Donna Colton & the Troublemakers - Donna Colton - News

Now they've done it.

Tue, 26 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Finally pestered enough people so I could get one of these SAMMY dealios.
Check the Calendar for all of the info on how to be at the 2009 Hall of Fame Induction. Sam and I will be there and wearing our barbeque bibs.
See you out there!

Colton & Barrigar with Relative Harmony - Concert Review

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

It was better than we could've planned it. The theater was packed; sold out before hand and peopel still calling us and wanting tickets. Nothing sparks a performer more than a full house wating for the show.
Loren Barrigar was the best. He was a perfect introduction to the show. Many of our fans hadn't heard him before and were awed by his creative and adept fingerstyle guitar playing. Oh! And he told jokes. Really cornball ones. But somehow he can pull it off and it just makes people like him all the more.
Then Sam came out and accompanied Loren for a couple of tunes on bass. That ramped it up another notch with the two of them trading riffs.
Then, Marleah, Sharon and I came out to sing Leaving On A Jet Plane. Each of us taking a verse and then filling in the three part harmony chorus. Some people were stunned. Others were tearing up because it touched them so. More than they expected. And it felt so good to us. It's truly that family thing that you can't explain. We know each others phrasing and rhythm like they were our own and it just happens. Like magic.
Anyway, the rest of the show flew by and before we knew it, it was over. Kind of like cooking that holiday dinner.
'If you didn't get to come out to the show, check out the Link and read Mark Biaczak's review ofit. We're hoping to have a recording of some of it. We'll let you know.
We all were truly grateful for the fans and friends and family that helped us do this show. We had to share this at least once and we're elated that we touched you the way this music touched our lives.

Relative Harmony Concert April 2009

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

We're rehearsing and things are going great! We've got way too many songs for this one gig, but we're trying to fit in as many as we can. We've got a song that Loren will sing and Marleah, Sharon and I will do our harmony thing to it. And Loren is enthusiastically adding great guitar leads and tasty embellishments to our humble folk/country tunes. This is gonna be fun!

Sunday April 19 4:00 PM

Jazz Central Theater

441 E Washington St, Syracuse, NY

Tickets: $10 / $12 Door

Sneak Preview Gig

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

So we did a trial run at the Creekside last Saturday night. The Barrigar Brothers were kind enough to let us sit in with them and do about 30 minutes of songs we's been working on for our Jazzz Central show. It really went great! Sharon and Marleah and I all did our hramony thing and people really seemed to like it. It struck me as we started singing the first song, Helplessy Hoping, that we were the exact opposite configuration of CSN; three women singing this song. It was great fun backing up Loren with harmony on a song he sang lead on, Silver Wings, and having him play some great leads in the songs we sang. We've got more than half of the tickets sold, so I hope everyone that wants to see the show has tickets already. We sold a bunch more that night. See you out there!

Komen Race

Sun, 18 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

We had a great time at the race. I can't tell you ow moving it was when they called all of the Survivors on stage and there was a sea of pink shirts. They all sang and swayed and were glad to be alive.
We were trying hard not to cry. I was wiping my eyes. The man standing next to me leaned over and said," We went to the National Event in Washington, DC last year. I don't know if you've ever seen the mall"?
I nodded that I had.
He said, "There were pink shirts of Survivors lined up five deep on either side of the water. It was something."
Well that didn't help the lump in my throat.

My friends Jane and Diane were tough to keep up with during the walk, but I made it. We ran into quite a few friends along the way. This is a truly great event that left us with a feel good vibe and we think we'll be doing this every year.

Thanks to all of the people who gave in support of our walking. We love you.

Donna

Donna & Sam on YouTube

Sun, 11 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

If you haven't seen it yet, please take a minute to go to YouTube; type in Donna Colton in the search bar and it'll take you to our videos! We've got just a couple of things up so far, but will have more...

Samapalooza!!

Sun, 11 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

This is Sam's birthday month! May 15 is the day and we'll be celebrating somehow!

We've got a lot of private gigs going on this month so you might not hear from me via e-mail for a bit.

Also, I'm doing the Walk for the Cure on May 17 with a couple of friends. Give some money to the cause if you can. You can go to the www.susangkomen.com and typr in Donna Colton in the search bar. It'll take you to my page and explain what to do to donate.

See you soon!

Where the hell...

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

We've been doing all kinds of stuff these last couple of months, just nothing that we've been able to have an audience for! We did some radio interviews and got great response. We traveled to NJ and played at the Minstrel Coffeehouse. We've got video of that on our new YouTube site. Go there and check it out.

We did our taxes :-(
we're getting some $$ back :-) !!

I just did some back up vocals on Kim Simmonds solo CD project.

Sam's been on vacation this week, so we're taking it easy. We're ready for warm.

See you out there.
Donna

Close Encounter with Larry Gatlin

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Yep. It was that guy. Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin Brothers fame. All The Gold In California. Grammy winner, great voice and really nice guy.
Andy Cooney, another great singer, is recording an album with different artists and in different countries. When he gets done the Irish Symphony Orchestra will be on it and Ronan Tynan of the Irish Tenors, too. But I digress.

Larry Gatlin is singing on Andy Cooney's record, a song that he wrote as well as some other familiar tunes. He was in town and Subcat Studio's got to watch him work. He whirled in wearing a Southwestern style long overcoat, black and red with zig-zag design, bright red cowboy boots and dressed in jeans, shirt and a jean jacket with a bluetooth earpiece blinking in his ear. He announced that he'd done a dumb thing and locked the door of the place he was staying at and unintentionally locked out his wife with their 2 year old grandchild who had to poop and he was in a world of doo-doo for that. Well, if that doesn't sound like something that a down home regular guy would do, I don't know what does.
After he got the situation straightened out, he was right to work.
"Let's get going because I've got some football to watch".

He recorded his parts and harmony parts, most things in one or two takes. With the Irish Symphony playing the track that he sang to he did a free form version of "Beautiful Dreamer" in one take that was exquisite.
With a quick run through from Andy Cooney of one of the songs and making notes about how the melody went, he recorded the part perfectly only having heard it once.
We ( Sam and I ) were there because Sam has this great vocal mic that people usually like to record with, so we brought that to the studio and hung around to help and visit with the people that were there with Larry and Andy and of course to try and get to meet them. When Larry saw Sam's mic among the ones they had set up to give them a choice of which one to use he said "I've sung in front of plenty of those in my time. That'll do just fine." And it did.
Andy Cooney will be doing a concert in Auburn on March 3, 2008 to raise money for one of the schools there. He performed there with his band last June to a sell out crowd of 1200 and hopes to do the same thing in March. I've only heard of Andy, but got to hear his voice singing with Larry during the recording and he's smooth. A very silky tenor voice that I really liked listening to.
Crystal Gayle will also be singing on this record. Not sure how that's happening, but I guess they'll go wherever and whenever she has time in her schedule to record.
So, when they were done, Larry blew out of there as quickly as he blew in, but not without graciously saying goodbye to everyone, shaking hands and noting that he'd had a great experience at the studio. Then he was off to watch the Giants play whoever they were playing that day.
What a cool business this is, huh?

We're #1!!

Thu, 03 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800

DC and The Troublemakers not only made Mark Bialczak's Top 10 List for 2007, we got the #1 spot. We could not believe it. Especially in the company of Joe Whiting and Mark Doyle, who put out a great CD (their first together in 20 years) and Los Blancos, one of the favorite roots rock bands in CNY.

It was so gratifying to be recognized for all of our hard work, sweat, tears and all of that. It truly can be agonizing sometimes to figure out how to make a good record. It feels like it was worth the wait and our effort. We kept telling fans that asked when the cd would be done, "Well, we think this spring" then "Maybe by the fall." Then "We're getting close! "
Thanks to everyone who stuck with us and bought the CD when it was finally done. And thanks to Mark B for listening to it and giving us the good word.
We came out of our gig on New Years Eve and someone had written in the the ice on the back window of our van: Donna Colton #1 CD of 2007!
When I got in the van to drive to my day job it was still there. By the time I got to work, it was salted over. That's how it goes...