Carolyn Martin: News

Carolyn's official photo with the Western Music Association's Best Western Swing Album of 2011!

Howdy, Folks - here's the big news!

Carolyn Martin’s “Cookin’ With Carolyn” CD was named the

2011 Best Western Swing Album

by the Western Music Association.

The award was announced at the WMA’s annual awards show in Albuquerque, NM on November 21, 2011.

Carolyn is thrilled by this honor, and would like to thank the WMA membership and especially the wonderful musicians who played on the record and made the project so much fun. Pictures of the WMA award will be added to Carolyn’s website as soon as we recover from the drive from Albuquerque to Nashville.

We understand that everyone’s in the midst of Thanksgiving preparations, but we wanted to share our good news with y’all; we had a great time at the Western Music Association convention, and the Best Western Swing Album award was truly the icing on the cake for Carolyn (well, considering that we were in Albuquerque, you might say that the award was the green chile sauce on the enchiladas)!

If you don’t have your own copy of “Cookin’ With Carolyn” or if you’re stuck for the perfect Christmas gift for that hard to buy for relative, please consider visiting http://www.carolynmartinmusic.com/products.html for a stress-free shopping experience.

There’s a lot more news this month, but we realize that you don’t want to stare at the computer all dang day; we’ll let you know the rest once the turkey is devoured and you’re all out of pumpkin pie.

Singer Carolyn Martin was recently honored at the 19^th Annual Texas Natural and Western Swing Festival in San Marcos Texas.

In a ceremony on May 21, 2011, Nashville based vocalist Carolyn Martin was inducted into the Texas Western Swing Hall of Fame. A Texas born swing singer, Martin received the honor during her headlining performance at the Texas Western Swing Hall of Fame Show in the San Marcos Plaza. Festival organizer Al Dressen, assisted by 2010 Texas Western Swing Hall of Fame inductee Billy Mata and former Asleep at the Wheel vocalist Maryann Price, named Martin an “Ambassador for Western Swing” and presented her with a Texas shaped plaque to celebrate her induction.

Martin was the recipient of the Academy of Western Artists’ Will Rogers Award for Female Western Swing Vocalist of the Year in 2008 and 2010 and received nominations for Song of the Year for her composition “That’s What I Call Cookin’” and for Western Swing Album of the Year for her CD “Cookin’ With Carolyn”. The Western Music Association also nominated Martin for Outstanding Female Vocalist, Western Swing Album of the Year and Song of the Year in 2010.

Martin’s success comes, she said, from her belief that “the only difference between big band swing and western swing is the instrumentation; big bands use trumpets and saxes while western swing features fiddles and steel.”

We just returned from the Western Music Association's festival in Albuquerque, NM. Though we didn't bring home any awards this year, we had a great time! Here's what we do after the scheduled events each evening. (this was probably recorded between 1:00 and 2:00AM on Saturday evening).

Charlie Ray at Music City Artists (www.musiccityartists.com) has added Carolyn to the Music City Artists roster - we're looking forward to working with Charlie and all the folks at Music City Artists!

The Academy of Western Artists has named Carolyn the Female Western Swing Vocalist Of The Year!
The AWA, based in Gene Autry, OK, was founded to recognize and honor outstanding individuals who, through their accomplishments, preserve and perpetuate the traditions, values and heritage of the American Cowboy.

Carolyn is thrilled that the AWA recognized her in this manner.

Howdy, y'all!

Carolyn has spent the last few weeks on tour with a show called “Country Royalty”, a tribute to the music of Hank Williams and Patsy Cline. The tour began in Greenville, AL and wound up seven states later in Bridgeport, WV. The fall Country Royalty tour was great fun and the performances were extremely well received. We’re all looking forward to the next Country Royalty performance (currently scheduled for February 2011 in Pell City, Alabama). If you haven’t seen Country Royalty yet, you can at least hear Carolyn singing those classic songs. To order “The Songs Of Patsy Cline”, go to: www.carolynmartinmusic.com/products.html where all of Carolyn’s albums can be purchased. 

 

Carolyn will be sticking pretty close to Music City for the rest of the month; on Wednesday, October 20, Carolyn Martin’s Swing Band returns to the legendary Station Inn for a 9:00PM show. The band for this show will include the fabulous Johnny Cox on the steel guitar, along with Rory Hoffman, Jerry Krahn, Billy Contreras, Tommy Wells and Dave Martin.

 

On October 29, Carolyn will bring her trio back to the Frist Center for the Visual Arts from 6:00-8:00. Come out, see the exhibits – including “Chihuly at the Frist” and the recently opened exhibition “The Birth of Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay” (which includes the painting known as “Whistler’s Mother) – then come back down to the lobby and enjoy some fine swing music.

 

Looking ahead, Carolyn and the Swing Band will be playing at the French Quarter Café at 6:00 on November 5 – a convenient location for our East Nashville friends – and we’ll be leaving for shows in Texas (Nov. 13 in Weatherford at the Texas Opry Theater and Nov. 16 at Cowboy Gelato in Amarillo) and a few days of playing and singing with our friends at the Western Music Association convention in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

 

In other news, Carolyn has been nominated for the 2010 “Outstanding Vocalist Female” award by the WMA, while her latest CD, “Cookin’ With Carolyn” has been nominated for both Western Swing Album of the Year and Album of the Year. The WMA has also nominated “That’s What I Call Cookin’”, written by Carolyn and her husband Dave, as Song Of the Year! These nominations are in addition to the Academy Of Western Artists nominations, which are for Female Western Swing Vocalist, Western Swing Album and Song of the Year – Carolyn is thrilled that so many talented people like the new record and is both honored and humbled by the nominations.

 

Finally, we’re thrilled that the video from the September 1^st Music City Roots show is online – to see Carolyn’s Swing Band, Erika Chambers, The Gypsy Hombres and the legendary J.D. Souther, go to: http://livestre.am/p41 and enjoy the show!

 

Until next time, keep on swingin’!

The Western Music Association has announced the nominees for their 2010 awards; "Cookin' With Carolyn" is nominated both for Western Swing Album of the Year and for Album of the Year, and "That's What I Call Cookin'" is up for Song of the Year! Carolyn is also a finalist for Female Outstanding Vocalist.

The new Western Way Magazine just came out and "Cookin' With Carolyn is the Number 1 Western Swing album - how cool is that!

Tonight is the first of three nights in Texas with the great Billy Mata and the Texas Tradition. September 3 at the Broken Spoke in Austin, September 4 at the Swiss Alp Dance Hall in Schulenburg and September 5 at the 11th Street Cowboy Bar in Bandera - y'all come see us!

Howdy, Folks!

Carolyn will be performing this Labor Day weekend with the fabulous Billy Mata and the Texas Tradition.

Friday, September 3 the show will be at the legendary Broken Spoke in Austin, Saturday the 4th, we'll be at the Swiss Alps Dance Hall in Schulenburg, and on Sunday the 5th, Billy, Carolyn and the boys will be holding forth at the 11th Street Cowboy Bar in Bandera, Texas. Texas piano master Floyd Domino will be joining Billy, Carolyn and the band in Austin and Bandera.

Come on out and bring your dancing shoes (or boots, as the case may be)!

On Tueday, August 31, Carolyn will be visiting with Bill Cody on WSM 650 AM - if you're one of the unlucky few who can't hear WSM on your radio, you don't have to feel left out; tune your computer to www.wsmonline.com and listen on the internet!

Y'all be sure and catch Carolyn on Music City Roots on Wednesday, September 1st; it'll be a great show!

Carolyn appeared on WPLN's "Live In Studio C" last week with a jazz quartet; while she's been concentrating on singing Western Swing recently, many of you remember her "Very Thought Of You" CD. Most of the material on the latest "Live In Studio C" is from that album. The show is currently availabl from WPLN's website; the link is: http://wpln.org/?cat=5 and it's well worth listening to. Carolyn and the band, consisting of pianist Rory Hoffman, drummer Tommy Wells, bassist Dave Martin and the lovely and talented Billy Huber on trombone, are on the second half of the show.

Enjoy!

Carolyn's appearance on the Woodsongs Old-Time Radio Hour is now online go to: http://128.163.130.14/woodsongs-577.wmv to see it! There's also a clip on Youtube of the first song we did on the show; to see that, go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqgtavqJ34E

Carolyn spent the morning at Sweetwater, the online music store in Ft. Wayne, IN, helping Brad Lunde and Mark Hornsby from Transamerica Audio demonstrate the sound of A Designs and GML equipment. While we were there, Carolyn was asked to do a short interview about our recent flood and do a duet version of "That's What I Call Cookin'. Both can be seen at www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjqsCAm8GgM

Carolyn will be performing on the Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour on Monday, May 3 at 7:00 - we'd love to see you at the taping, but if you're not in the vicinity of Lexington, KY, on the 3rd, you can listen at www.woodsongs.com on Monday night and beyond!

Sadly, tonight's gig at Norm's River Road House (in West Nashville) has been canceled due to weather. We just got a call from the folks at Norm's; they're moving the PA upstairs because the basement is flooding.

We'll re-schedule at some point in the future, so stay tuned for more news.

The latest Western Way Magazine lists Carolyn's latest CD "Cookin' With Carolyn" at Number 3 - and "Swing" is Number 4! We're grateful to all of the DJ's who play these CD's and to all the folks who have bought it!

We had a great time at Folk Alliance in Memphis - we met some great people, heard some great music and even got to play with some new friends! We feel that the trip will pay off in the long run, because we're getting to expose new folks to Western Swing!
Here's a video from Folk Alliance - someone recorded it at one of our showcases...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBzJYl10o3A

Dear Friends,
As of January 11, 2010, I am no longer a member of the Time Jumpers. The decision to leave was not at all an easy one, but I want to concentrate my energy on my own musical journey.
I am very proud to have been a member of the Time Jumpers these past eleven years, and I have the utmost affection and respect for the other members, past and present. I thank them for their talent, friendship and for the opportunities that I've had as a member of the group. I would like to offer my special thanks to Terry Choate for his unswerving dedication to the Time Jumpers.

Carolyn's new record is called "Cookin' With Carolyn"; the mastering is done, the final tweaks are being done to th graphics and text, and the whole thing should be at the pressing plant on December 21st!

Once the CD is at the plant (and we have a firm delivery date), we'll be offering a pre-sale special - stay tuned for more details!

Carolyn has been working hard on a new project; the CD will be callled, "Cookin' With Carolyn", and we think that it'll be her best effort yet! All of the songs have been tracked, and once the vocals are finished, the mixing will begin. "Cookin' With Carolyn is slated for an early December release.

Recording has started for Carolyn's new project at Nashville's Java Jive Studio, with producer Dave Martin. The songs have been chosen, the musicians are ready, and we hope to have the new record out by the end of November!

Carolyn appeared at the Academy of Western Artists Awards show at the Granville Theater in Garland, Texas on September 22, 2009, performing with John England and the Western Swingers and with AWA winner Liz Masterson. A great time was had by all! A few pictures are in the Photo section of the site.