The Kenneth Threadgill Concert Series will open its ninth season on Saturday, February 25 with a concert featuring the country-rock duos Foster & Lloyd and Chris Hillman and Herb Pedersen.
The Series, which is named for Greenville native and Austin legend Kenneth Threadgill, is presented at the historic Municipal Auditorium in Downtown Greenville.
Tickets for the February 25 concert are on sale now at Cavenders in Greenville. Tickets are also available in downtown Greenville at the Auditorium office, at the Calico Cat and at the Magic Bubble on Lee Street.
Tickets may also be purchased online through the Auditorium’s new website: www.ShowtimeAtTheGMA.com, or by calling 877-4-FLY-TIX .
A limited number of seats are available in the reserved section.Series coordinator, Larry Green, Jr. calls the February 25 concert a showcase of five decades of trendsetting country-rock.
“Chris Hillman was one of the first artists to combine country and rock in the 1960's with the Byrds and The Flying Burrito Brothers,” Green said. “In my opinion Hillman is one of the true visionary American musicians.” Hillman and Pedersen will perform in Greenville as an acoustic duo.
Chris Hillman and Herb Pederson
Foster & Lloyd were influenced by the Byrds and brought the country-rock sound into the 80s along with Hillman and Pedersen’s group, The Desert Rose Band.
“Radney Foster and Bill Lloyd reunited as a duo last year,” Green continued. “Whereas Hillman and Pedersen were from the California country scene, Foster & Lloyd were among the first groups to expand the boundaries of the Nashville music scene with their country-rock sound. They were having hits around the same time Chris Hillman and Herb Pedersen were at the top of the chart in The Desert Rose Band.”
Foster & Lloyd are bringing their full four-piece band to Greenville.
Chris Hillman and Herb Pedersen have had a lasting musical friendship spanning over forty-five years, since their initial meeting in Los Angeles during the early folk and bluegrass movement.
In the summer of 1964, Hillman put down his mandolin after being recruited to play electric bass for a new band, the Byrds. Through various Number One hit songs such as Mr. Tamborine Man and Turn! Turn! Turn!, The Byrds established themselves as a cornerstone in the new cultural and musical movement of the Sixties. Herb Pedersen continued his career in bluegrass, working with the incomparable Flatt and Scruggs, among others. In 1967, Hillman established himself as a songwriter with his first song, Time Between, noted by many as being the first country-rock song. After his tenure with The Byrds, Hillman, along with Gram Parsons, formed The Flying Burrito Brothers, now looked upon as the forerunners of the alternative country-rock style.
From The Flying Burrito Brothers to Manassas and then on to Souther-Hillman-Furay, Chris Hillman continued to develop as a singer and songwriter. In the early 1980s, Hillman reunited with Herb Pedersen and, along with John Jorgenson, formed the critically acclaimed Desert Rose Band. The Desert Rose Band enjoyed numerous Number One country singles throughout the decade, including One Step Forward, Summer Wind, and He’s Bank and I’m Blue. By the mid-nineties, Hillman and Pedersen began performing as an acoustic duo and have recorded several successful albums together.
In 1991 Chris Hillman was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of The Byrds, and has received numerous accolades for his songwriting. Herb Pedersen was the number one session singer and instrumentalist in the Los Angeles area for decades, performing on many notable artists’ albums. The Desert Rose Band, fronted by Chris, Herb and John Jorgenson, was honored by both the Academy of Country Music and the County Music Association as “Best Vocal Band.”
Del Rio native and Texas music star Radney Foster will be making his second appearance at the Threadgill Series, this time with long time musical partner Bill Lloyd. Foster first performed at the Auditorium in 2009 in a song swap with Ray Wylie Hubbard, Brandon Rhyder and Walt Wilkins.
In 1985, Foster and Lloyd were two young singer-songwriters signed to the same song publisher. They came from different backgrounds but had enough in common to create an almost immediate response to the songs they co-wrote and recorded. Their first success came as songwriters (early songs were recorded by Sweethearts of the Rodeo and Ricky Van Shelton), but it was the distinctive sound of their publishing demos that gained them their record deal with RCA Records.
The duo mixed straight up Buckaroo country with jangly-Byrds sounds, looking and sounding a little louder than most of the other country acts of the era. Their first single, the rockabillyish-honky-tonkin’, “Crazy Over You,” shot to the top of the charts, making them the first duo in county music history to score a No. 1 on their debut single.
Foster & Lloyd also became one of the first acts to be played simultaneously on Country and College radio. The combination of their harmony vocals (recalling The Everly Brothers) with their self-produced guitar-centric sound and solid, clever song craft won over critics and fans alike.
In the end, they recorded three groundbreaking albums for RCA (containing hits “Sure Thing”, “What Do You Want From Me This Time,” “Texas in 1880" and “Fair Shake,” as well as “Crazy Over You”), toured internationally, garnered a Grammy nomination and were a constant presence at the CMA awards. The due split in 1990, with both members going on to successful solo careers. Though they remained friends and wrote together sporadically over the years, it took a request from the American Music Association to reunite for a fundraiser to get the duo together again onstage. News that Foster & Lloyd were performing for the first time in 20 years spread like wildfire, and the show sold out in 15 minutes. The band that night included Cheap Trick bassist Tom Petersson, with a guest appearance by bluegrass virtuoso and longtime friend, Sam Bush, on mandolin.
“It was so much fun getting back together onstage, and we realized that the new songs we had written together still had that magic,” says Foster.
The result is the new album: It’s Already Tomorrow. Fans of their older records will no doubt hear the familiar blend that only happens when Foster & Lloyd work together.
The duo dug up an old song, “Picasso’s Mandolin,” which they had written years before with two-time Threadgill headliner Guy Clark, who recorded it on his Boats To Build album. “We felt like we wanted to put our spin on the song,” says Foster.
Country. Rock and roll. Power-pop. Folk. Americana. Whatever you want to call it, Radney and Bill combined make Foster & Lloyd music.
Foster & Lloyd
The Kenneth Threadgill Concert Series is produced by Friends of Main Street, a non-profit organization dedicated to historic Downtown Greenville.
“The Kenneth Threadgill Concert Series serves several purposes beyond bringing great entertainment to Greenville,” said Greenville Chamber Tourism and Marketing Director Milton Babb.
“The Series bring people from all over the state into our Downtown, it generates revenue for Friends of Main Street projects and it helps promote a positive image of Greenville. The people who come here for the Threadgill Concerts may also do a little shopping, drop into one of our other entertainment venues or restaurants, or even spend the night in one of our local hotels.”
The spring Threadgill Series concert will be on Saturday, April 28th, with the artists to be announced at a later date.
The Threadgill Series is supported by a team of volunteers and sponsors. Sponsorships for the 2012 season are available through February. Any business or individual interested in becoming a Series sponsor may contact Larry Green, Jr. At (903) 455-1876.
“Our sponsors and volunteers are the lifeblood of the Threadgill Series. Without them the Series would not exist. We love to add new sponsors and volunteers. If anyone is interested in joining our Series, I strongly encourage them to contact me. I would love to hear from them. We can furnish them with information about the different sponsorship levels and benefits.”
Violin students from local elementary schools will again perform at each concert in 2012. The Greenville Suzuki Strings Association sells bottled water at the concerts, with all proceeds being used to purchase new violins for the students.
More information on the Kenneth Threadgill Concert Series can be found at www.ShowtimeAtTheGMA.com and www.greenville-texas.com.
For more information on the artists who will perform February 25, please visit www.fosterandlloyd.com and www.chrishillman.com.