Steve and Cindy have been on the folk and contemporary songwriter scene for many years and have a long history. They rarely make it this far south. Their show here will be a RARE TREAT and has been a long time in the planning! It will be filled with singing of traditional and contemporary music and lots of jokes and stories!

Steve Gillette is best known as a songwriter, with songs recorded by artists from Ian & Sylvia to Garth Brooks, from Jiminy Cricket to John Denver. His song Darcy Farrow alone has been recorded by more than one hundred artists since 1966, most recently by Jimmy Dale Gilmore and Nanci Griffith. Quite literally, he wrote the book on songwriting: Songwriting and the Creative Process (Sing Out Press) is a standard text in songwriting classes across the country. Steve sings in a rich baritone and is a virtuoso on guitar, using a unique fingerpicking style with a flat-pick and two fingers. His most recent solo recording is Texas and Tennessee (Redwing Music), named one of the Top Ten Folk Albums of 1998 by Tower Records' Pulse Magazine.

Cindy Mangsen, who married Gillette in 1989, is also a songwriter, but her focus has been on songkeeping. Cindy is a master interpreter of traditional ballads, rich in myth and legend. She plays guitar, concertina, and banjo, and is renowned for her compelling voice, described by one critic as a voice that can warm a New England winter. Mangsen also performs and records with Anne Hills and Priscilla Herdman. Never Grow Old and Never Grow Up, duet albums by Mangsen and Hills, were two of the most significant traditional folk recordings of the ‘90s. Cindy's most recent solo album, Songs of Experience (Redwing Music), won the Editor's Choice award for Traditional Folk Music from Crossroads Magazine. As Steve comments, "Cindy has brought me back to my roots, and I think I've influenced her in terms of ensemble playing, rhythmic development, arrangement and performing. We're very fortunate to play for people who really listen and who come to a concert with a certain sense of history. There's a strong feeling of community about this music." Steve and Cindy's latest project is a quartet called Fourtold, with Anne Hills and Michael Smith. The group released a self-titled album in early 2003 (Appleseed).

Steve and Cindy have been featured on National Public Radio's All Things Considered and Mountain Stage, and have delighted audiences across North America and Europe with their music, warmth, and humor. They have recorded three duet albums: Live in Concert (1991), The Light of the Day (named Best Folk Album of 1996 by WFMT and WDET), and A Sense of Place (2001, Redwing Music) and countless CDs individually and with other artists.

Here's what people are saying about their music:

Cindy... "Her voice is one of the most beautiful of any contemporary folk interpreter." Chicago Magazine

"Steve Gillette, a veteran singer-songwriter, has penned tunes for Garth Brooks, Linda Ronstadt and Jiminy Cricket and it's easy to hear why these disparate artists look his way... His sense of love is immensely personal ("Bed of Roses"), engagingly familial ("Healing Hands") and sweetly generational ("So Close," written for his high school mates' 20th reunion). Mike Joyce, The Washington Post

"Cindy Mangsen combines a magnificent smoky voice with pure intelligence. Intelligence in choosing songs, in writing songs, and understanding of what she sings." Rich Warren, Sing Out Magazine

"Steve's 25 year career has seen his songs recorded successfully by many a distinguished artist; small wonder as he's a legendary songwriter...blending folk and country pop which makes you hang on every word with rapt attention. Obviously his peers are in awe of him." Tony May, Folk Roots Magazine

Steve... "His writing encompasses the harmonic complexity of "You Don't Know Her Like I Do" and the directness of "Darcy Farrow" (recorded by Ian and Sylvia and John Denver), and his voice is deep and full. But it is his playing which is most memorable. Using a pick and two fingers, he plays fast and intricate patterns which recall the near-legendary Doc Watson, with a little Blind Gary Davis for good measure." Michael Etchison, The Los Angeles Herald Examiner

Cindy... "A voice that can warm a New England winter.. The songs on Long Time Traveling are beautiful in and of themselves, but perhaps the best thing about Cindy's singing is its expressive- ness...in such subtle ways she is able to convey so much emotion. Listen to this album when you've been moving too fast and need to remember what's really important." Andy's Front Hall

Reservations ($10) for this show are necessary and can be made at (919) 787-6378 or at bett@bettpadgett.com. Please make sure that your request has been confirmed (usually within one day). Reservation parties are limited to 4 people.

I have DREAMED of the day when Steve and Cindy might be here. This will be another grand evening to remember here at Little Lake Hill!

GRAPES ON THE VINE	THEIR BRAINS WERE SMALL AND THEY DIED
GLASS HOUSES	HEARTLAND
DARCY FARROW	WHEN THE FIRST LEAVES FALL

Here's what people are saying about their music:

Cindy... "Her voice is one of the most beautiful of any contemporary folk interpreter." Chicago Magazine