Larry Joe Taylor
Singer - Songwriter
Record Producer - Texas Music Mentor
October 12,02008
4 - 6 p.m.
The Tortilla Factory
648 Elden Street,
Herndon, Virginia 20170
directions

Larry Joe Taylor is recognized as one of the leading Texas Music Artists and Songwriters, featuring a “Coastal and Western” theme in his music.  He has recorded five albums and his songs have been recorded by Jerry Jeff Walker, Richard Leigh, Guy Clark, the Lost Gonzo Band, Gary P.Nunn, Michael Hearne and South by Southwest, Joe Pat Hennen, Mike Graham, Tommy Alverson, and several others.

Larry’s major talent is songwriting, as evidenced by the long list of notables who have cut his songs, but also in the way his own albums have been recorded.  With only two exceptions, he has written or co-written all the material on his recordings.  These have been featured on his CDs “Port A to Port B”; “Heart of the Matter”, “First Row-Third Coast”; “Terlingua Sky”; “This One’s for You”’ Summer Days” and his latest “Times”.  Each of these incorporate elements of his Coastal and Western style which implement elements of country, reggae, blues, rock and roll, and tropical themes.  He has always been his own, creating a down home, upbeat style, that has established a solid fan base within the Texas genre, and is very popular across the US and Europe.  For every two or three rocking, country tunes, Larry Joe also delivers a poignant ballard about life and passion and the resilience to get through life, as illustrated in his popular “Catch Your Second Wind” that was written for a dear friend with an incurable medical problem. 

Larry Joe is one of the best promoters and entrepreneurs on the Texas Music Scene.  The Larry Joe Taylor Music Festival has become one of the top three festivals in Texas, last year drawing over 30,000 music fans with a program listing of the Who’s Who in Texas or Alternate Country Music scene.  This five day festival held annually in late April has become such an event that it is rivaling the famous Willie Nelson Picnic in attendance and performers.  For his fans, Larry Joe has created multiple venues to promote his style of music which include an annual cruise entitled “Coastin & Cruisin” each January, Spring Fling in beautiful Red River New Mexico, an annual Birthday Pilgrimage to the Caribbean, and the Hot Chili Days and Cool Mountain Nights held in Red River also.  Additionally, Larry Joe has been a headliner at Parrothead Convention, Meeting of the Minds held in Key West. On each of these venues, Larry Joe brings additional musicians and song-writers to perform, providing the fans an excellent choice of talent.  Recent performers include Richard Leigh (9 Top ranked songs, two song of the year awards), Keith Sykes, Matt Martindale, Doug McClure, Joe Pat Hennen, Susan Gibson, Bruce Robinson (4 Top Ranked Songs), Joe Ely, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Guy Clark, Pat Green, Rusty Weir, Bob Livingston,  Jed and Kelly, Teri Hendrix and Lloyd Mains, Michael Hearne, and many others.  Larry Joe has proven that he is a songwriter’s songwriter and is willing to mentor up and coming Texas musicians

A true pioneer in Texas Music, Larry Joe is the rare individual who truly believes in the American Dream and has helped and mentored numerous current stars and the starving beginner.  Through his efforts, performers like Jed and Kelly, Cody Canada (Cross Canadian Ragweed), Chris Wall, Matt Martindale (Cooder Graw), Mike McClure (Great Divide) have been given a major boost in their careers through Larry Joe’s mentoring.  Larry Joe is often mentioned in the same breath and company as Jerry Jeff Walker, Guy Clark, Willie Nelson, and Robert Earl Keen and has performed for many of these in his career.

Please register by email so we can get an idea of how many will be attending this concert, thanks, Truman.

We do not charge money for the concert, but instead ask for a minimum donation of $22, all of which goes to the artist. 

Pete Cooper September 14, 2008 4 - 6 p.m. The Tortilla Factory 648 Elden Street, Herndon, Virginia 20170 directions

“Peter Cooper looks at the world with an artist’s eye and a human heart and soul.  His songs are the work of an original, creative imagination, alive with humor and heartbreak and irony and intelligence, with truth and beauty in the details. Deep Stuff. And they get better every time you listen to them,” states Kris Kristofferson.  He is the same guy that writes about music for the Nashville Tennessean and who appears as a talking head about music on CNN, CMT, MSNBC, the BBC, and other outlets.  He’s also a touring singer/songwriter and instrumentalist who has played on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Late Show with David Letterman, and Prairie Home Companion.  His songs have been praised by the New York Times, the Washington Post, USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, and the Wall Street Journal.  Cooper has opened numerous tour dates for Todd Snider (and collaborated with Snider, singing harmonies, playing bass and co-writing a song on Snider’s brilliant “The Devil You Know” album) and has worked in the studio with EmmyLou Harris, Nanci Griffith, Lloyd Green, Ricky Skaggs and other luminaries.  He recently produced Snider’s odds and snods album, “Peacel Love and Anarchy.  His own debut album is called “Mission Door”

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Please register by email so we can get an idea of how many will be attending this concert, thanks, Truman.

We do not charge money for the concert, but instead ask for a minimum donation of $22, all of  which goes to the artist. 

Latitude - Tom and Michelle Becker

August 24, 2008
4 - 6 p.m.
The Tortilla Factory
648 Elden Street,
Herndon, Virginia 20170
directions

In 1996, with a pending Record Deal and two separate music careers at stake, Tom and Michelle Becker turned their backs on Nashville, changed their “Latitude” and headed to the beach.  Since then, Latitude has taken their music to 26 states, Europe and the Caribbean.

Their sound, a style of music called “Trop Rock”, combines the elements of Rock & Roll and Country music, with Caribbean themes.  Their energy, onstage banter and 500+ song list makes each performance unique. 

With 5 CD’s to their credit and a sixth CD currently underway, the duo continues to relish in their “Laid Back” lifestyle, but one look at their impressive background will prove that getting there required getting off the “Fast Track” and onto the “Laid Back Lane”. 

Here’s their story:

Michelle, the daughter of a drummer/piano salesman father and stay-at-home mother, grew up in the Boston suburbs in a home that was full of music.  At 8, she picked up her first instrument, the violin.  The piano soon followed, allowing Michelle to play along to her already remarkable singing voice.

At 15, she was crowned Miss Medford, the youngest contestant to capture this title in a Miss America Preliminary Competition.  At 18, she was selected from a National audition as the youngest person to be cast in a show at Busch Gardens Williamsburg.  At 21, she was named Cabaret Singer of the Year at the famed Lennox Hotel and received a recording contract.  That same year, on the day after her graduation from Emerson College, with recording in hand, she headed to Nashville to begin a contract at Opryland USA, one of the very few to move to Nashville with a full-time music career already in tow.

That distinctive voice didn’t take long to find it’s way into the Nashville inner circle, and Michelle began a successful career as a jingle and demo singer, and as backup singer for Brenda Lee, Louise Mandrell, Lee Greenwood, Loretta Lynn, Larry Gatlin, Jim Ed Brown and Sheb Wooley.  Soon, she was performing regularly on the Grand Ole Opry, appearing in music videos and television commercials, and opening for Bill Cosby, The Coasters, Drifters and Platters.

She was also working regularly with her own band, where she could use her vocal range and power to its fullest potential.

During a band performance, she was “discovered” by an executive at BMG, (now Universal), the world’s largest publishing company.  After a brief meeting, she was signed to an Artist Development deal and began a busy schedule of 2-3 songwriting appointments a day.  The pace was beginning to get to her.

During this time, Michelle met Tom.  They began writing songs together and soon discovered an easy chemistry that was beginning to heat up.

Tom, like Michelle, also grew up in the shadows of a big city, Chicago, and began playing music at young age, performing his first professional show at the age of 17.  By 24, Tom was touring the world as a member of the renowned folk group, New Christy Minstrels. 

The success of one of his early songs, “Sailor”, performed by the “Christy’s” and used as a fundraiser to build the Navy Memorial in Washington D.C., encouraged him to make the move to Nashville.

Tom was also juggling a busy music career as a songwriter, and as an opening act for Ray Charles, Willie Nelson, Jerry Jeff Walker and Jerry Lee Lewis.  And he understood Michelle’s apprehension about her pending record deal. 

The two had begun playing shows together, and Tom was quick to notice that Michelle’s powerful voice was being stifled by the image that the Music Executives were placing upon her.  She was being made to sound and look like “every other” female country singer.

Although a record deal had been her dream for her entire life, she was finding the experience unfulfilling.

An unexpected opportunity to perform at a resort in Myrtle Beach, SC, prompted Tom and Michelle to “get their act together”, leave Nashville for the summer, and give Michelle some breathing room to think through her pending Record Deal.

They never looked back.

Twelve years later, performing an average of 200 shows a year, the duo has performed in some “interesting” places:  aboard a yacht in Boca Raton, aboard a dinner train in Nashville, at an altitude of 10,000’ feet in Vail, and in the backyard of the late Hooters CEO Bob Brooks.

They have performed for NASCAR Drivers Bobby La Bonty and Ricky Craven, opened for Rock and Roll legends, Frankie Ford and Clarence “Frogman” Henry, been recognized as the first Beach Music Act to perform in Switzerland, and perform annually in Key West during Jimmy Buffett’s “Meeting of the Minds”.

They’ve crisscrossed the map from Hawaii to New Hampshire, and from Ohio to the Caribbean. 

Staying in Nashville would have led them down a different path, but this one seems to suit them just fine…..and their fans could not agree more.   www.latitudemusic.net

Please register by email so we can get an idea of how many will be attending this concert, thanks, Truman.

We do not charge money for the concert, but instead ask for a minimum donation of $22, all of which goes to the artist. 

Terri Hendrix and Lloyd Maines  Saturday June 28, 2008  7:00 P.M.  Reston Community Center  Lake Anne Unit 1609-A Washington Plaza Reston, VA directions

Terri Hendrix
“Own Your Own Universe” 

When Terri Hendrix walked away from her opera scholarship in college, it was only because she found the classical music path too narrow for her free spirit. But there was just no shaking her love of music. Armed with the Mississippi-John-Hurt-style guitar chops she learned from her mentor, Marion Williamson, in exchange for milking goats on the philanthropist’s Wilory Farm, Hendrix began hauling her own P.A. in the back of her beat-up pick-up to gigs throughout the Texas Hill Country. From her native San Antonio to the live music hotbed of Austin and every small town honky-tonk and coffee shop in Texas, it wasn’t long before the fans started adding up and Hendrix had to recruit some of them to help her keep up with her mailing list. All this in the pre-email/Web site dark ages of the early ’90s. By the time she got around to recording her debut album, 1996’s Two Dollar Shoes, read more

Lloyd Maines - A Driving Force In Texas Music Long before the Dixie Chicks were hatched, Lloyd Maines, father of "Chick" Natalie Maines, had established himself as a country music giant, both as a legendary steel guitarist and a producer. Music though, was not Lloyd's initial career choice. He studied forestry while attending Texas Tech, hoping to land a job in the parks department. However, after landing a job at a local studio, his future was forever changed.  Lloyd lists legendary steel guitarist Jimmy Day as one of his greatest influences. In his heyday, Jimmy Day seemed to be everywhere. Name a classic song and chances are, Jimmy played on it. read more

Please register by email so we can get an idea of how many will be attending this concert, thanks, Truman.

We do not charge money for the concert, but instead ask for a minimum donation of $27, all of which goes to the artist. 

Vince Bell May 18, 2008 4 - 7 p.m. Tortilla Factory 648 Elden Street, Herndon, Virginia 20170 directions

VINCE BELL: Biography by Jim Musser

Having spent the '70s working the national coffee house circuit, playing "edge to edge" in the Lone Star state, and sharing the stage with fellow-travelers Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark, and Lucinda Williams, the native Texan's star was on a rapid rise. Not only was he a nimble guitarist with a one-of-a-kind voice, but his songwriting drew favorable comparisons to such disparate-but-remarkable tunesmiths as Randy Newman, Bruce Cockburn and Tom Waits. A ballet, “Bermuda Triangle” had been set to his work. Referring to Bell's fellow Texas songwriters Nanci Griffith said, "I always felt Vince was the best of us."

In 1982, he was in the studio recording his songs with hired guns Stevie Ray Vaughan and Eric Johnson. While driving home after a session a drunk driver broadsided Bell's '64 Ford Fairlane. Thrown over 60 feet from his car, Bell suffered embedded glass, multiple lacerations to his liver, broken ribs, a mangled right forearm and, most significantly, a severe traumatic brain injury. Awaking from a coma a month later, Bell embarked on a courageous, decade-long journey to re-claim his identity, his music and his career. The whole terrifying but ultimately uplifting saga is told with extraordinary candor and insight in his gripping 1998 autobiography, One Man’s Music.  read more

We do not charge money for the concert, but instead ask for a minimum donation of $22, all of which goes to the artist. 

Keith Sykes 

April 13
4 - 7 p.m.
Tortilla Factory
Herndon, VA
directions

Now on his tenth record Don’t Count Us Out (newly released on Syren Records), Sykes showcases not only his finely honed talents, but those of some of his dearest and most talented friends as well. This latest work provides the listening audience with a clean break in style from his last great work on Advanced Medication For The Blues. While ‘Advanced Medication’ rocked the house from its opening track, Don’t Count Us Out shows an entirely different side of Sykes with some true finger-picking ‘Americana’ flavor.  read more