An Evening with the Lightfoots
Live Folk & Blue Grass Music Comes to GEM Theatre Aug. 6
Join a “Family Friendly Evening” celebrating the art, history, and music of the cowboy way of life. Armstrong County Museum, 7 to 8:30 p.m.
The Lightfoot Family Band sings and plays songs and ballads that are a step back in time. Their easy listening music drifts from the banjo and guitar much the way smoke curled from the cowboy campfires along the trail. The Lightfoots honor the western ballad heritage in their selection of songs. The Friday night performance is the culminating event of the exhibits, “Vaquero: Genesis of the Texas Cowboy” and western art show of Ron Berndt. If you have not visited the museum recently, this is an end of summer family affair to hear and view the cowboy culture of the area. Refreshments will be available at intermission.
Joshua and Tove Lightfoot have been playing traditional Folk and Bluegrass music programs across the United States and Europe since 2015. The duo met in 2013 at the Woody Guthrie Folk Festival in Okemah, Oklahoma. The festival pays tribute to the life of folk singer Woody Guthrie who was known to write new as well as rewrite old songs and spread them across the country on his travels during the time of the Great Depression and the World War II era. Guthrie is one of the strongest musical influences for the Lightfoots.
Joshua Lightfoot was born in 1986 in the western Oklahoma town of Clinton and grew up surrounded by music. His father Bo Lightfoot was an accomplished musician winning the True Value Country Showdown in the 1980's, and taught Josh to play guitar.
Tove Thunell Lightfoot was born in 1992 in the seaport town of Gothenburg, Sweden. Being surrounded by a culture filled in art and music, she had a very high interest in American culture and American root's music. Tove plays the banjo to Joshua’s guitar.
In 2020, the pandemic stopped The Lightfoots from performing and touring and found themselves out of work with a young baby in tow. They realized that they were living in one of Woody’s songs, ‘Goin’ Down the Road Feelin’ Bad’. The Lightfoot Family Band, including baby Esther, is based in Burns Flat, Oklahoma, but play in Texas, Kansas, Missouri, and Arkansas. They enjoy entertaining seniors in retirement communities, playing and teaching listeners at museums and engaging friendships at libraries around the world.
The Lightfoot Family Band will have the audience tapping their feet and nodding their heads as they surrender to the soft lyrics of folk music that might have been heard in the GEM Theatre in times past.
The community is invited to attend, donations to Armstrong County Museum.
