Cowgirl Balladeer Juni Fisher at Fiddlers Crossing, Tehachapi
Juni Fisher is the real deal – a Western singer who actually IS a cowgirl. Tehachapi feels like home to this singing cowgirl. She filled the house when she performed last June in Fiddlers Crossing. She’ll ride into town again on April 13 for a 7 p.m. concert in the same venue, and tickets are already going fast!
Fisher grew up horse crazy on a San Joaquin Valley citrus farm, achieving 4-H and FFA honors, listening to the music of Marty Robbins, Joan Baez and Burl Ives and learning Western songs from her father. While in elementary school, Fisher began singing in a trio with her two sisters. She started playing guitar at age seven and wrote her first song at age eight.
After graduating from Strathmore High School, Fisher rode her way through the Equine Science program at the College of the Sequoias in Visalia, helping neighboring ranchers train horses and winning top honors at Intercollegiate and Quarter Horse shows. Singing big band standards with a dance orchestra was a way of earning entry money for horse shows. Meanwhile, she continued to write her own songs.
Fisher moved to Santa Ynez, CA, in 1984 to train cutting horses, and she was soon asked to join a local band. It wasn’t long before she was singing in Los Angeles clubs with a popular country band, playing the Western and cowboy music she loved.
In 1991, Fisher traded her quarter horses for hunters and jumpers when she accepted a one-year position with a Tennessee hunt club. Living near Nashville gave her the opportunity she needed to hone her songwriting skills. She and her husband, Rusty, still live in Tennessee with their horses.
In 1999, Fisher recorded her first Western album, “Tumbleweed Letters.” The album led to an invitation to perform at the Monterey Cowboy Poetry and Music Festival in 2004. That appearance launched her full-time professional career as a Western singer-songwriter. Five albums and many awards later -- including the 2007 Western Music Association Song of the Year, 2006 WMA Female Vocalist of the Year, 2005 Academy of Western Artists Western Female Vocalist of the Year, and 2005 WMA Crescendo Award – Juni Fisher is one of the most popular singing cowgirls on the Cowboy Poetry and Folk Festival circuits.
In her spare time, she also loves to go fly fishing.
Tickets for the April 13 concert are $15, available at the Apple Shed and Mountain Music, or may be reserved by calling 661-823-9994. As always, coffee, tea and refreshments are included in the ticket price. Fiddlers Crossing is at 206 East F Street, next to Mountain Music, at Robinson in Downtown Tehachapi. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
