February 2nd 2012 – It has been a while since we posted but we’ve been busy as ever here at Cherry Street Studios – home of  The Blue Ribbon Tea Co.  For more about our photo open house, the production of “Mandolin Sam”, the 4th Friday 7th anniversary & cookbook, the upcoming [...]]]>

Alan Fisher's "Mandolin Sam"

February 2nd 2012 – It has been a while since we posted but we’ve been busy as ever here at Cherry Street Studios – home of  The Blue Ribbon Tea Co.  For more about our photo open house, the production of “Mandolin Sam”, the 4th Friday 7th anniversary & cookbook, the upcoming Bowers/Spatz house concert, and our review in Victory Music check out our current newsletter. Cheers to a great 2012! http://www.reverbnation.com/c/fr5/artist_1829454?eid=A1829454_11121694_

October 4th 2011 – It’s a rainy October day here in Spokane, much like the one a year ago when Bill wrote and recorded Rainy Song which ended up the final cut on our latest album. It seems the right time to make it a free download – along with 7 others from our growing Rainy Song collection. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the rain…  http://www.reverbnation.com/tunepak/3453264

photo by Lloyd Phillips

September 8, 2011 – After the strong responses we received performing our recently revived, and somewhat mysterious “Southbound Train” (by Kathy) we decided to post it as our next free download. We will perform it live next on October 1st at Artichoke Music in Portland, OR – a Saturday night concert with fellow songwriter Sig Paulson http://sigpaulson.com/ .  For more information on our songs and our work sign up for our newsletter or join us on facebook and stay in touch.  Thanks!  Bill & Kathy

August 1st 2011 - From last month’s song about a worker who ended up an unhappy greeter after his factory shut down, to a song inspired by a Dorothea Lange photograph… and one with an optimistic edge. We hope you enjoy this month’s free download and opening track from our 5th cd “Standing in the White Angel Bread Line”

July 5, 2011  It seems an appropriate time to post “What’s a Working Man to Do?” as our download for July. Just back from our trip east we revived this song for our shows in Paducah and Chicago. Much has changed in our old stomping grounds, some good things…and some not so good things including the loss of many manufacturing jobs. While visiting Berry Craig, Kathy’s favorite history professor, we learned more about the closure of General Tire and its effects on the small town of Mayfield, KY. http://blog.aflcio.org/2010/03/04/a-tire-plant-closes-a-community-withers/  An article about us “Music from blue-collar roots” appeared in the Herald-News the day we rolled into Joliet: http://heraldnews.suntimes.com/lifestyles/6114248-423/lockport-native-draws-music-from-blue-collar-roots.html

May 20, 2011 – More press coming in….  Check out the press page to read what folks are saying about our newest release “The Devil is Beating His Wife.”  Any of you folklorists know what this old saying means?

Live on Crossroads, sketch by Bill

May 2, 2011 We had a great time yesterday as live guests at KYRS on the Crossroads Show. Thanks to host Bob Rice for inviting us back for the 3rd time and to those who listened in! It’s shaping up to be a busy year for us with 9 cities so far on our calendar. And….for the 1st time we had t-shirts made to celebrate our new cd so if you would like one ($15 shirt or $30 shirt plus cd) drop us an e-mail. Thanks for the great responses we have had so far to the new release and we hope to see you at a show soon!

BRTC T-shirt

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March 14th, 2011 – Thanks to everyone who joined us last Friday - a totally full house and a truly memorable night!!!  It was great fun to share another event with Dan Maher and to have the talented musicians Brad Keeler and Jim Pittman join us for our set.  Now onward we go. Check our schedule as we continue to add show dates for 2011. 
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sketch by Bill

Dec. 29, 2010  - Our last post of 2010 comes with thanks to many people for a wonderful musical year.  We especially want to thank the talented musicians who joined BRTC on stage including:  Jerry Cartwright on blues harp, Bob Rice on electric bass, Larry Weiser on clarinet, and Brad Keeler on more insturments than I can rembember.  We also want to thank KPBX Spokane Public Radio, KYRS Thin Air Community Radio, The Spokane Folklore Society, the Three Rivers Folklife Society, and Artichoke Music in Portland, among many others for inviting us to share our music at their venues and events.  For us 2010 ended with a big photo bang – our 1st Cherry Street Studios open house was a huge success (see Art page).  We will continue to combine our music travels with our love of photography and host an annual photo show every December.  Look for more music shows to come as we are back to working on our 2011 show schedule.  Happy New Year!  Bill & Kathy

Buddy the Blues Dog

Oct. 16, 2010 – Sometimes you just gotta have fun. A couple days ago Bill took a break from the stress of putting the final touches on our cd, sat down with our old $99 Silvertone we got from Dutch’s (our favorite music/pawn shop), and a brass slide, and he wrote a new song. As usual Buddy dog followed him downstairs to the recording studio. One take…..and don’t miss the surprise ending. Enjoy!!!
Listen: Rainy Song
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Heartroot

What’s new? House concerts at Bill & Kathy’s house! Last night was the 1st of what is shaping up to be a regular series. We (The Blue Ribbon Tea Company) kicked off the night followed by Eric McEuen and Mindy Dillard (Heartroot) from Portland for the 1st stop on their 1st nation wide tour. Stacey Earle and Mark Stuart will join us on October 9th, and The Hollands on March 22nd.

photo courtesy Spokane Public Radio

Summer 2010

The summer of 2010 has been great so far. We performed several shows around the Spokane area including a KPBX Kids Concert at the Bing Crosby Theater in July. It was fun to be back on our favorite stage, this time taking a break from our more serious songs and performing to a house full of kids of all ages.

Immediately following the kids concert we took off for the National Folk Festival in Butte, Montana where we kicked back and enjoyed listening to great music from all around the country and all over the world.

Later in July we made a trip to Portland and played for some wonderful people on a floating house on the Columbia River…a magical evening. While in Portland we finally made it to Artichoke Music where we met more new friends and got to hang out in the store with Dick Weissman strumming just a few feet away from us. Artichoke is much more than a store and a must visit location for folk music fans who visit Portland.

Between travels and shows we’re steadily making progress on our 5th cd, so stay tuned for more music by The Blue Ribbon Tea Company.

Bill & Kathy