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3 TRAILS WEST was recognized by the Western Music Association as recipients of its 2011 Crescendo Award. This award is given to the most promising performer or group of the past year. Performers in their first three to five years of their careers that have demonstrated the greatest advancement in growth, skill & presentation are nominated by their peers in the spring of the year. A vote is conducted in the fall. Results are announced at organization’s Annual Awards Show and Showcase convention each November, in Albuquerque. This year’s ceremony was held was held at the historic KIMO Theater in the Old Town district.
This was the second year for 3 TRAILS WEST to be nominated for this emerging artist award. Past recipients include The Quebe Sisters Band (2007), Juni Fisher (2005) and Hot Club of Cowtown (2002).
3 TRAILS WEST’s self entitled, debut CD was also nominated in 2011 for the WMA’s Traditional Western Album by a Group or Duo category.
Why we call ourselves 3 TRAILS WEST?
During the middle of the 19th Century, millions of people migrated, in search of better lives and greater opportunities, to the untamed territories of the American West. Many of these pioneers traveled by riverboat up the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers to a frontier town called Kansas, later to be known as Kansas City.
In a nearby settlement called Westport, outfitters organized wagon trains and the settlers headed westward using one of three primary routes. It was there The Santa Fe, The California, and The Oregon Trail(s) shared the same road. It is from this significant era of American history that our band “3 TRAILS WEST” takes its name.
Steeped in the cowboy tradition of singing songs about cattle drives & riding horses, pretty girls back home, nature’s splendor, and livin’ the life of a cowboy, the music of 3TRAILS WEST reflects the romanticism of the western lifestyle and nostalgia of the silver screen cowboy. S.O.P (Standard Operating Procedure) for the band is S.O.P (Son’s of the Pioneers), ‘cause cowboy vocals don’t get any better than that!
And just to spice things up, we’ll throw in a few western swing tunes from the likes of Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys or Andy Parker and the Plainsmen, to present a blend of music that most everyone, young and old, is sure to enjoy.
3 TRAILS WEST is comprised of three seasoned Kansas City musicians: Roger Eilts, Leo Eilts, and Garry Bury. Other local and regional musicians join them on a regular basis as "Trailhands" to provide hot licks to compliment the trio's tight vocal harmonies.