News & Notes

The “Other Winfield Festival”
     In addition to producing our own Miles of Memories MusicFest (Hastings, NE) and the Gene Autry Oklahoma Film & Music Festival (Gene Autry, OK), we are now also producing a brand new festival.  Scheduled for October 9, 10 & 11, it’s called the Fun Barn Old-Time Music Festival and will be held at the oh-so-wonderful Quail Valley Fun Barn just southeast of Winfield, Kansas. 
      This new event, hosted by Floid McCord, will be a mix of traditional country, cowboy and bluegrass music, rustic atmosphere, food and fun for folks who love old-time country, bluegrass, cowboy and gospel music. Entertainers include Daryl Schiff, Gene Winters & Rick Schiff (Daryl is Martina McBride’s dad), Bob & Barb Lewis, the hilarious O’Roark Brothers, Tex & Mary Schutz, Cowboy Jim Garling and more. We’ll have a Young Entertainers’ Showcase and a Guest Performers’ Spotlight, both on Saturday, plus lots of concerts, a few theme shows and lots of fun…on two stages--one indoors, one outdoors. Check the Fun Barn website for more information (www.thefunbarn.com).

New CD in the Works...and Maybe a Video
    We're putting together some new songs for a CD project that we'll be working on in the spring, when we return to Texas. We have both gospel songs and secular songs on our wish list, so we may be doing two CD projects, but those decisions will be made later. If all goes well, the CD(s) should be out in time for our summer tour, which begins in early May.  We're hoping to work on a video project one of these days as well, possibly with the wonderful Gene Autry Oklahoma Museum as the background.  Over the next several months, we'll let you know via this page how these projects are progressing.

New Zealand, Here We Come!
     If all goes as planned, we will be doing a musical tour of New Zealand the entire month of January, 2009.  We’re pretty excited about it and can’t wait to book our flights.  We’re working with Anne George there, who produces a traditional country music festival on the north island.  She saw us perform at Bob Everhart’s Missouri Valley Festival and invited us to join them.  In addition to the festival, she’ll set up several community concerts for us as well.  There’s a good chance that Jeanne & Jerome (Call of the West) will be going as well, and we understand that Joyce and Phil Leonard are included as well.
     We’ll work in the Southwest just during the months of February and March in 2009, instead of the full winter, as we have been doing for several years now.
     Watch this page for updates as our plans firm up.

Updates on Friends, Fans & Entertainers
    Ron Garcia, a long-time Tex-&-Mary fan and MusicFest volunteer, passed away on January 9, 2008 after a short battle with cancer.  He was a member of our Booster Bunch for the Gene Autry Oklahoma Museum and worked very hard for the Museum.  We first met Ron at the Gene Autry Film & Music Festival, and he and Marge quickly became fans and close friends of ours. For those who knew Ron, you may wish to send a card to Marge, at 8149 E. Colette Place, Tucson, AZ 85710-2431.
    Les Gilliam, one of our popular MusicFest entertainers, is back doing concerts after recovering at home from hip and by-pass surgery this past fall.