KC Cafe radio’s continued coverage from the 2018 FAR-West Music Conference in Woodland Hills, California brought live music from the Main Showcase Stage to our airwaves on October 12. Featured were some of the West’s finest talent, including Cindy Kalmenson, Ernest Troost, Ryanhood, Alice Wallace, Birch Periera and The Gin Joints, and John Batdorf.
Our broadcast coverage is brought to you by the generous sponsorship support of Mike and Carleen McCornack of Garden Variety Music, Jeanette Lundgren of Mother Hen Promotions, and the 2018 International Songwriting Competition.
Here we present the archived recordings of the performances.
Cindy Kalmenson (CA)
Cindy Kalmenson has been singing her songs since the 90s when she realized that the quickest way to get on stage was to have an original song to sing at an open mic. Having given her acting career a solid 2 weeks she decided to pursue the open mic circuit. Being a bilingual school teacher did afford her a captive audience but not a true stage for what was about to unfold. With a handful of songs she let go of her coveted rent control apartment in Santa Monica and headed to Nashville to reinvent herself far from family and friends. After one year she founded and hosted the very successful show Girls with Guitars, which launched many careers with the exception of her own… but that didn’t stop her from recording 3 critically acclaimed CDs, winning prestigious songwriting awards including first place in the International Songwriting Competition, Chris Austin contest at MerleFest, Just Plain Folks, West Coast Songwriting, and DIY pics in Performing Songwriters magazine. She has been playing with her band the Lucky Ducks on a regular basis in and around Ventura County since 2009.
Listen to the performance here:
Download the performance here: Cindy Kalmenson
Ernest Troost (CA)
Ernest Troost is a singer/songwriter and a 2009 Kerrville New Folk winner. His songwriting style combines folk and Piedmont-blues-style guitar with timeless stories and character portrayals drawn from the American past and present. If the Carter Family, Robbie Robertson, and Alfred Hitchcock wrote songs together, they might sound like this.
Listen to the performance here:
Download the performance here: Ernest Troost
Ryanhood (AZ)
John Platt of WFUV (NYC) called Ryanhood “Discovery of the Year,” and they were named “Best Group/Duo” in the International Acoustic Music Awards. Audiences can expect airtight harmonies, explosive guitar/mandolin riffs, and a high-energy, highly-interactive performance – something they developed as street performers at Boston’s Quincy Market.
Listen to the performance here:
Download the performance here: Ryanhood
Alice Wallace (CA)
With a style that is rooted in the classic country songstresses such as Patsy Cline and Emmylou Harris, Southern California singer/songwriter Alice Wallace‘s impeccable vocals and melodic, literate song-crafting skills bring a fresh touch to authentic Americana music. Her 2015 full-length release “Memories, Music & Pride,” on LA-based California Country Records brought accolades from across the country, and she was named 2017 Female Vocalist of the Year at the California Country Awards. She has a new album titled “Into the Blue,” slated for release in January 2019 on Rebelle Road Records.
Listen to the performance here:
Download the performance here: Alice Wallace
Birch Periera & The Gin Joints (WA)
Born out of a love of the early years of swing, Americana and rock ‘n roll, Birch Pereira & The Gin Joints is a band whose sound transports you to the time of speakeasies, honky-tonks and roadhouses. With upright bassist and vocalist Birch Pereira at its center, the band features skilled and versatile musicians who share the love of the American song traditions and desire to offer a fresh angle on them. The band’s debut album, “Dream Man,” was released independently and received the Earshot Jazz Golden Ear Award for “Northwest Jazz Recording of the Year,” in 2016. Fans, critics and deejays have delighted in Birch Pereira’s “old soul,” tenor voice, the group’s new, stripped-down arrangements of musical gems from the past and Pereira’s ever growing repertoire of original, yet period-evoking material.
Listen to the performance here:
Download the Performance here: Birch Pereira & the Gin Joints
John Batdorf
John Batdorf is a singer-songwriter solo artist and one half of Las Vegas Rock and Roll Hall of Famers folk-rock duo Batdorf & Rodney. He’s also a successful film and TV composer, session vocalist, and inspirational musician in the substance recovery community. John invites the listener into his soul, open and trusting as he sings of love and hope, transforming despair to hope, hate to love and fear/ignorance to tolerance/acceptance. We share his understanding, forgiveness and are filled with compassion when the song is done.
Listen to the performance here:
Download the performance here: John Batdorf
Thank you to these generous supporters of our live broadcast coverage:
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