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Press Blurb
When you take the musical tour with The GinSangers, you take the blue highways into the heart of American music. The music is real. It crosses all the lines of blues, country, swing and traditional.
Short Description
At a GinSangers concert you can expect to hear two sweet voices with a touch of twang and that special mother-daughter blend delivered by Connie Townsend and daughter Rose Bell. You'll also hear rock solid rhythm guitar, sweet and true fiddle and there's Dave Parker who might jump in on any of a number of instruments including dobro, resonator, guitar or banjo. Dave can also get the crowd going with his witty sense of humor. Connie and Dave are award winning songwriters. At a GinSangers show, you'll hear a mix of originals and cover songs that range in flavor from country, blues and swing to traditional.
 Full Bio
The GinSangers are based in Elkins, West Virginia. Connie is a West Virginia native and has made the Allegheny Highlands her home for the past ten years. Dave was raised in western Massachusetts but has been in West Virginia so long that you'd think he was from here. He's lived a few other places too including Columbus, New York City and Indianapolis. He jokingly says that those were the times he was in exile. Dave and Connie met in Elkins where they were both sort of looking for something better than lonely. They found each other on a rooftop watching a comet. Connie had been playing solo around the region and Dave had been a closet player who happened to like writing poetry. Connie challenged him to try his hand at songwriting and things really took off from there. They've been working up their own songs ever since. One of their songs took them to Merlefest in 2003 where they won first place. That same year they were top ten finalists at the Mountain Stage New Song Contest. Since then, with a sense of validation for their work, Connie and Dave have continued to work on their music – which is an evolutionary process. Townsend and Parker have taken their music all over West Virginia and the Appalachian region and from New England to Louisiana, playing honky-tonks, coffeehouses, concerts, festivals, jam sessions, radio shows, restaurants and songwriter showcases. In August of 2005, they made their debut on Mountain Stage, where they appeared with Kasey Chambers, The Greencards and Tony Joe White. They have also shared the stage with the Osborne Brothers, J.D. Crowe, bluesman Ernie Hawkins, Johnny Staats and Ginny Hawker. Townsend began playing venues around West Virginia many years ago. Inspired and influenced early on by West Virginia troubadour Mike Morningstar and a host of other country, rock, bluegrass and traditional musicians, Connie spent half her childhood listening to music with the headphones on. Some of her early favorites were Emmylou Harris, Neil Young, The Burrito Brothers, and Bonnie Raitt. Connie developed a steady rhythm guitar to accompany her singing. Her songwriting began to take form after moving to Elkins and really clicked when she and Dave got together. Dave's influences came out of the folk revival of the 60's, Hank Williams and Bob Dylan and later gravitated to performers like Lyle Lovett and Chris Smither, Tom Waits and Lucinda Williams. Connie's daughter Rose Bell is a young up-and-comer and now accompanies the GinSangers playing fiddle and singing harmony vocals with her mom and they have that unique mother-daughter blend. Rose's fiddle arrangement of Amazing Grace can be heard on the Dualtone companion CD to the PBS documentary film, The Appalachians. Connie and Dave's first recorded original work was on Connie's These Hills album, which is a solo effort featuring a Connie's plaintiff voice accompanied by her guitar on most of the cuts. Connie & Dave's original songs make up the majority of cuts on Connie's CD, Gentle Graces. On Gentle Graces, Connie is backed by the 'Sangers and fine local and nationally known musicians. The album's flavor ranges from country blues and swing tunes to a more traditional sound. Critical comments? " It's warm, like listening to friends play music that you really like." Their most recent recording, entitled The GinSangers Live is available at their shows. | | |
| "her voice moves easily and forcefully between angelic, gospel-tinged high notes and twangy country inflections ..."
— M. Friedman, Charleston Gazette |
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