Bill Thurman: News

the Thurman and Nesbitt quartet will be playing at Whole Foods in Little Rock on June 17th from 5 to 7 pm. the party starts at 3 pm.
For each pair of TOMS Shoes purchased, the company donates a pair to needy children on the buyer's behalf. Come and enjoy the great live music and see the shoes that have stirred a fashion media frenzy across the country.
check out www.tomsshoes.com
thanks!

Bill Thurman and Bill Nesbitt
will be playing their swing guitar and fiddle at The Afterthought jazz club in Little Rock on June 18th wednesday evening at 8 pm.
we might be joined by another musician or two. the Afterthought is at the corner of Beechwood and Kavanaugh in the Hillcrest neighborhood of Little Rock.
we will play many tunes by Django Reinhardt and various swing standards of the 40's as well. hey! swing on by.

our band called Green Mountain Swing will play from 11 am til noon on saturday May 10th at Whole Foods/Wild Oats in Little Rock. we will play many of the classic tunes by Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli and more. if you like memories from the Hot Club of France era, we've got them. string bass, two acoustic guitars and jazz violin. see ya.

during the afternoon Bill will play the fiddle, a bunch of ole time rowdy fiddle tunes,
for all the boaters, friends,
onlookers, etc. at Turner Bend Store and canoe rental where the Ozarks Pigtrail and the Mulberry River meet. the date is Sunday, March 9th, 2008. the whole event is a treat and it should be nice weather. if you've never been to Turner Bend then you have missed one of Arkansas' truly fine wild places. for more information about Turner Bend visit them at
www.turnerbend.com

Check out Bill's tunes on iTunes, Napster and many more. song by song you can buy as many as you want.
hundreds of people have asked about Orange Blossom Special, Judi's Waltz
Listen to the Mockingbird and plenty of the rest of the catalogue. go for it!

Bill Thurman and Joe Snell will perform duo violins for the Peabody's Easter Brunch in Downtown Little Rock. we will be wearing our tuxedos so you know it will all be "strictly genteel".

Bill will play a variety of Celtic music on the small harp and the fiddle at Whole Foods in the cafe area from 11 am til 3 pm on March 15th. if you like things like Guiness and great ales then Whole Foods has them. (to go of course) plenty of great green foods!

Bill will be playing for the wedding ceremony of April Bruce and Lloyd Wright. they will be married on the afternoon of march 30 in Kennard, TX. Lloyd is Bill's old friend and music picking partner from his Texas days.
Lloyd was the mountain dulcimer champion in 2000
in the national contest in Winfield, KS.

Bill will play the small harp and violin for the Christmas Eve service on Dec. 24 for Oak Forest U.M.C. in midtown Little Rock from 5
til 6 pm.

Bill will once again be playing the small harp and solo violin from 11 am til 3pm
at Wild Oats Market near Rodney Parham Rd and I-430.
Christmas music, some surprises and plenty
of CD's for sale.

Bill Thurman and Bill Nesbitt will do their swing thing for National Bank of Arkansas' Christmas Party for a couple
of hours on December 11th.
we play old jazz/swing standards from the Django
and Stephane Grappelli era as well as a mixed bag of blues and folk instrumentals.

on the last monday evening of september Thurman and Nesbitt will play some of Django Reinhardt's old tunes and some swing standards at the Afterthought in Little Rock. the Afterthought is located at the corner of Beechwood and Kavanaugh
streets. bring a lot of your bon vivant et l'argent, s'il vous plais.

for those who like to buy CDs in person and over the counter Bill's CDs, Fiddlin' My Life Away, Fiddlin' For Fun, The Celtic Collection and The Original Music are available in the Barnes and Noble Booksellers of Little Rock and North Little Rock, Mount Bethel Winery at Altus, AR
and also The Dulcimer Shoppe, Inc. of Mountain View, Arkansas.

Fiddlin' For Fun by Bill Thurman and friends is here.
Bill and his students with backup rhythm power by Tim Crouch recorded at Raney Recording near the end of 2006. you can check
it out at: http://cdbaby.com/cd/thurman5
the fiddling is truly fun!

Highlander Radio and so many other internet radio
stations have been greatly encouraging in playing the music of independent musicians. All internet radio
stations are in immediate
danger. Please go to http:/www.savenetradio.org
and do everything possible
to save their future. Read and tell everyone you know
about H.R. 2060. Thanks!

Out of dozens of other CDs and 8 nominees Bill Thurman's recording Achille's Jig was voted 2nd place for Best Celtic Instrumental Song in 2006 in the Just Plain Folks music awards held on saturday Nov 4, 2006
go to www.jpfolks.net

music from the Celtic Collection can be heard on
Highlander Radio over the internet by going here: www.celticradio.net

When fiddlers find a style of music that suits them, they tend to stick with it and play little else, which is what makes Bill Thurman's new release, Fiddlin' My Life Away, so unusual. Thurman is a musician who is comfortable playing in just about every style and the selections on his CD include examples of swing, Celtic, Appalachian, Gypsy, and even Venezuelen fiddling. And even though he plays such a wide variety of music, he finds the thread that ties the styles together and turns what could have been a hodgepodge of mismatched tunes into a cohesive musical statement. The selections include a sweetly swinging version of the Reinhardt/Grapelli classic "Minor Swing," the Scottish reel "Flowers of Edinburgh," and a very nice take on "Blackberry Blossom," which begins with a lovely slow duet with dulcimer player Lloyd Wright. Thurman is a tasteful fiddler who seems to be incapable of playing an inelegant note. Even when he plays "Listen to the Mockingbird" and "Orange Blossom Special," he resists the temptation to let the music degenerate into a mess of birdcall and train whistle effects like many other fiddlers do. Bill Thurman may be fiddling his life away, as he put it in the title track of this CD, but there are surely worse ways to spend your time.
by Michael Simmons
Fiddler Magazine 2001

Bill Thurman's Celtic Collection 1992-2001 has been nominated for Best Celtic Instrumental Album for 2006 in the Just Plain Folks music awards which are held in November, 2006.