Jim Jones and Mariam Funke
2025-11-29 14:00 - 16:00, 2025-11-30 14:00 - 16:00 (America/Phoenix) | Arizona Folklore Preserve, 56 E. Folklore Trail, Hereford, AZ, 85615, United States
Jim Jones and Mariam Funke are award-winning musicians from New Mexico, and are two-thirds of the band, The Cowboy Way. As a group they have been named Western Group of the Year four times by the International Western Music Association, and have taken home numerous individual awards from the IWMA, the Writers of America, the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, and the Academy of Western Artists. Their music captures the spirit of the West…the past, the present, and the future, as well as the values, challenges, and allure, while their lively shows feature tight harmonies, high energy and smokin’ instruments. They honor traditional cowboy songs and then bowl you over with their dynamic contemporary original Western tunes.

Peter McLaughlin
2025-12-06 14:00 - 16:00, 2025-12-07 14:00 - 16:00
Peter McLaughlin is an acclaimed acoustic guitarist, songwriter, vocalist, performer, recording artist and music instructor located in Tucson, AZ. He plays many genres and styles, and specializes in acoustic flatpicking and fingerpicking techniques. He was born in Washington DC, and his family’s roots are in Scotland and England by way of Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina. Early on, his parents, Bill and Nancy McLaughlin, brought music into the lives of Peter and his brother David. They were introduced to all types of music, had a family band, and were surrounded with love and encouragement.
Peter started playing the guitar at the age of eight and was very soon jamming at bluegrass festivals and fiddle conventions. He lived in Denmark in the early 70s, and attended a Danish high school. In 1974, Peter moved again, this time to attend Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, where he played with Tom Rozum (mandolin, fiddle, and vocals), Roger Smith (bass and vocals), John Zarske (rhythm guitar and vocals), and Frank Dedera (banjo) in the group Flying South, an acoustic string band specializing in bluegrass and early swing era jazz. A later incarnation of Flying South included Kirby Mittelmeier (mandolin and vocals) and John Willis (bass and vocals).
In 1983, Peter moved to Tucson, where he played music with banjo player Ross Nickerson in various bands, including the 1988 Telluride Band Contest winners, The Titan Valley Warheads, who Peter still plays with on occasion.
In 1991, Peter had the opportunity to reunite with his long-time pal, Tom Rozum, and joined Laurie Lewis, touring nationally and internationally for six years as guitarist and harmony vocalist with her band.
In 1992 Chris Brashear moved to Tucson. He and Peter struck up an immediate and lasting friendship and a strong musical bond and began performing and recording together.
In 1996, Peter released his first solo album, a CD entitled Cliffs of Vermilion, produced by Laurie. She, along with Tom, Chris, brother David, father Bill, and others appear on Peter’s stellar debut CD, which is on Dog Boy Records.
In 1999 when Chris recorded his first solo CD, Wanderlust, an excellent new bluegrass band formed out of that project when producer, Jody Stecher, along with Bluegrass Boy banjo picker, Bob Black, bassist, Forrest Rose, Chris and Peter started Perfect Strangers. Their self-titled CD, released on Rebel Records in 2003, was also produced by Jody.
Since the late 1980’s Peter has performed off and on with Bob Meighan, Earl Edmonson, Kirby Mittlelmeier and Brian Davies in a band affectionately known as The Dreadnutts. In 1991 they won the Telluride Bluegrass Band Contest.
In 2011 Peter’s current band, The Sonoran Dogs, was formed out of a tour with the late Japanese guitarist, Maro Kawabata. The “Dogs” continue to perform regularly at various festivals and concert venues. Their first CD was released in 2014 on Dog Boy Records.
In 2013 Peter was inducted into the Tucson Musicians Museum.
Contest Awards:
• First Place in National Flatpick Guitar Championship, Walnut Valley Festival, Winfield, KS (1988)
• Second Place in National Flatpick Guitar Championship, Walnut Valley Festival, Winfield, KS (1986)
• First Place in Telluride Bluegrass Guitar Championship, Telluride, CO (1988, 1991)

Joel Alden White
2025-12-13 14:00 - 16:00, 2025-12-14 14:00 - 16:00
Joel Alden White is a singer/songwriter from West Texas. Six-time nominee in the IWMA and recipient of the Academy Of Western Artists 2023 Song Of The Year. Joel has cowboyed and managed ranches in West Texas, been a Yard Manager for a West Texas Commercial Feedyard and a cattle buyer in Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma, and Arizona. Currently Joel is “technically” retired spending time with his wife, Kelly, in their home in Timbercreek Canyon just outside of Amarillo, making music, traveling, and performing. White’s first 2 albums found success on the Roots Americana Country Charts with singles charting as high as a #1 and 2, #2’s. At this time his EP “Once I Was A Cowboy” has been in the top 30 Album chart for the IWMA for the last 2 years. The title song, Once I Was A Cowboy, was the #1 song on the summer 2024 IWMA Western Radio chart.

Out of the Blue
2025-12-20 14:00 - 16:00, 2025-12-21 14:00 - 16:00
Out of the Blue started creating their “Bordergrass” style in the early 1990s. You already know three of the members if you’ve heard Way Out West or Dharmapoke at the AFP through the years – Tom Poley on guitar and banjo, Emmy Creigh on guitar and Slim Rost on bass. Donny Russell rounds out the Out of the Blue quartet on mandolin. The band has a reputation for their unique, signature vocal harmonies. Based in Tucson, they have traveled throughout the Southwest playing their distinctive original songs as well as traditional bluegrass and Americana covers. They have toured Europe 3 times and won 2nd place in the Telluride Band competition in 1998. The band members have received honors from the Western Music Association and Tom Poley has won 5 songwriting awards from The John Hartford Festival Songwriting Challenge. You can expect an energetic and fun performance in the acoustically pristine AFP that will feature some of their signature songs as well as some new gems added for these shows.

Eric Schaffer & Loren Dircks
2025-12-27 14:00 - 16:00, 2025-12-28 14:00 - 16:00
Eric Schaffer has been recognized as one of Southern Arizona’s favorite singer/songwriters, having been a finalist in the Great American Song Contest, the Passport To Nashville songwriting contest, a 3-time Tucson Folk Festival songwriting competition finalist and the winner of the 2022 Tumbleweed Music Festival songwriting contest. With a writing style heavily influenced by the great singer/songwriters of the 60’s and 70’s and a voice that has been compared to Kris Kristofferson and Steve Earle, his songs are sometimes sweet, sometimes melancholy, sometimes funny, and always well crafted. Eric has performed throughout the US and has opened shows for Clint Black, Blackberry Smoke, Marc Cohn, Lonestar and Darden Smith.

Loren Dircks is well-known as one of Arizona’s most accomplished guitar pickers. He was the front man and lead guitarist for the band Gila Bend when they pioneered “country-punk” in the ’90s and continues to play everything from jazz to folk to punk and country. Aside from his work with Eric and The Other Troublemakers, Loren still performs with Gila Bend and his new project, The Classless Chaps.

Doors open at 1 p.m., performances begin at 2:00 p.m. Reservations are preferred; however, walk-ins will be seated if space permits.

The Notorious No-Gig Girl Band
2026-01-03 14:00 - 16:00, 2026-01-04 14:00 - 16:00
With everything shut down in 2020, The Notorious No-Gig Girl Band formed when four friends who had met at the Desert Bluegrass Association workshops decided to break COVID quarantine and jam outdoors in a city park. Spaced well apart from each other, the group played and sang for the pure joy of being together and making music. Playing every week in (nearly) all weather, they developed a following among park visitors, and were especially popular with the under-4 set.
Jennifer Johnson on bass brings raucous good humor and a strong beat. Karen Dismachek on guitar and fiddle lays down a mean groove. Louise Courtney plays an unusually soft-spoken banjo, but has been known to let her rip on occasion. Suzette Sommerer on fiddle just plays whatever the heck she feels like. All four sing like angels (possibly angels with tarnished haloes), and their tight harmonies really bring the band together. Made up entirely of musicians who either took up their instruments late in life or who came late to bluegrass or both, they are a great example of how it is never too late to find passion for something new. Who ever thought that one day this group would be gigging? And no, they are not planning to change the name!

Dave Munsick
2026-01-10 14:00 - 16:00, 2026-01-11 14:00 - 16:00
Dave writes and sings of a west that many miss; a west of endless emotional landscapes unbroken by borders between people, times and places. These are stories and songs that go down smooth and stay with you awhile.
Besides songs, Dave writes and tells stories that resonate the adventures that his music has taken him on. He has produced 7 CDs of original music, and written and recorded themes for historical documentaries as well as compositions for government, commercial and private sectors. He also develops educational learning modules that immerse students in the pivotal themes of western history.
Dave is a performer, playing solo as well as with his bands. He has opened for or played fiddle, piano, and guitar for artists including Chris LeDoux, Lyle Lovett and Ian Tyson.
“Dave Munsick is a damned fine fiddle player!” – Ian Tyson
He gives educational workshops, arranges songs for his concerts and dances, and has had his music played on television as well as U.S. and European radio stations. His music has been reviewed in Western Horseman, Rope Burns, Eclectic Horseman, and Cowboy magazines.

Liz & Pete
2026-01-17 14:00 - 16:00, 2026-01-18 14:00 - 16:00
She’s Liz, he’s Pete, they are Liz & Pete. Liz Cerepanya and Peter Dalton Ronstadt join musical forces to explore material old and new. Liz’s heartfelt voice with Pete’s haunting harmonies and rich guitar arrangements captivate the mind and tug at the heart. After a few passing introductions in their shared music scene, Liz Cerepanya joined Peter Dalton Ronstadt on stage at Monterey Court in Tucson in the fall of 2019. They had had a brief opportunity to work up a couple of songs, including Rodney Crowell’s “Leaving Louisiana in the Broad Daylight”, and an instant musical match was realized. The decision to make a record together was easy, and quickly Liz and Pete began exploring material including the timeless songs of Alan Garr, songs of their favorite songwriters and singers, new and old compositions by Pete as well as classic songs from his father Michael Joseph Ronstadt’s repertoire. Liz and Pete’s natural element is just the two of them on stage accompanied by an acoustic guitar and the Pennsylvania Stompbox.

Kerry Grombacher
2026-01-24 14:00 - 16:00, 2026-01-25 14:00 - 16:00
Kerry Grombacher writes contemporary western songs and plays guitar and mandolin. His song, Range of the Buffalo, was named 2021 Song of the Year by the International Western Music Association.
In the spirit of the troubadours of old, Kerry Grombacher’s songs paint vivid portraits and tell the fascinating stories of working cowboys and old camp cooks, roadside motels and prisons, wildland firefighters, cattle rustlers and wolf trappers – the landmarks and denizens of the west. You’ll find Kerry at Cowboy Poetry Gatherings and Folk Festivals, singing his songs, playing mandolin as a sideman, and picking in the jam sessions and around the campfires until the last song is sung.
Kerry was born in Kansas and has lived and worked in Texas, New Mexico, and Oregon. That’s taught him to admire the men and women who still work cattle and to respect the traditions of the West. His songs have found great acceptance among the poets, musicians, and fans who have heard him play, and they’ve been recorded by other western artists, including Jim Jones, Belinda Gail, The Texas Trailhands, Duke Davis, Trails & Rails, Earl Gleason, Ed Stabler, and Gary Prescott. One of his songs appears on the 2012 children’s compilation, Cowboy Playground, released by Putumayo World Music.
Kerry has sung his songs at events as varied as the Durango Cowboy Poetry Gathering, the Newport Folk Festival, Cowboy Songs & Range Ballads (Cody, WY) and the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. As a sideman, he’s played mandolin with a list of western performers that includes Chuck Pyle, Belinda Gail, Joni Harms, Wylie Gustafson, Eli Barsi, Ken Overcast, and Jean Prescott. Kerry sang at the dedication of the last memorial marker on the Chisholm Trail in Oklahoma, and he was featured on The Big Roundup website, www.cowboypoetry.com.
Grombacher regularly plays at performing arts centers, coffeehouses, house concerts and other music venues, and he’s performed on the syndicated television show, Louisiana Jukebox, and on River City Folk, a music program that’s heard nationally on public radio stations and on Sirius/XM Satellite Radio. In 2001, he gave a concert beneath the neon signs on the parking lot of the Sands Motel on Historic Route 66 in Grants, New Mexico and the owner named a room for him! His 2012 “Highway 281 Troubadour Tour” followed that US Highway from the Canadian border to Mexico, with stops along the way for concerts.
Kerry’s recordings include Range of the Buffalo, It Sings in the Hi-Line, Sands Motel, Riding for the Brand, Dreams of New Orleans, and Home to the West. He’s a member of the International Western Music Association and Folk Alliance International, and he endorses Elixir Guitar and Mandolin Strings.
Kerry Grombacher kgrombacher@yahoo.com
512-296-7833 (cell) www.kgrombacher.com

Belinda Gail
2026-01-31 14:00 - 16:00, 2026-02-01 14:00 - 16:00
Belinda Gail, “America’s Western Sweetheart,” was raised on ranches in Nevada’s Carson Valley and in the California Sierra Nevada foothills near Sequoia National Park. Her rich ranching heritage and love of the West runs deep in her music and evoke the character of the people, as well as the beauty, majesty, and deep connection to the land that only those who have lived the ranch life can truly capture. Ranching and the ‘cowboy life’ are very much part of the essence of this dynamic Western Performer.
Belinda is honored and humbled to not only be counted among the top female Western Music performers of this era, but she was recently listed as one of the top 50 Country and Western Entertainers of all time by American Cowboy Magazine in their collector edition entitled “Legends”. She has committed her full-time effort to this music for nearly two decades and crisscrosses this country taking her special brand of Western Music to the masses.
Doors open at 1 p.m., performances begin at 2:00 p.m. Reservations are preferred; however, walk-ins will be seated if space permits.

Brad Fitch
2026-02-07 14:00 - 16:00, 2026-02-08 14:00 - 16:00
Singer/songwriter Brad Fitch has performed professionally since he was a high school student at Estes Park, Colorado. Since then, he has been part of several stage and recording bands, and plays up to 300 concerts each year throughout the United States. Brad has recorded 28 albums and has published 300 of his own songs. When not playing his originals, he specializes in traditional cowboy and campfire music, classic country, and the songs of John Denver, Gordon Lightfoot, Jimmy Buffett, James Taylor and John Prine. He’s played for two U.S. presidents and was commissioned to write official centennial song for Rocky Mountain National Park.
A graduate of the University of Colorado, Boulder, he is also a military veteran, a YMCA Senior Director and served 14 years as a National Park Service Wilderness Ranger. He has received the Hawaii Music Award, the All-Around Cowboy Entertainer Award (Colorado), and the Rotary Club Community Service Award for his musical fund-raising/charity performances. Brad was voted “Most Interesting Person in Estes Park” and has been recognized by Town of Estes Park proclamation for his “many contributions and joy he has brought to the Town.”
Brad has been a member of the following bands: The TropiCowboy Band, The Elktones, Fitch and Chips, The Arizona Opry Band, Barleen’s Rocky Mountain Opry Band and Sibling Rivalry. He has also performed as a duo with renowned horse trainer and author Mark Rashid, since the mid-1990s. His albums can be found on his website, www.cowboybrad.com.

Rusted Spurs West
2026-02-14 14:00 - 16:00, 2026-02-15 14:00 - 16:00
Rusted Spurs West is an award-winning cowboy and western swing acoustic trio. The group features Patti Hamel, a retired nurse on accordion and vocals, Tex Hamel, a retired physician on guitar and vocals, and Bob “Slim” Denoncourt, a professional musician on bass and vocals. The group has played concerts and festivals throughout the southwest and their latest C.D., “Arizona Stars,” was awarded the 2023 “Western Swing Album of the Year” by the International Western Music Association. The group features classic songs, originals, light hearted cowboy poetry and sing-alongs, all with that great western harmony.

Nancy Elliott
2026-02-21 14:00 - 16:00, 2026-02-22 14:00 - 16:00
Mom and Dad bought a Kimball Organ when I was about seven years old, and I guess that started it all. At
thirteen, a friend of the family taught me a few guitar chords, and I got my first 12 string the next year. With the
music of John Denver, Batdorf and Rodney and America inspiration, I began writing simple songs and playing folk
music at campfires, weddings and local festivals. The years after High School found me in California working for the
park service and playing evenings in campgrounds and restaurants. Abilene, Texas was the next stop. With its wild
and woolly mix of a low drinking age (that being 18), public dance halls and private clubs, I found my self singing
Linda Ronstadt and Willie Nelson covers behind chicken wire. I had the honor of playing one night a week for
several months at Mel Tillis’s “The Old Sawmill”, The Town Crier Steakhouse, a pool bar, whose name I can’t
remember (might be a good thing) near the back gate of the base, and a fund raiser for the Veterans Hospital with
Rex Allen, Rex Allen Jr and Johnny Gimble. I got out of Abilene with my guitar, my ‘70 Chevy Impala 350, some
real good stories and 10 stitches around my eye from one of those nights there was not enough chicken wire in the
state Texas to protect the band.
Back in Ohio, and once again on the local Dayton folk scene, I played Sam’s on 5th, The Trolley Stop in the
Oregon District and was a performer on opening night at Mick Montgomery’s Canal Street Tavern, where I also later
tended bar. Brisco’s Lounge, Winds Café, Tuty’s Inn, my goodness, it was time of stage hopping with friends and
solid, paying gigs, many of them sit downs where a player could make a living.
Coming to Arizona in 1990 I discovered the Western & Cowboy music. Katy Creek Band resulted in 2001,
lasting a good 13years and four albums. This lovely but tiny genre provided inspiration to grow in my song writing
and performance abilities. Now, seeking wider and broader opportunities, including for “The Heart of It All” story
and song concerts, I once again perform in the Folk genre, particularly my self coined “South~Western Americana”.
After a ten year recording hiatus, the “Tall Tree” album released in January of 2019. Recorded for Mi Casa
Records and produced by Maestro Ismael Barajas, Tall Tree is the first in my self coined South~Western Americana.
The drum styles, arrangements and rhythms, the wide open shelving of instruments against vocals, and the
instruments themselves, are a direct reflection of my life in the Desert Southwest.
My second album of South~Western Americana, “Bluebirds Singing On The Buffalo Road,” is bare bones,
just me and my guitars with harmony vocals on a few songs. It includes “Lightning Woman Danced,” “ By Moon or
No Moon,” refreshed recordings of “Autumn’s On Its Way and “Wild Rose,” and “The Ruby Handled Knife,” a poem inspired while writing the book, “Autumn’s On Its Way,” which released January of 2024.
I am a proud member of the Western Writers of America.
Contact information and booking
Nancy Elliott 520~705~5901
www.NancyElliottMusic.com

Joni Harms
2026-02-28 14:00 - 16:00, 2026-03-01 14:00 - 16:00
Joni Harms has a warm sincerity and ease to her voice… a voice that shines through on stories and melodies of a country/western way of life, making you feel you are part of the entire experience she sings about, as if she is singing only to you. In many ways, Joni is a pioneer and torch-bearer, knowing the country lifestyle is made up of a blend of musical sounds, giving her a unique style drawing crowds, literally, around the world.
“Growing up, I learned to sing and write songs by listening to Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, Merle Haggard and George Strait,” says Harms. “I remember seeing Emmylou Harris, and, after playing a while with the famous Hot Band, she returned to the stage with just her black Gibson guitar and proved if you can truly sing, write a song and play your guitar, then you can entertain your audience all by yourself.”
Although it is always special to perform with a great band, Joni held onto that challenging lesson and enjoys performing for radio stations and at various events with just her guitar, showing off that pure country voice she has been praised for since she signed her first record deal with the famed music producer Jimmy Bowen of Capitol Records in the early 1990s. Any singer will tell you not everyone can entertain that way, but Joni is a master.
Joni Harms’ musical journey continues around with globe with the release of her 13th studio album, Lucky 13, which is receiving amazing reviews. Country Music People Magazine says…”these are some of the very best country songs of recent years and prove that Joni Harms is one of country music’s most underrated writers.”
There is no mistaking the fact that Joni was a Merle Haggard fan as she even wrote a tribute to him on her latest album, Lucky 13, simply titled Merle. Joni Harms has built a career on two-stepping, toe-tapping shuffles and swing songs on her CDs. Joni loves to write about rodeo, cowboys and the ranch way of living, but says her favorite kind of songs to write are ballads or story songs. That’s why Merle is one of her favorites. “I absolutely love it when someone tells me that a song of mine has touched them or helped them through a tough situation. It makes me all the more certain that I am doing what I was put on this earth to do,” shares Harms.
Joni’s signature cowboy hat and boots are indeed more than a fashion statement. Harms lives on a century farm in Oregon that was homesteaded by her great, great grandfather Harms in 1872. Joni says, “This place has inspired many of my songs and I think they truly represent who I am and what is important to me.”
And there is no question who Joni Harms is. She is a tough, hard-working rancher who is also a mom with strong values with a gift for writing and performing music. She admits sometimes it is hard juggling all of these things, but they are important to her and she wouldn’t change a thing.
Joni Harms has earned multiple honors from such notable organizations as the Western Music Association and the Academy of Western Artists. She has also performed on some of the most famous stages, including the Grand Ole Opry and New York City’s Carnegie Hall.
Joni Harms continues to tour and do what she loves, saying her journey so far has been absolutely wonderful. God willing she’s not going anywhere for a long time and has a lot more songs to write and sing!

Steve Jones
2026-03-07 14:00 - 16:00, 2026-03-08 14:00 - 16:00
“Steve is in his 25th year as a performer, 17 of which was with the Yampa Valley Boys. Steve has had 2,600+ performances, with 850+ at the Bar Lazy L family ranch over 22 years. His third CD album, “The Lump of Coal (Hope’s Diamond)” charted in the top twenty of western CDs in all four quarters of 2022 per “The Western Way” reporting. He has two other CD recordings, ”That Irish Kid” (2012) and “Picasso” (2017). He brings enthusiasm and energy to the stage with an audience-friendly show, including sing-alongs. He has performed in many of the western states, primarily in Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico, and Arizona, as well as in Ireland. He has performed at many guest ranches, including the prestigious 3 Forks Ranch. He has appeared at the Arizona Folklore Preserve, Colorado, Cochise, Durango, Grand Encampment, and Nebraska (Valentine) Cowboy Music Gatherings; the Steamboat Pro Rodeo series, county fairs, and many other public and private events.
Steve is now spending the winter months in Casa Grande, AZ. Some new songs are coming out of that experience. He still performs cowboy/western, classic country, folk, Irish and original songs. Lots of humor, too.
