Crossroads Music Company & Listening Room

Ultimate FingerPick and Gus Gustafson Music

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Tony Ramey/Brad Davis

Brushed-Metal-[Converted] TRBrandingPoster Crossroads Music Company Presents_smaller Tony_Ramey_KETR_2 Crossroads Tony Ramey and daughter 2014 DEC_9039 Crossroads Trio Ramey Davis 2014 DEC_9004 Crossroads Brad Davis and Gus 2014 DEC_9080 Crossroads Gus and Tony Ramey 2014 DEC_9087 Crossroads Ramey fam 2014 DEC_9102 Crossroads Tony and daughter 2014 DEC_9056 Crossroads Tony Ramey and Brad Davis 2014 DEC_8839Fantastic Performance from Tony Ramey & Brad Davis!  What a treat for Sulphur Springs!  Tony’s wife, Debbie Money, and daughter Savannah also took the stage for a few songs!

Merry Christmas to ALL!!

Thanks for all the support for Crossroads over the years…2015 will mark 10 years, and we’ll plan something special in the Fall!  A special shout out to Grocery Supply Company, for their generous support.  It has made all the difference, as Crossroads Music settles into its new Sulphur Springs home! ~Gus

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Crossroads brings Rhett Butler back to Sulphur Springs!

Saturday, September 13, 2014, at the latest intimate listening room inside the newly renovated 100 year old Post Office, then library, and NOW City Hall!  Doors will open at 7pm, and you can get your TICKETS HERE!  SAVE $5.00 by purchasing your reserved seats in advance!  This could be Rhett’s best show EVER!

A Special THANK YOU goes out to our stage sponsor, Grocery Supply Company, for helping Crossroads keep LIVE music aLIVE, here in East Texas, and–more specifically–Sulphur Springs!

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Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Bluegrass Band!

This is concert #2 for Crossroads Music Company & Listening Room, inside the Sulphur Springs Historic City Hall Council Chambers, and it will certainly be a good test for the room’s sound.  I’m really looking forward to this performance, which will help us determine what the room can handle, and therefore what acts we can book for the balance of 2014 and into 2015.  Please join us for what promises to be a brilliant night of classic tunes!

Saturday, August 23, 2014.  7 PM Doors/~7:30 Start time [approximately]

Click here for tickets.

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Bluegrass Band

Dave Walser, &
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Bluegrass Band.

Dave Walser- guitar/vocals
Bach Norwood- bass/vocals
Reggie Rueffer- fiddle/vocals
Gerald Jones- banjo/mandolin/vocals

SPLBB Let It Be

Slaid Cleaves Concert SOLD OUT!!

slaid-cleavesSOLD OUT!!!  THANK YOU FOR THE WARM WELCOME INTO SULPHUR SPRINGS!!
Slaid Cleaves lives with his wife of 19 years, Karen Cleaves, in the Hill Country outside Austin, Texas. While Karen books the shows, the flights, the hotels, and the rental cars, designs, orders and sells the CDs and T-shirts, pays the band, updates the web site, answers fan questions, does the taxes and makes dinner, Slaid writes his little songs (and fixes things around the house). They travel around the world together while Slaid plays for fans far and wide and gets all the glory. If it wasn’t for Karen, Slaid would be carrying all he owned in a shoe box, scrounging around for a happy hour gig.
tickets will go on sale at the Crossroads “store” on Wednesday, June 18th.

30 East Music Festival 2014

SS-30 East Poster

It’s ALL happening on Celebration Plaza [Sulphur Springs Downtown Square]…We’ve put together a wonderful line-up, sure to quench any musical taste you may have!

 

Thursday, March 27th:

  • 6p: Amanda Goodman-Pruitt Band
  • 7p: Koe Wetzel & Kody Foster
  • 8p: Emily Elbert

 

Friday, March 28th:

  • 6p: Emily Claire Shlesinger
  • 7p: Cole Risner Band
  • 8p: Kirby Brown
  • 9p: Ryan McKenzie & Hannah Kirby, with special guest Chris Lancaster
  • 10p: Songbird Jones; Matt Jones/Justin Gresham

Saturday, March 29th:

  • 3:00p: Core of Silence [Jody Eaves & John Grimes]
  • 4:00p: TBA
  • 5:30p: Nicholas Altobelli
  • 6:30p: Dillon Chevalier & his band
  • 7:30p: Kate Hearne Band
  • 8:30p:Ducado Vega & Zenya
  • 10:00p: The Effinays

***Neil Rugg [DJ] will spin discs in-between acts, to fill the gaps during swap-outs.

The Ultimate Finger Pick!!

Except for the few Kickstarter backers that have not gotten back with their mailing addresses, we’ve sent out the first generation finger picks to all our supporters!!  Starting with the “one size fits most” mentality, we created a “medium” cot over-mold for the nail, with the ability to add expansion slits to accommodate bigger fingers.

medium prototype

TUF expansion slitIf you’d like to try these first generation units, you can still donate to the cause and get a 3-pack mailed to your doorstep…Click HERE!

 

Crossroads 8th Anniversary Concert was Magical!!

Eight years of global entertainment in the small town of Winnsboro, Texas, boasting a population of less than 5,000 people.  CRAZY!  The original founders of Crossroads were our entertainers, and a few more joined in the fun!  This was the final Crossroads show of the year, and there are no other performances scheduled until the Winnsboro Center for the Arts works out their renovations during the Winter months, as well as what weekends THEY will be needing the stage.  I’ll post another blog addressing what lies ahead for 2014, once we know more.  For now, enjoy the pictures in the Facebook album, and don’t forget to click on the Crossroads YouTube icon on the homepage to catch of few of the songs that were performed on Saturday night!  Two songs from Saturday night!!

Below: Everyone was there!  Lynn Adler & Lindy Hearne [original founders]; Denice Barton, who climbed on board, joining owner Stephen Marshall, who took the reins from Adler & Hearne to keep things rolling along while Adler & Hearne took their show on the road!…Then came Gus Gustafson in 2010, which is when “& Listening Room” was added to the Crossroads Music Company name 🙂  Global talent, sharing their original music & connecting with their audience in a fantastic intimate listening room setting!  That is how the MAGIC happens!!

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THANK YOU to all who have shown such wonderful support over the last 8 years.  Allow us to keep you in the loop for what waits around the next corner.  Good things on the horizon!  ~~Gus Gustafson

Heather McCready, with Milo Deering!

“Refreshing” is a descriptive term that comes to mind as I attempt to describe a night filled with the vocal expressiveness of Heather McCready.  I believe this term has been used before, but it truly is fitting.  The full house was entertained from start to finish, with everything from Amazing Grace–blues style–by Love & Grace [opening act], to Milo Deering doing Johnny Cash’s Folsom Prison Blues while waiting for the train to pass!  Very well-crafted songs filled the night, and we even included a speaker on Market Street, spreadin’ the love in between the buildings downtown!  Heather was simply wonderful, performing her sweet originals like the whimsical “Give It A Day” by her & Milo, great covers like “Smile,” and injecting her personal story that revolves around her Bi-Polar disorder–a very complex brain disease, but one that can be managed by today’s mental health professionals.  Heather McCready is living proof!

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Pictured [l to r]: Gus Gustafson, Lindsey Gail, Heather McCready, & Milo Deering.  Photo compliments of Watson Photography.

Lindsey Gail shared her powerful vocals with the crowd, and it was great having her back on stage–this time, sharing the Word through new original Gospel tunes, and covering other popular tunes.  Love & Grace warmed up the audience for Heather & Milo.  There was “magic” in the air that night, from start to finish!  I hope you were one of the fortunate ones to be inside the Winnsboro Center for the Arts last Saturday night, but if not, click on some of the links above to get a taste of what you missed.  ~Gus

Remaining Crossroads shows for 2013!

Last three shows 2013 poster

 

If you’ve waited this long to experience what all the hype is about, within the four walls of a true “Listening Room” where musical artists really get to CONNECT with a crowd, you owe it to yourselves to catch one of these final three shows.  ~Gus

Jimmy LaFave, back HOME in East Texas!

 

Jimmy up close by LH

 

[photo by: Lindy Hearne]

Jimmy LaFave’s hometown of Wills Point, Texas, is actually less than sixty miles from the Crossroads Stage here in Winnsboro, Texas.  That is certainly close enough to say that Jimmy was “Home” on Friday night, playing to “His people.” [pictures] These are terms Jimmy himself used to describe some of the feelings dancing around inside this great singer/songwriter/musician/entertainer, as he shared some thoughts & some stories of the past with his band and those lucky enough to be in the audience that evening!  There was a great vibe & energy bouncing around the Crossroads Performance Hall that night! Jimmy & his band tapped into that source, and truly delivered an inspired performance! The only set list present was between Jimmy’s ears, and I believe he allowed that to change throughout the night, playing tunes inspired by the tune/story before, and trying to satisfy the requests coming from the appreciative crowd.  At times it felt like Woody Guthrie’s spirit was up on that stage with Jimmy & the band.  There will never be another performance quite like the one delivered last Friday night!  That’s an easy statement to make, since Jimmy is one of those musicians that prefers NOT to play a song the same way twice, which allows for creative MAGIC to show up during his shows–magic you can’t get listening to a CD!  In honor of where they were performing, they even did a rendition of Robert Johnson’s “Cross Road Blues,” totally unrehearsed!  It was AWESOME, and guitarist Phil Hurley totally SHREDDED IT!!

Crossroads Music Company was honored to have Jimmy back for a return visit! ~Gus Gustafson

“Never a Moment” performed by Jimmy LaFave a couple nights ago!

Jimmy LaFave Band at Crossroads

 

Druha Trava reunited with Winnsboro!

Crossroads Music Company & Listening Room, Winnsboro, Texas?  A popular stop for INTERNATIONAL performers?  Could this be a true statement?  Not only are we a tour stopping spot, we rank as one of many musician’s FAVORITE TOUR STOPS!

Such is the case with Druha Trava, one of the top Bluegrass/Americana groups from the Czech Republic. [click to go to their website] They try to tour the U.S.of A. once a year, and it was John DeFoore – awesome guitar teacher and songwriting coach from Mineola – who first recognized this band’s talent, some 19 years ago, and brought them to his Pickin’ Parlor way back then!  Since that time, their English has improved – lol – but Robert Krest’an still sings much of the material in their native tongue.  What you get when you spend an evening with Druha Trava, is top-notch performances of Robert’s originals, and covers from the likes of Bob Dylan & the Rolling Stones, all with their signature Czech influences–simply fantastic. Truly talented musicians, they blend guitar, bass, banjo, mandolin, dobro, & even a couple wind instruments, with precise/artistic flair!  They bring their sense of humor along for the tour, as well!

Click here to Czech out [cute, right?] our video of a Bob Dylan cover from Saturday night’s performance!  Click here for some photos on the Crossroads FB page.

Druha Trava 2013

Druha Trava 2013