Event

Steve Gillette & Cindy Mangsen

About Steve Gillette & Cindy Mangsen

Steve and Cindy have been performing together for 25 years, bringing together their love of traditional music and their wealth of original songs. Accompanying themselves with guitars and concertinas, their live performances are known for rich harmony, compelling songs and a good dose of humor. Their six duet albums have appeared on many folk Top Ten lists, from the WFMT Midnight Special (Chicago) to The Boston Globe.

Steve Gillette has been writing songs since the 1960's. Since Ian and Sylvia first recorded Darcy Farrow in 1965, Steve's songs have been covered by John Denver, Garth Brooks, Linda Ronstadt, Tammy Wynette, Waylon Jennings, Josh Ritter, and many others. But Steve's own versions are some of the best, with his warm baritone voice and his unique finger-picking guitar style (using a flat-pick and two fingers). Steve has many solo and duo (with Cindy Mangsen) recordings available. His solo album Texas and Tennessee was named one of the Top Ten Folk Albums of the Year by Tower Records. Steve has conducted songwriting workshops all over the US and Canada, and has been a long-time participant in The Kerrville Folk Festival. He is author of the book Songwriting and the Creative Process, a standard text in songwriting groups.

Cindy Mangsen is "one of the finest singers in American folk music" (Come for to Sing). Accompanying herself on guitar, banjo, concertina, or mountain dulcimer, Cindy is known for her compelling interpretations of traditional ballads, as well as for her own writing and her wonderful ear for harmony. She has recorded several solo albums (Songs of Experience received the Editor's Choice Award from Crossroads), as well as collaborations with Steve Gillette, Priscilla Herdman, Anne Hills, and Michael Smith. Her latest solo album, Cat Tales, is devoted to "songs of the feline persuasion." Cindy has led singing and ballad workshops at the Augusta Heritage Center in West Virginia and The Woods in Ontario, Canada.