OCEANVILLE (GALLOWAY TWP.), NJ -- Two troubadours are riding into Oceanville for a special afternoon of contemporary folk and western music at The Noyes Museum of Art of Stockton University on Sunday, October 11, 2015. The Noyes Museum’s weekly Afternoon Acoustics series is pleased to present singers Kerry Grombacher and Aspen Black in concert from 1 to 3 p.m. Their songs draw vivid portraits and tell fascinating stories that are set in the Western landscape, where they’ve worked and traveled with cowboys and Indians, ranchers and rodeo riders, outfitters and chuckwagon cooks, and lawmen and lawbreakers.
“It’s a real treat to bring our folk and western music to The Noyes Museum of Art, a museum that pays so much attention to regional artists” said songwriter Kerry Grombacher recently. “The songs that Aspen and I write, like the art that the museum collects, reflect the tremendous variety of experience in the regions where we’ve worked and traveled, and it’s an honor to share them in the Afternoon Acoustics concert series.”
Kerry Grombacher plays guitar and mandolin, writes contemporary folk and western songs, and tours nationally for concerts and writing workshops. His songs have been featured on the ABC-TV adventure travel show, “Born to Explore,” and on a recent Putumayo World Records CD, “Cowboy Playground,” that was released in over 60 countries. In the course of his nationwide tours, Kerry Grombacher has sung his songs on stages as varied as the Newport Folk Festival (Newport, RI), Cowboy Songs & Range Ballads (Cody, WY), the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, and the Durango Cowboy Poetry Gathering (Durango, CO). He has released five albums of original songs, and several of his tunes have been recorded by other artists. Originally from Kansas, he lived in Austin, Texas for almost thirty years, and now resides in New Orleans, where he refurbished his flooded house after Hurricane Katrina.
Nalini Jones, of the Newport Folk Festival, says “Kerry Grombacher is the best kind of songwriter, with lyrics that take us on journeys to places we’ve never visited before, and melodies so pure and true that they seem to rise up from the plains...”
Aspen Black plays guitar, and she writes songs that draw on her experiences training and showing horses in Oklahoma and Texas, riding the rodeo circuit, and traveling in the west. Aspen lived in Nashville for a time, and recorded two albums that rose on the country music radio charts, but now she devotes her talents to western music. Her “Eastern/Western Cowgirl” CD was awarded the Best Female Country & Western Album for 2015 by the Rural Roots Music Coalition, and her songs, poems, and singing have earned award nominations from the Western Music Association, the Western Writers of America, and the Academy of Western Artists.
Aspen Black has released five albums of original western music and poetry, and has performed at a list of festivals that includes the National Traditional Country Music Festival (Le Mars, IA), the Georgia Cowboy Gathering (Franklin, GA), the Western Music Association’s annual conference and showcases (Albuquerque), and Mountain Days Festival (Buena Vista, VA). Aspen is a champion barrel racer and all-around horsewoman who has won numerous awards, and she owns Buksbari Ranch, in Rocky Mount, Virginia, where she trains horses and coaches riders. Her book, “Empowered Riding: The Guide for Recreational Horseback Riders” was published in 2015.
Dick Shoemaker, of YNN-TV, in Franklin County, Virginia, says “Aspen Black has the voice of an angel. I could listen to her sing all day, and just sit back and smile.”
The Noyes Museum of Art was founded in Oceanville, NJ, in 1983 to collect, preserve, and exhibit American fine and folk art, with an emphasis on New Jersey artists and folk art forms. Today, the Noyes Museum’s exhibitions continue to reflect the area’s cultural heritage, while also presenting significant artwork by regional and national artists working in a variety of media. The Noyes has also expanded to include satellite galleries in Hammonton, Atlantic City, and at Seaview Resort in Galloway. The Noyes Shop: Hammonton, which opened in 2008, specializes in custom framing and can be reached at (609) 561-8006. In February 2010, The Noyes Museum of Art formed a partnership with Stockton College (now Stockton University) to form The Noyes Museum of Art of Stockton College. Through a 2013 partnership with the CRDA, The Noyes Museum of Art of Stockton University opened The Noyes Arts Garage of Stockton University, a unique multi-use arts and retail space at 2200 Fairmount Avenue in Atlantic City.