Early career
One of the sisters' first paying gigs was in 2000, when Red Steagall heard and invited them to perform at The Red Steagall Cowboy Gathering and Western Swing Festival in the Fort Worth Stockyards, a festival to which they returned to perform for 13 years straight.
Entering fiddle contests, they had success early on, winning several state, regional, and national fiddle championships. [3] In their respective age groups Sophia Quebe was Texas State champion in 1999 and 2000, Hulda Quebe was Texas State champion in 2000 and 2001, and Grace Quebe was Texas State champion in 2001. Then in 2002, at the National Oldtime Fiddler's Contest in Weiser, ID, oldest sister Grace took first place in the junior division with middle sister Sophia placing second and youngest sister Hulda winning the junior-junior title. [2]
In 2003 they released their first album, Texas Fiddlers, backed by Joey McKenzie on rhythm guitar, Mark Abbott on bass, and others, including steel guitarist Tom Morrell. Recorded locally in Burleson, Texas, the all-instrumental album featured Texas-style fiddling and western swing tunes.
Also in 2003, after hearing them perform backstage at Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth, Texas, Ricky Skaggs invited them onstage during his show, where they played the western swing standard "San Antonio Rose." Afterwards he invited them to perform on the Grand Ole Opry for the first time. Since then they have appeared on the Opry and at the Ryman Auditorium numerous times.
The sisters began touring outside their home region of Texas and Oklahoma in 2004, including performing at the National Folk Festival, then held in Bangor, Maine, a festival to which they returned in 2007. [4]
Also in 2004 they were featured on episode 891 of Bob Phillips' Texas Country Reporter anthology television series. [5]
In early 2005 the sisters met Ray Benson of Asleep at the Wheel who was working on a musical about the life of Bob Wills called "A Ride with Bob." [6] Benson invited them to be a part of the production, and their appearances included the shows in Austin, Texas celebrating Bob Wills’s 100th birthday, and a weekend in September 2006 at the Kennedy Center with President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush in attendance. [7]
Career highlights
In 2007 The Quebe Sisters performed with Warren Buffett on ukulele singing "Red River Valley" at the Berkshire-Hathaway Annual Shareholders Meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, at the invitation of the Justin Brands western footwear company. [8]
That year they also recorded their second album, Timeless, which was recorded at Cash Cabin Studio in Hendersonville, Tennessee, where Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash made their later recordings. Invited by the Cash family to record there, the sisters capitalized on the opportunity to make their vocal debut album arranged and produced by Joey McKenzie. Inspired by the vocal stylings of the Mills Brothers, Timeless featured the sisters' three-part harmony vocals and included songs from the Sons of the Pioneers, Bob Wills & The Texas Playboys, Spade Cooley, and Duke Ellington.
In 2009 The Quebe Sisters appeared on Episode 26 of The Marty Stuart Show together with The Opry Square Dancers, Connie Smith, Leroy Troy and The Tennessee Mafia Jug Band, and The Fabulous Superlatives. [9]
That year, the Quebes met twin sisters Penny and Katy Clark backstage at the Grand Ole Opry. After learning that they were fellow Texans, the girls became fast friends and later toured together in 2014 before the Clarks left to continue their own group, The Purple Hulls. [10]
Over the years the band has toured extensively in Canada, and in 2010 the sisters toured in Europe, appearing at events including the Cambridge Folk Festival in England [11] and the Festival Country Rendez-Vous in Craponne sur Arzon, France. [12]
On November 20, 2010 they were guest performers on A Prairie Home Companion at The Brown Theater in Houston, Texas. [13] The same year they appeared on episode 571 of the WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour . [14]
In 2012 The Quebe Sisters performed Connie Smith's 1964 debut hit "Once a Day" at Smith's induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame. [15]
The same year, they appeared on NPR's Mountain Stage. [16]
In March 2013 The Quebe Sisters toured in Russia, including a performance at Spaso House, the U.S. Embassy. [17]
On March 30, 2013 The Quebe Sisters performed with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra at the Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas, TX [18] and again on May 29, 2014 at Klyde Warren Park in Downtown Dallas. [19]
In 2014 the sisters released their third album, Every Which-A-Way. Recorded at Allegro Sound Lab in Burleson, Texas and produced by Joey McKenzie, it showed a further evolution of the band's reach into a variety of styles, hitting #38 on Billboard's Jazz Albums chart on March 1. [20]
In 2015 The Quebe Sisters and Willie Nelson contributed a track ("Along the Navajo Trail") to the album "Still the King: Celebrating the Music of Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys," a tribute album put together by Asleep at the Wheel. The following year the sisters, along with The Avett Brothers and Amos Lee, both of whom had also contributed to the album, appeared with Asleep at the Wheel on Austin City Limits in a special tribute to Wills. [21]
On August 18, 2015 the sisters performed in New York City with Sam Outlaw at a Roots of American Music/Americanafest NYC concert at Lincoln Center. [22]
On September 16, 2015, Amos Lee featured The Quebe Sisters as guests on episode 3, season 5 of the PBS program Bluegrass Underground . [23]
On Nov 11, 2015 episode 11, season 5 of the PBS program Bluegrass Underground aired, featuring The Quebe Sisters accompanied by Penny Clark, Katy Clark, and Drew Phelps. [23]
On November 28, 2016, The Quebe Sisters were featured guest artists of Kacey Musgraves on the CMA Christmas Special. [24]
The sisters have performed with Merle Haggard, George Strait, Willie Nelson, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Ray Price, Connie Smith, Marty Stuart, Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder, Riders in the Sky, Amos Lee, Delbert McClinton, Band of Heathens, Larry Gatlin & The Gatlin Brothers, Asleep at the Wheel, Kacey Musgraves, and Dailey & Vincent among others. They've been featured performers at the Stagecoach Festival, Ernest Tubb Midnight Jamboree, Smithsonian Folklife Festival, MerleFest, the Philadelphia Folk Festival, Pickathon, and the Cavendish Beach Music Festival.
James Robert Wills was an American Western swing musician, songwriter, and bandleader. Considered by music authorities as the founder of Western swing, he was known widely as the King of Western Swing. He was also noted for punctuating his music with his trademark "ah-haa" calls.
Asleep at the Wheel is an American Western Swing music group that was formed in Paw Paw, West Virginia, and is based in Austin, Texas. The band has won nine Grammy Awards since their 1970 inception, released over twenty albums, and has charted more than 21 singles on the Billboard country charts. Their highest-charting single, "The Letter That Johnny Walker Read", peaked at No. 10 in 1975.
A Tribute to the Best Damn Fiddle Player in the World is the eleventh studio album by Merle Haggard backed by The Strangers, released in 1970.
The Hot Club of Cowtown is an American Western swing trio that formed in 1997.
Elana James is an American songwriter, Western swing, folk and jazz violinist, vocalist, and a founding member of the band Hot Club of Cowtown.
Eldon Shamblin was an American guitarist and arranger, particularly important to the development of Western swing music as one of the first electric guitarists in a popular dance band. He was a member of the Strangers during the 1970s and 1980s and was the last surviving member of Bob Wills' band the Texas Playboys.
John Paul Gimble was an American country musician associated with Western swing. Gimble was considered one of the most important fiddlers in the genre. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999 in the early influences category as a member of Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys.
"San Antonio Rose" is a swing instrumental introduced in late 1938 by Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys. Quickly becoming the band's most popular number, Wills and band members devised lyrics, which were recorded on April 16, 1940, and released on Okeh 5694 in August as "New San Antonio Rose". Despite having completed a lengthy Hillbilly/Folk chart run in 1939, which culminated at #1, it quickly rose to the top again, in early 1941. It went on to become the band's theme song for the next forty years, reverting to its original title.
Cecil Lee Brower was a classically trained American jazz violinist who became an architect of Western swing in the 1930s. Perhaps the greatest swing fiddler, he could improvise as well as double shuffle and created his own style which became the benchmark for his contemporaries.
Ace in the Hole Band is the backup band for American country music performer George Strait, who was the band's lead singer before beginning his solo career in the early 1980s. The band formed at San Marcos, Texas in the 1970s, and recorded several singles for "D Records" including the Strait-penned "I Just Can't Go On Dying Like This" and "I Don't Want To Talk It Over Anymore". After Strait attained status as the "King of Country", the group released an album of its own in 1995 featuring vocals from Darrell McCall and Mel Tillis.
Ruby Jane Smith is an American fiddle player, singer, and songwriter in the traditional bluegrass and Americana music genres. The youngest fiddler invited to play the Grand Ole Opry, Smith has toured and recorded with Asleep at the Wheel’s Ray Benson, Drake Bell, and Willie Nelson, and has performed on Austin City Limits.
Westerns swing originated in the 1920s and 1930s; small towns in the US Southwest. Although sometimes subject to the term "Texas swing" it is widely associated with Tulsa, others contend that "Western Swing music finds deep roots in the dust bowl of Oklahoma", and its influences include jazz from the major urban centers of the United States. Its stylistic origins lie in Old Time, Western, blues, folk, swing, Dixieland and jazz. Writing in Rolling Stone, Dan Hicks described it as Texas-bred music grafted to jazz, or as "white country blues with a syncopated beat.".
Bluegrass fiddling is a distinctive style of American fiddle playing which is characterized by bold, bluesy improvisation, off-beat "chopping", and sophisticated use of both double-stops and old-time bowing patterns.
A Very Kacey Christmas is a third studio album and first Christmas album by American country music artist Kacey Musgraves, released on October 28, 2016, through Mercury Nashville. Overall, it is Musgraves' sixth album, her third studio album, and first Christmas album. Produced by Musgraves, Kyle Ryan and Misa Arriaga, it features eight traditional Christmas songs and four originals. Special guest artists include Willie Nelson, The Quebe Sisters and Leon Bridges.
"Bob Wills Is Still the King" is a song written and performed by American country music artist Waylon Jennings, as a tribute of sorts to the Western swing icon Bob Wills.
Larry Alvin Franklin is an American fiddler, mandolin and guitar player, session musician, and composer. His style embraces country, blues, rock and roll, jazz, and Western swing.
Asleep at the Wheel is the second album by American western swing band Asleep at the Wheel. Produced by Norro Wilson at Columbia Recording Studios in Nashville, Tennessee, it was released in September 1974 as the group's first album on Epic Records. As with its predecessor Comin' Right at Ya, Asleep at the Wheel's self-titled album featured a mix of traditional and original compositions, including songs written by popular country musicians Rex Griffin, Cindy Walker and Hank Penny.
Tribute to the Music of Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys is the 12th studio album and first tribute album by American country band Asleep at the Wheel. Recorded at studios in Austin, Texas, and Nashville, Tennessee, it was produced by the band's frontman Ray Benson and released on October 25, 1993, by Liberty Records. The collection features recordings of songs made popular by Western swing group Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, a major influence on Asleep at the Wheel.
Ride with Bob: A Tribute to Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys is the 15th studio album and second tribute album by American country band Asleep at the Wheel. Recorded between June 1998 and March 1999 at studios in Austin, Texas, and Nashville, Tennessee, it was produced by the band's frontman Ray Benson and released on August 10, 1999, as the band's only album on DreamWorks Records. The album is another tribute to the music of Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys.
