The New Christy Minstrels® Concert, January 20th, 2007 - 3 PM -
Buena Performing Arts Center

Details are on the NCM concert page AFP Web site - NCM Concert (link removed).

A few reminders:

• Mail orders for tickets must be in our P.O. Box by Friday, January 18th. The order form is on the Web page.
• We will not mail any tickets after January 15th - but we will call or email you to verify we got your order, and the tickets will be held for you at Will Call
• The Spur Western Wear stores in Sierra Vista and Benson are selling our tickets
• You may order tickets online as late as Saturday, January 19th -- provided we still have seats left!

Media Coverage:

• TV: Sunday Morning, January 13 - Watch Randy Sparks (New Christy Minstrels founder and leader) and Becky Jo Benson (one of the newer members) on Bob Lee's Forum (half-hour show)
  • 7:30 AM - KMSB-TV Fox-11
  • 10:30 AM - KTTU
• Radio: Listen to Sierra Vista's KTAN (talk radio). They have been running public service announcements about our various concerts, and will be playing clips and talking about the New Christy Minstrels concert quite a bit.
• Newspapers:
  • Sierra Vista Herald (published daily)- We had the cover story on their Tempo entertainment magazine on January 6th, and an inside story on the 13th. Publisher Phil Vega wrote about the concert in his column "Roundup of Words and Music" on January 9th. If you  missed them the first time around, you can Just go to www.svherald.com and enter "christy" in the search window to get these articles.
• Also watch for our ads in the Herald. We'll have one in each paper, Sunday through Saturday. On Tuesday and Wednesday, we'll have a color banner at the bottom of the front page.
• Mountain View News (published on Thursdays) - We'll have an article (very different from the Herald articles) in this Thursday's paper, plus an ad
• Tombstone Times (published monthly)- Editor Janet Hendricks wrote a "day trip" article about the AFP, with info about the NCM concert. This paper is distributed free around Tombstone, so we are hoping a lot of visitors will get the word.
• Other Papers? - We send our press releases to papers all over the state, but we seldom hear when something is published. If you see articles about the AFP in papers, please let us know.

Be sure to visit The New Christy Minstrels® Web site.

There's also a page on the AFP site devoted to news stories.

"Gathering Day" 2008 (To see photos of the artists, please visit the AFP Guest Artists page. 

This is an annual event, a big one for the Arizona Folklore Preserve. We have a day of shows to help kick off the Cochise Cowboy Poetry & Music Gathering. Four artists/acts will each present a one-hour show. Each show is priced $10, and we really encourage you to stay for the day - all four shows for only $35. Lunch will be available (order ahead of time) for an extra $10. A day of great music and poetry for two, including lunch, for $90 - not bad!  Call our usual reservations line, 520-378-6165, to make your reservation. Or if it's more convenient for you, you can send an email request.

10:00 AM: Tom Chambers, one of the best entertainers around, is sure to get our day off to a great start. Tom was the founding president of the Western Music Association. He always puts on a wonderful show, mixing his original songs, traditional Western music, and some great poetry and storytelling. He's a great yodeler, and will show off that talent at least once. He'll also make you laugh a few times.

11:30 AM: Dolan Ellis, Arizona's Official State Balladeer and our founder and artist-in-residence. He's touring with the New Christy Minstrels again, and we'll catch him between their huge Arizona tour and a mini-tour in Florida. Dolan has a great repertoire of cowboy and Western music, including the music for a stage play, Cowgirls. Many people believe his version of Ghost Riders in the Sky is THE BEST.

12:30-1:30: We'll be breaking for lunch.

1:30 PM - Trails & Rails, a QUATRO from San Diego, four great voices and lots of great instruments. Paula Strong, Walt Richards, Bruce Huntington, and Ken Wilcox will presents songs of Trails (cowboy songs) and rails (trains). Many of the songs are traditional, others are written by Bruce (we think you'll really love his "A Million Miles from Home").

3:00 PM - Shad Pease, a cowboy poet from Wyoming. Probably the best quote about Shad is from the late, great, Rex Allen, who declared him "...one of the finest and funnest [sic] cowboy poets I've seen." He has written more than 200 poems, and has opened for Michael Martin Murphy.

All artists will have CDs available for purchase.

History and Heritage: While the emphasis at the Arizona Folklore Preserve is music, music, music (with a little cowboy poetry thrown in for good measure), there are also the storytelling aspects of keeping our Arizona culture alive.

On January 26th and 27th, Wyatt Earp will be at the AFP to present two plays written by his award-winning playwright wife, Terry. They are a wonderful team, Terry with her meticulous research and wonderful ability to write dialogue, and Wyatt with the ability to portray characters with reality. Of course, on Saturday he'll be portraying his own great-uncle, that historic Wyatt Earp. On Sunday, he'll become one of his uncle's friends in "The Gentleman Doc Holliday."

Madison Walker will be here on February 9th and 10th to help celebrate Black History Month. Like Wyatt Earp, Madison Walker is an actor (as is any great storyteller). Just as Wyatt BECOMES the historic characters he plays, Madison BECOMES Nat Love.

Our co-Webmaster, Dale Chidester, wrote this about Madison: " Madison Walker’s performances are spell binding.  He involves the audience as minor role-players and receives rapt attention.  The material and incidents he relates are very interesting and not commonly available elsewhere.  You learn a lot, whether you want to or not!  We’ve been to both his “Buffalo Soldier” and “Nat Love” performances and look forward to seeing either."

We hope you'll come out to see these outstanding entertainers (and as Dale said, learn a lot, whether you want to or not).

Gift Certificates: We have them. We have some printed in the $30 denomination, because that is the perfect amount to give to music lovers. That will admit two people to one of our concerts.

We can also make a gift certificate for any amount you specify - just keep in mind that it's best to make them an amount that can be spent at a single concert. They can also be used to purchase CDs and other merchandise.

Reservations are still required when using gift certificates for concerts.