Come on down
to the Hollar!

On June 4th, the Pea Pickin’ Hearts will again have the privilege of performing at the Hoot in the Hollar in Bulls Gap.

The Hoot in the Hollar is a FREE full-day outdoor concert in a horse pasture that raises money & awareness for the CF Foundation. Don’t forget your lawn chair!

Our lives have not been directly effected by CF, but they have been by concert promoter Glenn Spayth.

Spayth is a gentle soul, wonderful musician and great story teller. His kindness and support of the Pea Pickin’ Hearts has been touching, and we are honored to be able to support a cause so dear to his heart in memory of Andrea Kersting, his daughter, who passed in August of 2009 due to Cystic Fibrosis.

Come out and have a great time
listening to great music for a great cause!

Visit the The Band page 
for full details!

Here’s a great excerpt from Annette’s OurStage bio:

“I’ve said it so many times before and I’ll say it again…a song is only as great as the number of people who enjoy it. An artist is only as popular as the people make him/her.

“I’ve noticed a recent surge of friends and listeners and it’s a great feeling to know that my music is reaching out to so many places and people. Thank you for support.

“Each and everyone of you makes a difference between my being a real Folk Artist and just another chick who sings to herself in the shower.

“I was born in Michigan and raised up on a blend of different styles of music. In 1991, we  moved to Kentucky where I was exposed to even more music. Country music was the first Genre to spark my interest in actually wanting to pick up a guitar.

“The first time I watched Kathy Mattea sing “18 Wheels and a Dozen Roses,” I was 11 and I wanted so bad to play a guitar. My parents bought me a cheap little Harmony and the rest is history. Over time, I became fascinated by artists like Garth Brooks, Mark Chesnutt, Bonnie Raitt, Billy Joel, Pam Tillis and many others.

“As time went on, I didn’t just want to sing their songs…I wanted to write songs like the ones they sang…so I tried to write…my first attempts at songwriting were okay but nothing amazing…as a matter of fact I was down right disgusted because I thought I wasn’t that good at it.  So, I kind of pushed the songs I wrote a side and sang songs other people knew instead.

“When I got into my early 20’s I wrote a song called “I Can Feel The Wind.” It impressed a lot of my friends and I thought to myself, ‘hey maybe I’m not so bad at this songwriting thing after all.’ So I tried harder and in just a few years, I had written over 50 songs and had 5 albums to show for it.”

“Do I feel like a real artist now?  Oh yeah!”

Please click on one of the pictures of Annette to visit her MySpace page to listen to her latest music!

The Pea Pickin’ Hearts are an Appalachian country music duo based in Gatlinburg, TN. Happily married, Jon Ives and Rachel Gibson live and work in Gatlinburg, TN while raising their only child Oscar. Here’s is a short bio on them both excerpted from a recent interview by Publicist Toni Turbeville.

 Jon Ives

 Are you from the Tennessee hills?

“No–far from it. I was born in Wakesha, WI then moved to Phoenix, AZ then to Louisville, KY and then to Lexington, SC–only to land in Gatlinburg, TN in 2007. My grandmother-in-law considers me a Yankee, but she also considers virtually anyone not born in Virginia or Tennessee a Yankee.”

 What are your earliest musical memories?

My parents were  country music fans, and I clearly remember hearing Waylon and Willie from my early years, but it was my older brother’s rock ‘n’ roll that held my fascination for the middle decades–Cheap Trick, ACDC, KISS, and Rush, of course.

You’re a classically trained percussionist, right?

I started out in the school band playing drums because it was as close to a rock ‘n’ roll instrument as I could get in school. Eventually, I ended up with a music scholarship to USC, the principal timpanist position with the SC Philharmonic, then a public school music director before quitting it all to pursue Rock ‘N’ Roll.

How did you end up singin’ and pickin’ a decidedly old-school country sound?

I spent years in and out of rock bands, most notably the Tinbenders, touring the country from Massachusetts to Alabama before the band split up to have kids and cars and careers. My wife was our booking agent, and she grew up in Georgia which, according to her, requires some level of devotion to country. So through my early exposure and then the later revisitation, I found something I loved.

And what is that “something” you love about Country Music?

I love the musicianship, the harmonies, the “guts” of country music. Country music studio musicians and performers are amongst the best in the world and that appeals to the Rush-loving kid in me. But that musicianship is coupled with a simplicity of beautiful harmonies and a great turn of phrase that appeals to me now. It is a perfect marriage. It is the sound I want to produce: simple, happy and well-crafted.

And why Rachel–I mean, as a singing partner?

Our lives together are musical. We’ve always sung together in our home and in a previous band–to our child. After a decade, I know where she’s going vocally before she gets there. It is a bond between us. She’s a great writer. And, well, she does do a mean Patsy Cline impression.

 Rachel Gibson

 Jon already told us you were from Georgia; what brought you to Tennessee?

Actually, I was born in Florida but spent most of my childhood in Georgia and South Carolina. We visited a number of towns when we decided to move, and Gatlinburg won. It sounds hokey, but the Great Smoky Mountains are breath-taking. As a family, we are just three of the hundreds of folks that come to visit each year and never leave.

What are your earliest musical memories?

The first albums I remember playing were Elvis, Tammy Wynette, Dolly Parton and Kris Kristofferson. I played those albums over and over at my grandmother’s house until I knew every word to every song. And then, there was the Saturday morning ritual with my great-aunt Maggie B. Most Saturdays we would pile into her convertible yellow Dodge Dart with the leopard-print seat covers and go to the local record shop. We’d buy the top 10 singles on 45s for that week then go back to her house and dance our way through them in the middle of the livingroom.

Do you have any formal music training?

I learned to sing harmonies in choirs at both church and school then studied a little opera. But I learned most of what I know about country music from Patsy Cline–her music, I mean. I love her stylization. Her tone is still impossible to replicate. I’ve never heard anyone that could convey heart and heartache quite like that.

Is Patsy Cline who influenced you to sing country music?

Well, it wasn’t just Patsy, but I confess to loving her best. Dolly Parton makes my heart sing; I still get “Jolene” stuck in my head from time to time. I wanted to sing country because it is what I know.

I love rock ‘n’ roll, and most of the music I own would be considered alternative rock. However, when I’m completely honest, I have to admit…my CD case has an entire Dwight Yoakam section–really. That’s telling enough.

Where do you see the Pea Pickin’ Hearts going? And the name?

“Pea Pickin’ Hearts” is a reference to none other than Tennessee Ernie Ford’s famous line “Bless your pea pickin’ heart.” I have a lot of odd connections to Ernie. My mother was judged Sophomore Beauty by Tennessee Ernie Ford in High School. Jon, in costume looks like a young Ernie, and he does the best cover of “Sixteen Tons” I’ve ever heard. It is a tribute to my history with Jon and our adopted Tennessee home.

As for where we’re going…we just want to produce music that makes us proud. I’m an English Composition writer that has been embroiled in visual arts for so long that I am enjoying using that part of my brain again. Song writing makes me happy. Singing with Jon makes me happier. The rest of it will be what it will be.

What is the next big project for the Pea Pickin’ Hearts?

We’re working on a CD that should be available by late Summer of 2010. We’re working hard on writing the songs, and we’ll be trying a few of them out in town…like at the Hoot in the Hollar on June 5th,and we have two showcase performances at the  IndieGrrl Conference in August. If people want to keep track of us, they can subscribe to our blog by email.

–Excerpted from an interview
conducted on January 10, 2010
by Publicist Toni Turbeville

Glenn Spayth

Glenn Spayth is an East Tennesse singer and songwriter playing acoustic, Americana tunes from the heart.  Want to know more?  Here is an excerpt from his Sound Click Profile.

• Right now I play mostly around here local, in east Tenn.  I venture down to NC every week to play at Hot Springs.  I get down to Texas once in awhile. And Port Townsend, WA starting to spread out some, up to Michigan, and Columbus, OH too.

• Big changes, I am an old guy who still like to see, and feel something solid, like a disk, or tape. I don’t have a mp3 player, but see all the kids with them, or iPod. I still think people of my generation still listen to cds or radio more than mp3, at least they don’t seem to download any songs ofmine, but buy cds more.

• Well, I have changed my feelings on this.  I always thought I would. But now I think I like being independent……….but who knows,

• John Prine. Ed Bruce (the voice) and Vern Gosdin. and Blues players Buddy Guy and many others. and lately I like Michael Reno Harrel, Jeff Black, Malcolm Holcombe, Chris Smither, R. B. Morris. and a lot of others most have never heard of. In my area just about any old guy sitting on his front porch plays better than anybody you might hear in Nashville.

• San Antonio and Austin Texas, and a little place in the mountains of NC called Hot Springs, not much of a Big city person, lived in Detroit when I was young. New favorite place, Port Townsend, WA, great people, and venues.

• I like vintage Guitars. I Have many. I use an old 50s Kay acoustic to do most of my writing. She has a great sound and one of my favorites (Kate) I have an early 60s Framus hollowbody elec. for a mellow soulful sound Iwhen needed. a 1970 Framus 6 string banjo, I recently bought a Blueridge br73 to gig with, installed a Martin pickup, and love it.

Come back and visit us often for closer looks
at the bands of the Hoot in the Hollar line-up!