Steve has many solo and duo (with Cindy) recordings available. His most recent solo album, Texas and Tennessee, was named one of the Top Ten Folk Albums of the Year by Tower Records. Steve has conducted songwriting workshops all over the US and Canada, and is on the Board of Directors of the Kerrville Folk Festival. He is author of the book Songwriting and the Creative Process, a standard text in songwriting groups.

Cindy Mangsen has been called “one of the finest singers in American folk music.” Accompanying herself on guitar, banjo, or concertina, Cindy is known for her compelling interpretations of traditional ballads, as well as for her own writing and her wonderful ear for harmony. She has recorded several solo albums (Songs of Experience received the Editor's Choice award from Crossroads), as well as collaborations with Steve Gillette, Priscilla Herdman, Anne Hills, and Michael Smith. Her latest solo album, Cat Tales, is devoted to “songs of the feline persuasion.” Cindy has led singing and ballad workshops at the Augusta Heritage Center in West Virginia and The Woods in Ontario, Canada.

Matt Watroba of Sing Out! magazine says: “Steve and Cindy have hit on a combination that consistently produces high quality recordings and entertaining stage shows. Their voices and their styles meld seamlessly with a gentleness and a maturity that is unmatched in the world of folk duos.”

Speaking personally, their first special concert for us in 1996 was one of the best, most musically perfect concerts I’ve ever experienced, and I can’t wait to hear them again.

Charlie Hall