Taryn Noelle, of Stowe, was honored as the “Western Swing Female Vocalist of the Year” at the 23rd Annual Academy of Western Artists (AWA) Will Rogers Awards Ceremony at the Brown-Lupton Ballroom on the campus of Texas Christian University on March 14th in Fort Worth, TX, the birthplace of Western Swing music.
Taryn Noelle, a vocalist with Rick & The All-Star Ramblers Western Swing Band for over 10 years, has performed with the Ramblers in nearly 100 shows around Vermont and the north country. The 2018 Ramblers CD release, “Taryn Noelle Swings,” a tribute to her decade with the band, was also a final five AWA nominee for “Western Swing Album of the Year” and one of the songs, “Swing of the Range,” was nominated for the “Western Swing Song of the Year” award.
Taryn Noelle is the 2017 recipient of the Ellen McCulloch-Lovell Award in Arts Education from the Vermont Arts Council & the Governor of Vermont and Vermont music correspondent Art Edelstein named “Taryn Noelle Swings” as the “Best Singer Album of the Year” in the Barre Times Argus TAMMIE Awards published on December 30th.
Taryn Noelle performed on Thursday morning at Burlington’s Flynn Theatre in a jazz production that featured over 100 VYO musicians on stage. Immediately following her Flynn appearance, she and Rambler Dave Rowell flew out of Burlington to Dallas/Fort Worth for the AWA Awards ceremony that same evening. The “Western Swing Female Vocalist of the Year” award was the first on the program to be announced and, ironically after flying 1,843 miles to make the awards, she arrived 15 minutes after winning the award. Band leader, Rick Norcross happily accepted the “Willie” on her behalf. It made for a joyous welcome when she and Rowell arrived.
A virtual Who’s Who of Western Swing, Western and Pure Country Music artists gathered at the AWA awards to celebrate the music of America’s top bands, artists and recordings of the past year, as selected by Academy Member DJs from all around the United States and western Europe, based on the responses from their listeners to recordings released during 2018.
Rick & The All-Star Ramblers were final five nominees in all five AWA Western Swing categories, also nominated for “Western Swing Duo/Group of the Year,” and Western Swing Male Vocalist of the Year.” This marks the fourth time in five years that Rick & The All-Star Ramblers were recognized as finalists for “Western Swing Duo/Group of the Year” honors. They have been nominated for “Western Swing Album of the Year” twice and they brought home the Will Rogers “Western Swing Song of the Year” statuette from Dallas in 2015 for the Norcross-penned song, “You Can’t Make It Up.”
In addition to Taryn Noelle, vocalist, Rick & The All-Star Ramblers Western Swing Band are Rick Norcross, band leader, vocalist and rhythm guitar, who celebrated his 55th year in music in 2018, Dono Schabner from Morrisville, playing the stellar lead guitar. Fiddle wizard Doug Reid hails from Wheelock in the Northeast Kingdom. From Burlington, Charlie MacFadyen plays keyboards, the accordion and lap steel and is the music arranger of all the songs on the Ramblers recordings. Dave Rowell, of East Craftsbury, plays bass, holds down the bottom end of the band and provides the utra-smooth vocals and the harmonies that sweeten the Ramblers sound. On the drum kit from Starksboro, Ian Koeller, a second generation Rambler, keeps the tempo snappy and the beat steady as a rock.
The Academy of Western Artists, based in Gene Autry, OK, is a non-profit organization whose mission is to promote and preserve, “not only our western past, but also our contemporary western future. We are in our 23rd year of the Will Rogers Western Awards recognizing the best in western artists in three disciplines: Trappings, Entertainment and Media,” according to AWA Executive Director Bobby Newton.
For further information about the Academy of Western Artists, visit their web site at awaawards.org and for further information about Rick & The All-Star Ramblers, visit rickandtheramblers.com.