This performance will feature vocal coach Kitty Sawtelle Scott, who has deep roots in the traditional music of Texas, including Texas-Mexican trio singing. Kitty Sawtelle Scott has taught guitar, voice, performance and Spanish for the last 10 years. She has studied voice and guitar privately for the last 30 years. From 1989 to 1994 she studied under Roberto Arce from the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago, and with Manuel “Cowboy” Donley of Austin from 1994-2000, focusing on Latin American rhythms and songs. She has had the pleasure of performing at many venues such as the paramount theatre, Austin Community College, Delmar community college, Lake Tahoe Community College, headliners club, yacht club, museo alameda, Corpus Christi art museum and many others. She presently works privately with students in San Antonio and Austin. In 2005 Sawtelle Scott was featured in Texas Folklife’s “Border Radio: The Big Jukebox in the Sky” concert at the Paramount Theater, performing songs as the great Mexican-American guitarist and singer Lydia Mendoza. 

Vocal students of San Antonio-based teacher Kitty Sawtelle Scott will also perform a collection of their favorite songs, from folk to Texas country, to cowboy yodels. Sawtelle Scott’s students will showcase their skills in a diverse program featuring songs in English, Spanish, and French. 

Program will also feature accompaniment by local Austin guitarist Jimmie Dreams, who plays a variety of Texas roots styles, including country, Western Swing, blues, zydeco and more. For the past decade Graves has also been immersed in the music of New Orleans, Louisiana, performing alongside Cyril Neville & Tribe 13, The Meters, The Neville Brothers, the Mardi Gras Indians, and many others. He currently performs in Austin with Crescent Soul Revue, The Gritones, and Amanda Cevallos and the High Hands.

House Concert will be an intimate experience. Limited tickets are available and can be purchased at http://texasfolklifehouse3.brownpapertickets.com/ for $20. Guests are invited to bring their own food and drink to enjoy. More information can be found at www.texasfolklife.org.

Now in its 30th year of operation and with the recent move to a larger space off Burnet Road, Texas Folklife plans to expand their programs and public offerings with events such as the House Concert Series. The current exhibition on view is “Thirty Years of Texas Folklife,” a vibrant mix of archival materials from public performances such as the annual Accordion Kings & Queens Festival, programs such as Apprenticeships, and former exhibitions on various subjects as polka, conjunto, and saints. 

“This concert featuring Kitty Sawtelle Scott, her students, and Jimmie Dreams will be a great convening of San Antonio and Austin musicians who have worked with Texas Folklife and our surrounding community”, says Programs & Development Director Charlie Lockwood. “We are excited to provide Kitty with this opportunity to showcase the skills and hard work of her students in a house concert setting”. 

Texas Folklife is supported by the members and Board of Texas Folklife, the City of Austin’s Cultural Arts Division and the Office of Telecommunications and Regulatory Affairs, Texas Commission on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, Houston Endowment, Stillwater Foundation, Shield Ayres Foundation, Humanities Texas, and the Miller Theatre Advisory Board.