Open Range

Artist Information

Biography

“Music that captures the spirit of the West”…that’s how the music of the award winning group Open Range has been described. Ric Steinke & Linda Hausler, performing together since 1996, weave a musical blend of tight vocal harmonies & outstanding instrumentation. They perform music from the old western standards, to swing tunes of the 40’s, to western music being written today, including their own original compositions.

Ric & Linda perform as a duo (guitars, dobro, harmonica, Native American flute, vocals), trio, or with their western swing band, Open Range & the Swing Stampede.

Some of their headline acts include; Cowboy Songs and Range Ballads, Cody, WY; Montana Cowboy Poetry Gathering, Lewistown, MT; Old West Days, Valentine, NE; Badger Clark Days, Hot Springs, SD; Cut Bank Storytellers, Cut Bank, MT; Heber City Cowboy Poetry Gathering, Heber City, UT; Western Music Association, Albuquerque, NM.

Open Range has shared the stage with Ian Tyson, Don Edwards, Michael Martin Murphey, Asleep at the Wheel, Leon Russell, Lee Greenwood, Stephanie Davis, humorist/poets Paul Zarzyski and Wally McCrae, among others.

Their music is also featured in the Documentary "Oh You Cowgirl!", PBS Kids "Postcards from Buster", and the BBC Documentary "Montana Cowboys".


AWARDS & NOMINATIONS FROM THE Western Music Association (WMA) and the Academy of Western Artists (AWA):

2010 Best of the Best Harmony Award, WMA
2010 Top 5 Nominee, Best Western Due, WMA
2007 Marilyn Tuttle Harmony Award, WMA
2005 Trio Harmony Award, WMA
2005 Dancers Choice Best New Original Dance Tune Award, WMA

Crescendo Award nomination
Best Western Swing Group nomination
Best Western Swing Album nomination
Best Western Swing Song-"Swingtime in the Rockies" nomination

Instrumentation

Ric Steinke: lead, rhythm guitar, steel guitar, 8 string resonator, mandolin, vocals
Linda Hausler: rhythm guitar, native american flute, vocals

Also available:
Trio
Swing Band

Discography

Swingtime in the Rockies 2004
High Country Cookout 2002
Yellowstone Winds 1999

Links

• Facebook
• MySpace
• Twitter

Audio

• Blue & Lonesome (UCWDC "Dancer's Choice" award winner!)
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• Crow Fair (western folk with native american flute)
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• Wild Western Plains
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• Fanny Sperry Steele
  Listen   Download

Video

Photo Gallery

Press

• Swingtime in the Rockies [+ Show ]
  

  The great steel guitarist Tom Morrell made a comment when he first heard this CD. He said, "it’s lik...The great steel guitarist Tom Morrell made a comment when he first heard this CD. He said, "it’s like a breath of fresh air." One quick listen will show you what he meant. It’s fantastic!
  
  Ric Steinke & Linda Hausler, a.k.a. Open Range, teamed up with The Stampede Swing Band for this project, and, in so doing, they struck gold! This is one of the best CDs I’ve heard in a long, long time! The swing is pretty much the easy-going kind, performed, as they say, in their own Montana style. It blew me away!
  
  In addition to straight Western swing, they do good Western & cowboy music with a nice, danceable rhythm. There are 13 songs, 11 of which were written by Ric, one co-written by Ric & Linda, and one, "Roundup Time on the Rio Grande," by Nancy Thorwardson. And there’s not a weak one in the bunch. Even the big labels rarely issue a CD whose total contents are first-rate, but I found all 13 of these to be thoroughly enjoyable. Radio will surely be giving this whole album lots of airplay! An excellent candidate for Album of the Year.

Setlist

Our sets are designed or tailored to fit the venue/show/festival. Show content could include original material, cover songs by other similar style artists, western folk and jazzy western swing music.

Open Range can perform 20 min, half hour, 45 min etc. sets, depending on whatever is required

Also perform 1 to 1 1/2 hour show, "Ride Through the West". This show includes traditional, swing, and contemporary cowboy folk songs interspersed with history and stories and original material.

Basic Requirements

Calendar