OutWest Concert Series | Juni Fisher
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SCVTV Presents the OutWest Concert Series Featuring Juni Fisher OutWest Boutique & Cultural Center Old Town Newhall, Santa Clarita, California June 15, 2010
Juni Fisher’s name is synonymous with the kind of songwriting that, according to one promoter, “plumbs the depth of your soul.” Her writing, paired with heart wrenching vocals and outstanding guitar picking have made her a favorite at festivals and concerts across the nation. She is the 2005 Academy of Western Artists Female Vocalist of the Year, 2005 Western Music Association Crescendo award winner, 2006 Western Music Association Female Vocalist of the Year, Recipient of the 2007 WMA Song of the Year award, 2008 Western Music Association Songwriter of the Year, Winner of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum’s 2008 Wrangler Award for Most Outstanding Traditional Western Album, Winner WMA 2009 Album of the Year, and 2009 WMA Female Performer of the Year. Born in the San Joaquin Valley of California, she spent her early years training reined cow horses and running a roping arena, as well as working on cow-calf operations. She lives in Franklin Tennessee, managing to get in fly fishing time both at home, and on the road. Larrivee Guitars chose Juni for their 2006 magazine ads, and rightfully so. In the central San Joaquin Valley of California, a horse crazy kid named Juni Fisher to grew up in a farming family, but between school and countless singing performances with her two sisters, Juni found a way to have horses, and 4-H and FFA honors followed her through out her school years. While studying Equine Science at the College of the Sequoias in Visalia, she rode young horses for her customers, and became known as a good horse show “catch rider”: She rode her way through college, with top honors at Intercollegiate and Quarter Horse shows. Meanwhile, she was earning horse show entry money singing big band standards in a dance orchestra. She trained cowhorses from snaffle bitters to bridle horses, winning her first Snaffle Bit Futurity (IARCHA) in ’81, her first Bridle Horse Championship in ’83 (the Monterey Classic) while working on a cow calf operation, and running a roping arena. Her bridle horses did day work on the ranch, and competed weekends with much success. If there was a campfire gathering with music, Juni was there with her guitar, singing the songs of the west she’d learned from her father. In 1984 she moved to Santa Ynez, Calif., to train cutting horses, taking her blossoming songwriting skills with her. A local band was quick to ask her to play rhythm guitar and sing leads and backups. Members of the noted Rancheros Vistadores, an elite group of ranchers from across the nation, noticed her singing around town, which led her to working L.A. area clubs with another popular country band, which was also playing western and cowboy music. Juni’s ability to ride at speed across the hills found her working as a foxhunting professional, and she accepted a one year position with a hunt club in Tennessee. Point to point racing, steeplechasing, and horse trials took the place of cowhorses, while she honed her songwriting skills amongst some of Nashville’s finest. She and husband Rusty, an Equine Specialist for Purina Mills, keep two favorite horses these days, living near Franklin, Tennessee. She recorded her first Western release, “Tumbleweed Letters,” in late 1999. Monterey Cowboy Poetry and Music Festival director Gary Brown heard her first album, and hunted her down to perform at the 2004 Festival. He shared Juni’s music with other promoters and artists, and started the wheels turning, allowing Juni to shift her profession to the music she loved most. Juni released a second album, “Sideshow Romance” in 2004. Her third release, “Cowgirlography” (2006), features the 2007 WMA Song of the Year winner: a beautiful duet with Sons of the San Joaquin’s Joe Hannah, and recieved a WMA Top Five nomination for Album of the Year. 2008 brought her most ambitious project to date, a historical album about her great Grandfather’s early life as a young cowhand, titled “Gone For Colorado.” Fans and Dee-Jays began raving about the CD instantly, and it has sealed Juni’s place among the finest songwriters of Western music genre. Her 2009 Wrangler Award from the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum is a landmark win, and Juni is the first woman in the history of the Wrangler awards for Music to win the Outstanding Western Album category. Fisher is easy to find these days, in trademark custom made hats and beautiful boots, performing at venues like the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, NV, Monterey Cowboy Festival, Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival, Spirit of the West Festival in Washington, Cochise Cowboy Poetry Gathering, Heber City Cowboy Poetry Gathering, The Riverbend Music Festival, Saddle Up and many more venues. From her appearances, and by word of mouth, the bookings and the kudos keep rolling in. (c)2016 SCVTV
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