This performance co-sponsored by
SOCIAL STUDIES RESIDENCY
SALMON BEND ART STUDIOS
ART NIGHT!
Mural Painting in Action! by artist Heather Hardison
Colusa County Art Council’s, Public Arts Advisory Committee
Live Screen Printing! Bring your own shirt!
by Social Studies Residency and Salmon Bend Art Studios
Non-Profit Vendor: The Stagehands
Hamburgers/hotdogs, Salads
Rita's style of country-folk has been lauded for story and sense of place, and her performances praised with capturing the audience. She hails from Hatchet Mountain -- a mountain between Montgomery Creek and Burney, CA. "This California girl comes by her mountain music sensibility with true authenticity, with original songs deeply rooted in her family's frontier experience," (Dan Ruby, FestivalPreview.com). Rita's fans call her "the real deal." A descendant of Cornish miners who sang in the mines of Cornwall and Grass Valley, CA, Rita grew up with deep regard for folk music and the power of the voice.
The music she produces today is an amalgamation of her university studies, teaching experience, motherhood, and the humanity that has moved her since her childhood in the hard-hitting mountains of Northeastern California. In returning to her early love of singing and songwriting, Rita found a natural and accessible way to share this embracing of spirit.
Come Sunrise won Best Country Album Vox Pop in the 2010 Independent Music Awards. Her 2013 release, Little Boat, was selected by the Telegraph as one of the "Top Ten Country Albums of 2013."
In spring 2024, Rita plans to release a set of what she calls “public service songs” on climate change adaptation and mitigation. The release will be called Climate Country Radio, and is especially geared for Northern California airwaves. The project is funded in part by the California Arts Council, a state agency, through the Upstate California Creative Corps program.