w/ Keaton Simons and Sam Grow

Friday, March 6th $20 8 P.M.

Rock, Soul

Singer-songwriter Tyrone Wells masterfully blends pop, soul and rock, infusing each song with energy and passion.  Listening to Tyrone with your eyes closed, you'd think you were listening to a legendary soul-singer - which is in stark contrast to the tall, skinny white boy you see on the stage (not to mention... his name is Tyrone).

Tyrone has already sold over 25,000 albums independently and developed a strong fan base from a constant tour schedule.  His music has been featured in TV shows including "Windfall," "Numb3rs," "Ghost Whisperer," "One Tree Hill," "Rescue Me," "North Shore," and "Summerland."  The track "Dream Like New York" was also featured in the Fox animated feature Everyone's Hero.

Saturday, March 7th $15 7 P.M.

Folk-Rock, Instrumental

Tony Furtado grew up in Pleasanton, CA and took up the banjo at age 12. At age 19, he entered himself in the banjo playing competition at the venerable bluegrass festival in Winfield, Kansas (Walnut Valley Festival) and won the Grand National Championship. Hailed as a banjo prodigy, he got his first record deal in 1992 and has been making music and releasing records ever since. As he was cementing his reputation as banjoist extraordinaire, Furtado was also developing himself into an equally virtuosic slide guitarist. And now, with his latest release, Thirteen (Funzalo Records, 2007), this restless artist makes an exponential leap into the wide-open spaces of mythopoetic America, a terrain inhabited by such personal heroes as Cooder, the Band, Creedence, Petty and Waits. No two ways about it - this heartfelt, multileveled work completes Tony Furtado's ascent from the folk circuit to the big leagues.

Thursday, March 12th $12 8 P.M.

folk/Americana

Once in a great while, you put on a CD by an artist you’ve never heard of before and time stops. The voice is new, yet timeless. The lyrics are original yet feel immediately familiar, lived-in, knowing. And the melodies — expertly performed by a first-rate band — carry an easy, memorable groove.

This is the story of Eilen (rhymes with feelin’) Jewell. It started after her 2005 self-released debut, Boundary Country, made its way into club-owners’ hands, onto a handful of radio shows and around the press circles of Boston, her current home base. Reaction to Eilen’s music was swift. Many compared her talents to those of Lucinda Williams, Gillian Welch and June Carter Cash. The Boston Globe said, “The slow organic sway of her melodies, and the sensual way she rubs against the low end of her register, will remind some of Gillian Welch. Also like Welch, her writing is both intimate and vivid, classically framed and closely observed.”

w/ Bearkat

Friday, March 13th $12 8 P.M.

folk/Americana/indie

The Bowmans sweep across a full range of passions, following on the cohesive debut album "Far from Home" (Mother West): shattering acoustic harmony-rich ballads to heartening rock songs infused with early classical to blues influences. The duo's sound
has been compared to Simon and Garfunkel, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young and Joni Mitchell, but they are impossible to pigeonhole.

Currently, their music is aired on national radio in the United Kingdom and Portugal, regional radio in Spain, Holland and the U.S., including an early inclusion of their music on NPR’s “All Songs Considered.” Their music is also circulated in U.S. and German Starbucks stores, was featured twice on an MTV reality show, and in the opening credits for an “On the Road” presents Italian film. They come to NightCat on their way to the heralded South by Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas.

Saturday, March 14th $15 7:30 P.M.

folk-rock

For twenty years, Dan Navarro has written, recorded and toured as part of the folk rock duo of Lowen and Navarro. Their ten CDs showcase self-penned songs of experience, colored by supple acoustic-based arrangements centered around their intertwined voices. Their early success as songwriters became the impetus for forming Lowen & Navarro when they realized they wanted to sing their songs themselves. They toured together for 20 years, playing to an ever growing group of rabid fans. A few years ago Eric Lowen was diagnosed with ALS and had to cut his touring schedule to an occasional outing, but Dan is determined to keep their music alive. With considerable courage, he is setting out on the road, for the first time in many years, as a solo performer.

Sunday, March 15th $15 7 P.M.

folk-rock

Antje Duvekot (AN-tyuh DOO-va-kot) is a German-born, American-raised singer-songwriter who has risen to the top of the competitive Boston singer-songwriter scene. In 2006 with the release of her debut studio CD Big Dream Boulevard, Antje is now attracting national attention. Sirius radio DJ and former Rolling Stone music editor Dave Marsh went on record to say "This is a brilliant, brilliant record. As far as I can tell, Antje's the whole package. I've had this reaction once in the past 10 years, and that was the first time I heard Patty Griffin. And the reasons are very similar: that package of a terrific writer and singer, with the instincts to do things right, over and over and over.''

In the past year Lucy has toured the US doing solo shows and opening for many different musicians from Dar Williams to her brother Rufus. In 2007 she released her first recording, and EP entitled "8 Songs". In the spring of 2008 she will released her second EP, "8 More". She says, “A person can inherit their family's name and a person can inherit their family's stories but experience is something everyone aquires themselves. That's what I'm thinking about as I'm starting to perform on my own.” "Sincere and raw, at times recalling Joni Mitchell and Patty Griffin, Roche's bittersweet voice leaps out; she paints an indelible image..." NPR's Song of the Day

Thursday, March 19th $15 7:30 P.M.

art-rock!!!!!!

When you’re in a band as unique as the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players, it’s okay to be a little confident.

“We’re an indie-vaudeville-conceptual-art-rock-slideshow band,” says singer/songwriter Jason Trachtenberg. “We’ve got the market cornered. There’s no band that can hold a candle to us. In that department.”

He’s got a point there — the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players are a domestic trio (dad Jason, mom Tina Piña, 12-year-old daughter Rachel), who play quirky indie pop songs in the key of unironic good, clean fun (think They Might Be Giants meets the Partridge Family) with one major catch: All the songs’ carefully rhyming lyrics come from the vintage slide collections they’ve found at estate or garage sales that accompany their performances. What’s more, from their retro fashion sense to their disavowal of modern conveniences, the Trachtenburg Family, themselves, are a charming relic — a vintage throwback to simpler, more self-sufficient, family-oriented times — just like their music.

Friday, March 20th $15 8 P.M.

Soul/Funk/Blues

Who is Ursula Ricks? Well, the secret is starting to get out. Ricks possesses one of this region's most impressive, yet largely undiscovered voices. We would bet once you hear the passion that drips off of each note she delivers, you won't soon forget her.

Saturday, March 21st $15  7 P.M.

folk-rock/alt-country/Americana

Jonathan's delightful, substantive songs are rich with imagery and textures of influences from Appalachian, country, early American balladry, modern atmospheric Mideastern, urban and old timey folk music. A stalwart of modern folk music, Jonathan is constantly evolving in new musical directions and each incarnation has proven to be masterful. Like a gourmet chef, Jonathan does not create the same dish twice, so we're not sure what he will bring to the table tonight. But if music were a meal, Jonathan would prepare us a banquet. Catch this Kerrville New Folk winner as often as you can; you'll never get 'full', your appetite will only grow.