Musicians extraordinaire, Curtis and Loretta bring heartfelt music and a plethora of instruments to Harmony House!
Fannin County, Texas -- You are invited to attend a live performance featuring Curtis and Loretta, Minneapolis-based husband and wife duo, on Sunday, October 15, '23, 3:00-5:00 p.m., here at Harmony House on Wildscape Acres. www.wildscapeacres.com / Harmony House Concerts Group | Facebook
"Loretta's almost operatic alto and Curtis' rich tenor form a lush, polished and varied vocal blend. The pair's instrumental interplay is equally compelling, with Loretta's harp textures dancing in and around Curtis' deft guitar and mandolin lines." ~Dirty Linen
Curtis and Loretta will play two 45-minute sets, while you sit back and enjoy their incredible harmonies, Curtis’ down-home sense of humor, and Loretta’s theater background. You will be engaged in an experience that runs the gamut of rolling with laughter to holding back tears, with plenty of side-trips in between. [More about the performing artists below.]
To make reservations for this rare experience, call 903/583-2661, leaving your contact info (preferably an email address) and how many seats you want to reserve. Requested donation for this gig is $25 per person in cash or check made payable to Loretta Simonet. On the day of concert, you will check off your name on the Reservation List in the dining room and put your donation in a basket nearby. Reservations are limited, so make yours early. If you make a reservation and then have to unexpectedly cancel, please call ASAP, as we will be making a Wait List. No-shows are a No-no!
Faye and Scott will be your hosts, along with assistance from friends helping out since Faye's back surgery is still causing her issues. We will welcome you to our vintage home (we call it "the little house on the prairie") with open arms and a cuppa Joe. We provide bottomless cups of real coffee, tea, assorted organic tea punches, assorted cheeses and crackers and whatever else Faye can create before the concert, plus napkins, cups, and plates. If you wish to make a $1 cash donation to help defray our costs, there will be a plate on the breakfast room table.
Guests are requested to bring a finger food (serving pieces, too) to share with other guests on tables in the dining room and master bedroom. We want your experience to be a warm fuzzy that makes you leave with a smile on your face, so let us or one of our regulars know if you need anything. We've been hosting these events now 15+ years, so if you have not been to a Harmony House Concert before, now is the time. If you need directions, indicate that when you make reservations so we can provide them.
More about Curtis and Loretta
Curtis & Loretta (curtisandloretta.com)
In 1977, a theater graduate from Minnesota was sitting on a beach in Santa Cruz, California playing her guitar, practicing for a variety show. A young Texan who had just returned to the mainland from Hawaii stopped and said, “Hey, I play guitar!” And he did! They sat down together on a piece of driftwood and as they sang, they couldn’t help but notice how well their voices meshed. They played together at the variety show that night. They've been singing together ever since as the duo known as Curtis and Loretta.
That was forty years ago, and they crisscross the nation playing at festivals, libraries, stages, and local Folk Music Societies (which is what brings them to TX -- to play for the Dallas Folk Music Society). When home, they play at all sorts of events -- Christmas parties (Curtis makes a perfect Santa), hospitals, residential homes for seniors, and schools for children.
They have a new CD out, called Lift the World. This album spotlights the husband-wife duo's songwriting skills, with 10 new songs, many of which were written during the pandemic. Exhibiting the playfulness and pathos that are a hallmark of their live shows.
Funded by a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, these songs celebrate what is truly important in this life -- the heart-warming and the heart-breaking events! The songs shine a light on what we should keep and build upon, what we should throw out, and especially how we cherish those most dear.
The duo uses all the tools in their musical toolkit to present the songs: incisive songwriting, strong vocals, folk harp, mandocello, guitars, banjo, ukulele, harmonica, shakers, kazoo, and Curtis' homegrown drum set.
Keeping the folk tradition alive, Curtis & Loretta are doing what troubadours have done for centuries: documenting our times in song so that, generations from now, people can sing these songs and feel what our lives were like.