Rita Hosking Plays Fiddlers Crossing May 18
One thing that often differentiates folk music from pop music is the subject matter. Pop music, whether Cole Porter or Taylor Swift, is usually about love and relationships. While much of folk music also speaks of love, it is more often grounded in a sense of place than is pop.
Rita Hosking is a “country-folk” singer-songwriter who evokes her Northern California roots in her music. She sings of forest fires, demolition derbies and the hopes and dreams of the working class small town of her youth. As a descendant of Cornish miners who had a tradition of singing while they worked in the mines, Hosking grew up with a deep regard for folk music and the power of the human voice. In her songs, she draws on her own childhood growing up outside of Mount Shasta, as well as her family’s roots in the gold mines of Grass Valley. While rooted in Northern California, Hosking’s music moves through her sense of place to touch the universal themes of our lives.
She and her CDs have won awards and honors in Country, Folk and Songwriting categories. She has been compared to Gillian Welch, Emmylou Harris and Nancy Griffith. Her powerful voice has been called, “gritty” and “earthy” as well as “sweet and sinewy.”
In her concert at Fiddlers Crossing, Hosking will be joined by her husband, Sean Feder, playing dobro and banjo. Feder has an eclectic musical experience that includes guitar, piano, vocals and percussion. He taught group hand drumming classes at UC Davis for 10 years. Among many others, he has performed with Joe Craven, Arthur Hull, and the Bay Area Celtic band, Driving with Fergus. He has studied banjo with Bill Evans and dobro with Rob Ickes. Feder sees as his mission, “to serve the groove and melody in order to reveal, kindle and lift the spirit of the music.”
Fiddlers Crossing is at 206 East F Street at Robinson Street, in Downtown Tehachapi. Tickets may be purchased next door at Mountain Music, at The Apple Shed, or with a credit card by calling 661-823-9994. Tickets to the concert are $20, and as always, coffee and goodies are included. The concert begins at 7 p.m. Doors open at 6:30p.m.
