"All things shall be
well; and all things shall be well;
and all manner of things
shall be well."
Julian of
Norwich
Connie Dover News and Information
"Connie Dover is the
finest folk ballad singer America has produced since
Joan Baez"
Scott
Alarik, Boston Globe
"Connie Dover has become an American treasure who has
rediscovered
the musical synergy that existed between the British
Isles and the American West."
Cowboys & Indians Magazine
"Connie Dover possesses
that most rare of instruments, a voice so evocative,
so perfect . . . Hers is a universal voice, following
the thread of history, so steeped
in tradition it conjures images of Scotland, of Ireland, of Appalachia,
of the Old American West . . . a consummate singer."
Jon Chandler, Old West Journal
Video of the Cowboy Poetry Gathering
In January 2009, Connie performed with
Skip Gorman at the
25th
National Cowboy Poetry Gathering.
Here is video of their
Thursday
performance (sing-along, also featuring
Glenn Ohrlin,
the Gillette Brothers
and
Michael Martin Murphey)
and
Friday
performance (Songs of Yellowstone and the Tetons, also featuring
Ray Doyle,
Jon Chandler & the Wichitones,
and a live on-stage painting of a beautiful Yellowstone scene by renowned
artist William Matthews).
There is also
video
and audio of other performances.
Download Connie's music today!
Connie's CDs, plus her
digital-only 2-song release of
"Amazing Grace" and "The Language of Flowers,"
are available as direct MP3 downloads through CD Baby or your favorite music
download site.
At cdbaby.com,
you can buy an entire album as one zip download, which includes MP3s, a JPG of
the album art, and a text file of song titles, album notes & a link back to
Connie's website.
These are regular MP3 files that play easily on an MP3 player, such as an iPod,
MP3-enabled cellphone, Blackberry, iPhone, Nokia MP3 player, Windows, Mac,
Linux and more.
The MP3s are encoded at top-audiophile quality (~200k
VBR):
 Connie is currently recording a CD of
Christmas songs and carols with Kansas City's premiere chamber ensemble,
the Kansas City Chamber
Orchestra.
Under the musical direction of maestro Bruce Sorrell, the Kansas City
Chamber Orchestra is celebrating its 21st season with a December concert
performance and CD release of seasonal music arranged exclusively for
this special collaboration with Connie.
Guest musicians on a variety of traditional instruments will round out
this uniquely beautiful collection of beloved and lesser-known songs,
which includes: O Come Emmanuel, The Christ Child's Lullaby, The Huron
Carol, Cantus, Auld Lang Syne, The Holly and the Ivy and many more.
[Update: now available!]
Taylor Park Music is pleased to announce that Connie has received a
2007 Emmy Award for Musical Composition and Arrangement for her work on
the KCPT Public Television 19 historical documentary, Bad Blood: The Border War that
Triggered the Civil War.
The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) hosted the
31st annual
Mid-America Emmy Awards Gala on October 20, 2007, at the America's
Center Ferraro Theatre in St. Louis, Missouri.
 Dover and fellow Emmy winner, Clayton
Stubbs (KCPT 19), who also received
an Emmy in the Audio category for Bad Blood), were
selected from 700 entries in 81 categories.
Dover, known for her interpretations of Scots, Irish and American Cowboy
traditional songs, produced acoustic music for the 90-minute
documentary and formed an ensemble -- "The Brother Green Band" -- with
Mason Brown (guitar/bass
viol/banjo), Kelly Werts
(guitar/fiddle/percussion /recording engineer),
Douglas Goodhart (fiddle/tenor viol) and Matthew Johnson (cello) to
create a musical atmosphere to support the grim and heart-rending story
of the border wars between Missouri and the Kansas Territory in the
years from 1854 to 1860.
Dover sings and plays piano and organ on the Bad Blood
soundtrack, which also features instrumental work by Missouri music
favorites Cathy Barton and Dave
Para.
The Western Folklife
Center (Elko, Nevada) has announced the winners of the Yellowstone
and Teton Song Contest.
The Grand Prize of $1,000 goes to Connie Dover for her song "Out
Yonder."
The second prize of $500 goes to Ray Doyle for his song "The Jewel," and
the Audience Award of a new Gibson Songwriter Deluxe guitar goes to Jon
Chandler for his song, "The Road That Leads to Yellowstone."
"Out Yonder" was written by Connie on the front porch of the cook
house at the Double Diamond X Ranch where she worked as a ranch cook.
The ranch headquarters overlooks the South Fork of the Shoshone River
right on the edge of Yellowstone Park near Cody, Wyoming.
Connie completed the song while driving to a recording studio near Taos,
New Mexico, where she recorded this and other unreleased songs about her
love of the West with friends and fellow musicians Mason Brown and Chipper Thompson.
Hal Cannon, founding director of the Western Folklife
Center and song contest organizer, along with co-producer
Taki Telonidis, will select songs to produce a CD, Songs
from Yellowstone and the Tetons.
"We want to give people a wonderful soundtrack of music to
accompany their drive around the parks," explains Cannon.
The CD will be released early spring 2008.
There will be a launch concert at the Museum of the Rockies
in Bozeman, Montana and there are also tentative plans to
have events in Cody and Jackson, Wyoming.
You can listen to the winning songs on the Western Folklife Center
website.
Connie and musical friends Tom Sauber and
Skip Gorman visited South America this
summer.
"The Wyoming Pals" toured Argentina,
Paraguay and Chile, performing in schools, at community concerts and for
embassy functions hosted by the US State Department in cooperation with
local arts councils, universities and humanities organizations.
The 2007 trip is a follow-up of their delightful 2006 Chilean
tour.
Thanks especially to Sol, Ricardo y Sandrita for
all they did to make this happen.
See photos below of the Pals and their Paraguayan friends (talented
young recipients of academic scholarships) at a concert and bar-b-que at
the residence of Ambassador James Cason in Asuncion, Paraguay.
Felicitaciones!
Connie's first book of poetry -- Winter Count -- was released at a
debut reception, concert and poetry reading at the Plaza Branch of the
Kansas City Public Library.
Featured as a kick-off for the first annual Kansas City Literary
Festival, the event, which was was hosted by the KC Public Library, The
Writers Place, Prospero's Books and the Kansas City Literary Festival,
drew 300 listeners and featured both Connie's reading and a brief
concert with musical pals Mason Brown and Douglas Goodhart.
Winter Count is available online through Connie's website at
www.conniedover.com and at www.prosperosbookstore.com.
Connie is one of the latest to join the pantheon of poets published by
Kansas City's Unholy Day Press.
Look for a write-up about her work online at Present Magazine:
www.presentmagazine.com/arts_ww.php.
Connie Receives Speakeasy Prize in
Poetry
Connie has been selected as the winner of the Speakeasy Prize
in Poetry. Chosen from over 700 entries, her poems, Suler Monday,
Pablo y Maria and Winter Count (the title poem of her new book poetry)
were featured in Speakeasy Magazine. Connie's work was awarded first
prize by judge Li-Young Lee, who wrote, "A lively blend of narrative and
song, the voice in these poems, particularly in ‘Suler Monday,’ speaks
out of the richness of family cannon and apocrypha.” Prose winner Nicole
Lea Helget was chosen by judge Rosellen Brown for her creative nonfiction
piece, “Stain You Red.”
The Loft Literary Center was founded in 1974 in a loft above a
Minneapolis bookstore and is now the largest independent literary center
in the nation. Serving more than 50,000 readers and writers each year
through classes, writing contests, grants and other services, the Loft is
located in the Twin Cities' new Open Book literary arts building. For more
information about the Loft visit http://www.loft.org
and http://www.speakeasymagazine.org.
 Taylor Park Music is proud
to carry the CD, "Christmas on the Plains: A Musical Gathering of
Plainsfolk".
This collection of Christmas music was released in 1993 by the Wichita
Eagle Beacon Press, and includes two songs recorded by Connie that
you won't hear anywhere else: her lovely a cappella rendition of the
16th Century "Lo How A Rose E're Blooming" and the haunting "Huron
Carol."
Produced by fifth-generation Kansas musician
Kelly Werts, this wonderful
CD of 15 traditional songs, carols and instrumental pieces captures the
rich variety of music that rings across the plains each December.
Performed by Kansas' finest singers and instrumentalists, the many
different twists of sacred, secular, ethnic and whimsical songs capture
the spirit of a pioneer Christmas, and remind us that the plainsfolk
hold a rich and diverse musical heritage.
Go to our online ordering page at https://secure.nameservers.com/conniedover.com/store/orders.shtml.
Connie's Music on New BEFORE THEIR TIME
, Volume III Compilation
Connie's rendition of Huw Williams' beautiful song, Rosemary's
Sister, from her album, Somebody, is part of the third
and final volume of BEFORE THEIR TIME, a benefit collection of music
designed to provide comfort and consolation to people in mourning. 100%
of net revenues from the sale of this 4-hour 4-disc song compilation goes
to Hospice and suicide-prevention organizations. Over fifty artists, including
Joan Baez, Judy Collins, Eric Bogle, Jay Ungar and Molly Mason have contributed
songs to BEFORE THEIR TIME, Volume III, which is scheduled for released
in October, 2004. Connie's instrumental piece, An Air for Mary Tipton,
is part of BEFORE THEIR TIME, Volume II.
Four-CD sets are $30.00, or two for $50, plus $7 S&H. There
are no S&H charges if you send a check to Before Their Time, PO
Box 222, Lyme NH 30768. To order, visit http://www.beforetheirtime.org
or call 800.447.3803.
Jackie Ahlstrom in Home Companion
Artist and illustrator Jackie Ahlstrom, who designed the beautiful
CD companion booklets for Connie's last three recordings, is featured
in the October/November edition of Mary Engelbreit's Home Companion
magazine. The article focuses on Jackie's talents as a beadwork artist.
To view examples of her stunning work (her beaded leather gauntlets
are inside of "The Border of Heaven" CD tray), pick up the latest edition
of Home Companion or visit Jackie at http://www.jackieahlstrom.com
.
En Francais!
To Connie's French-speaking fans: Thanks to
the generous efforts of a dedicated listener in France, you can now
access a French-language version of Connie's website, including a
bio page, contact information and links, plus descriptions and photos
of some of the instruments played on her albums. http://perso.libertysurf.fr/dmbmarchand/conniedover/
Peace and understanding through music ...
... and blessings to all, - Connie
|
