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We play swing music, blues, and vaudevillian originals,

as well as traditional Parisian and American jazz. Our sound is inspired by the 1930's era Jazz Manouche of Django Reinhardt, the vocal stylings of Marlene Dietricht and Ella Fitzgerald, storytellers like Leonard Cohen and Tom Waits. We tip our hats to the bold and the brazen, the ones who embody joie de vivre, the cabaret dwellers in the shadowy nightlife of a century ago. 

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Target Audience Appeal:   Fans of Jazz, Swing, Gypsy Jazz, Hot Club Jazz, Western Swing, Jump Blues, String Band, Cabaret Music, Americana

Artist target suggestions:   Django Reinhardt, Tom Waits, Louis Armstrong, Dave Rawlings and Gillian Welch, Louis Prima, Squirrel Nut Zippers, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Cherry Poppin' Daddies, Louis Jordan, Brian Setzer, Hot Club of Cowtown, Andrew Bird, Vince Giordano, Loudon Wainright, Leon Redbone

David Williams

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David is an Emmy-winning songwriter, author, and visual artist. His musical style has been compared to Tom Waits, Randy Newman, and Leonard Cohen. A long-time professor of English Literature, his book The Trickster Brain: Neuroscience, Evolution, and Narrative has been taught in universities around the world. His work on PBS series "Oh the Animals" won him an Emmy Award for his songwriting. He has written and produced six full-length albums of original songs, including genres from Americana and folk to Django Reinhardt- inspired gypsy jazz and swing. 

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PAINTINGS

Ashlynn Manning

 

 

Ashlynn has fronted swing, trad, and gypsy jazz bands from New York and the Hamptons to Boulder. 

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The only child of a musical duo, they knew she was trouble when she wouldn't give back the microphone at age two. As a child, she performed American standards and Broadway tunes with her mother at seniors' and children's events, and sang sea shanties and calypso tunes with her guitarist-singer father.

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She studied voice for 9 years, and majored in musical theater at Walnut Hill School for the Arts outside of Boston, performing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Lincoln Center. She later earned her B.A. in Music from Oberlin College. 

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She spent her 20's in Brooklyn as an electro-pop dancer, "Bio-Pop" composer (Suspicious Package), comedic environmental performance artist, yoga teacher, and massage therapist. A lover of long soaks in foreign cultures, she has performed and gallivanted in New Zealand, Europe, and various countries in Latin America. You may find her with a guitar, ukulele, teaching kiddos music, or drumming on the beach.

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Channing Lynn

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Channing is a multi-instrumentalist, eclectic performer, and songwriter.  She is a classically trained clarinetist and plays saxophone, banjo, vocals, piano, and whatever else will make you dance!  She performs regularly in the Boulder-Denver area and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

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She can be heard locally in Trickster Carousel,  the Rampart Street Stompers, and in the “Chill” duo with pianist extraordinaire Bill McKay.

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She is a board-certified music therapist (MT-BC) and has worked extensively with people with disabilities using music to enhance quality of life.  She loves to have her hands in the dirt growing food, has sailed over 5000 miles in blue water,  has lived as an itinerant agricultural laborer, and has learned grassroots folk music from the ground up.  Chan teaches music in private and group lessons.

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Duane Webster

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Duane has been an important part of the Colorado music scene for  decades, playing with many wonderful musical groups in the state, from Tim O'Brien in bluegrass to jazz greats, like Tommy Emanuel.

 

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Duane plays locally with Voodoo Lily, Espresso! gypsy jazz and swing, and many others. 

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Stephen Van Balgooyen

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Steve hails from the rural northeast, where he practiced drums in a barn and studied jazz performance at the University of Maine before pursuing a degree in Theatre and moving to Austin, TX in 1995. While in Austin, he enjoyed a residency at The Continental Club and toured the midwest with The Barkers ("Best New Band," SXSW 2000) before moving to Colorado to start a family in 2004.

 

In 2014, Steve won a scholarship from Gretsch Drums to study with world class drummer Stanton Moore in New Orleans. He has since gone back to the Crescent City several times to study with Stanton and other legendary New Orleans drummers such as Johnny Vidacovich and Shannon Powell. 

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Locally, Steve also plays with the traditional New Orleans style brass band,

The Rampart Street Stompers. 

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Carousel Photos by:
Jordan Bass @freejivan FB: Jordan Bass
Carousel of Happiness by Scott Harrington
and the town of Nederland, CO
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trickstercarousel@gmail.com
(540) 760- 3316
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