Eclectic Music and More

Saturday, December 3, 2011 • 8pm
Tickets: $20/advance, $22/door, $10/teens 12-17,
children under 12 are free with paying adult.
Unitarian Fellowship, 4th and C Streets, Ashland

Each and every season for 26 years, Grammy Award-winning artists, Eric Tingstad and Nancy Rumbel have been home for the holidays creating a longstanding tradition with Northwest families. Their holiday presence illuminates the enduring spirit of the season with a gift of music.

The perfect blend of Americana fingerstyle guitar, double reeds, and the ocarina emitting the nostalgic sound of penny whistles lends magic to the season that fills the world with hope through the redeeming power of music. The relationships Tingstad & Rumbel have created through the years continue to bring family and friends together as memories are made and cherished thereafter.

Eric and Nancy first collaborated in 1985 recording their debut CD, The Gift which quickly became a holiday classic. Their holiday discography includes, Comfort and Joy, Star of Wonder, and Peace on Earth. Festive and reverent, solemn and lively, the repertoire Eric and Nancy bring to audiences year after year are perennial favorites that have been passed down through the ages.

Eric Tingstad has just completed his 20th CD with a host of collaborators including Nancy Rumbel, Cindy Cashdollar and Byron Metcalf. Badlands will be officially released in January 2012. As a holiday offering, this CD will be made available at each of their shows during November and December.

Well-known throughout the country and throughout the music industry, Tingstad & Rumbel won the Best New Age Grammy Award in 2003 in support of Acoustic Garden. Tingstad's latest ensemble release, Southwest was nominated for a Grammy in 2007.

Eric Tingstad, a classical guitarist, and Nancy Rumbel, who plays oboe, English horn, and ocarina, began their association after meeting at a music festival in the Pacific Northwest in 1985. They were drawn together by a shared interest in applying their instruments outside their traditional settings, integrating ethnic, jazz, rock, and other contemporary influences into their classical backgrounds. Their neo-classical instrumentals mixed with a warm folk treatment has been called "Northwestern Impressionism."

Their debut album, The Gift, quickly became a holiday classic. The next 20 years saw countless reviews including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Billboard and number one debuts on radio charts. In 1998, American Acoustic was honored as "Acoustic Instrumental Album of the Year." A Carnegie Hall appearance in 2000. And in 2003 they received a Grammy Award for Acoustic Garden. Tingstad and Rumbel have 19 recordings. Traveling to as many as 50 concert venues a year, they are friends who enjoy each other's company and truly love making music.

Nancy grew up in San Antonio, Texas and continued her musical education at Northwestern University where she became interested in ethnomusicology, improvisation and dance. She was a member of the Paul Winter Consort for several years prior to her move to the Pacific Northwest. Eric grew up in Seattle and attended Western Washington University where he was trained in the Segovian classic guitar tradition. He is a product of influences like Led Zeppelin, Hawaiian slack key guitar, Ravi Shankar and Martin Denny.

Leap of Faith, released in 2009, is a recording of Tingstad and Rumbel's most requested song Medicine Tree to traditional Asian folk tunes, Tex-Mex stylings, Caribbean rhythms, American songbook covers and Americana roots.

According to Janet Hansen (CD Baby reviewer), "In my opinion, Leap of Faith is the best work Eric Tingstad and Nancy Rumbel have recorded among their rich, and deep discography over more than 20 years. Leap of Faith is their nineteenth collaborative effort. Two of their previous works received Grammy nods, and there was a win in 2003. Just as America reaches down for its' collective bootstraps to pull things back together, Leap of Faith follows similar philosophies with a mingling of traditional ideas, coveted covers from the Great American Songbook, along with sheer ingenuity and heartfelt performance. It's hard to pick a favorite, but I must say I've never heard Nancy play so beautifully as she does in "Summertime." For those who love really exquisite fingerstyle guitar, Eric Tingstad is among the most captivating and charismatic guitarists performing today."

Place: Community Food Co-op Community Classroom, 300 N. Pioneer, Ashland
Cost: $35

For intermediate to advanced guitar players.

This workshop will be about learning solid acoustic and electric guitar techniques that will translate to any style of music and appropriate for any level of player. We will focus on bringing articulation, accuracy and grace to your playing. There will be discussion of general thoughts about music, tips about how to practice and ideas about recording yourself and how to distill that for improvement. We will break down right hand and left hand approaches and work on exercises for both flat picking and fingerstyle. We will look at how to create your won personal brand of discipline, inspiration and most importantly passion. Bring your guitar, a note pad and lots of questions.