Gary Nicholson

Residence: Nashville
Hometown: Garland, Texas
Genres: Americana, Singer/Songwriter, Country, Blues, Rock
Website: www.garynicholson.com

A 2006 nominee for the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, Gary Nicholson has had more than 350 of his songs recorded, has won 26 ASCAP songwriting awards and is responsible for more than a dozen major hits. Unlike most tunesmiths, he is not bound by musical genre. His songs routinely top the country hit parade. But rock bands, blues artists, folk stars and bluegrass acts have also embraced him as a songwriter.

“I’ve never found it difficult to ’shift gears’ between different musical styles,” Nicholson says. “I let myself be dictated by the needs of the artist or of the writer I’m collaborating with. A lot of these guys are just looking for good lyrics. Songwriting is songwriting. A song is a song.”

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Artist website: www.annemccue.com

Anne McCue’s career has covered punk, Lilith Fair, Australian awards and Vietnam. She has released her fourth solo album, Koala Motel to critical acclaim and has recently co-produced two albums by other artists - Stephen Rowe and Leila Florentino. She has appeared as guest guitarist/vocalist on albums by Michelle Shocked and Gina Villalobos. Her two most recent albums, including Roll‚ (Messenger Records) was recorded at Dusty Wakeman’s Mad Dog Studios in Burbank, California. McCue and Wakeman co-produced the album. Going in with the philosophy of some of Anne’s favourite three piece bands she played the guitars, Dusty played bass with Dave Raven on the drums. The three jammed on the material, some of which McCue was still writing at the time. Guests on the album are Carl Byron (keyboards and accordion), Eric Gardner (drums on “Machine Gun” and “Tiny Little Song”and Mike Stinson (drums on “I Want You Back”). The album has received critical acclaim from such publications as Billboard, Entertainment Weekly and XM Satellite Radio (Top 5 Album of the Year) and was picked by Bob Harris of the BBC as his favourite album of 2004.
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Artist website: www.amycook.com

Everybody knows the stars at night are big and bright deep in the heart of Texas, and the celestial has always been proudly represented in Lone Star culture, be it bands (Explosions in the Sky), sports (Houston Astros) or the state nickname itself. Amy Cook also sees something unique up there, but the alt-folk singer-songwriter isn’t content simply marveling at the enormity of what lies beyond earth. On The Sky Observer’s Guide—written in a prolific four-week gush—she tells simple, bittersweet, earthbound stories, refracted through the panoramic scope of the heavens. Things like this happen when you leave the industrial clamor of L.A. for a humble, weirdly-named West Texas town like Marfa.
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