Down The Trail in 2024...
April 3, 2024	Senior Luncheon - Janesville Senior Center 69 S. Water St., Janesville WI  608-755-3040 1:00 PM
April 18, 2024	Colonial Club 301 Blankenheim Lane, Sun Prairie, WI 608-837-4611 1:30 PM
April 26, 2024	35th Anniversary Celebration Concert trio with Angie Roltgen A super fun show is planned to celebrate this amazing milestone! Wild Hog in the Woods Coffeehouse 540 S. Brearly St., Madison WI
June 13, 2024	American Players Theater Spring Green, WI pre-play strolling entertainment bring a picnic supper and enjoy the beautiful surroundings! 6:00 - 7:00 PM
June 16, 2024	Lion's Club Father's Day Parade Mukwonago WI 12:00 PM
July 10, 2024	American Players Theater Spring Green, WI pre-play strolling entertainment bring a picnic supper and enjoy the beautiful surroundings! 6:00 - 7:00 PM
July 24, 2024	Folklore Village Seniors Concert Series 3210 County Road BB, Dodgeville, WI 53533 (608) 924-4000  1:00 PM Free concert
August 4, 2024	Fireman's Parade Eden WI. 12:00 PM
August 17 - 18, 2024	Wild West Days Viroqua, WI
August 24, 2024	Open House and Fundraiser Cornerstone Horses W691 County Rd CI, Palmyra WI
October 26, 2024	Vinnie Ream Cultural Center 1110 W. Canadian Ave., Vinita OK 7:00 PM $10 suggested donation info: 620-870-0098
Nov. 13 - 14, 2024	International Western Music Assoc. Convention Hotel Albuquerque at Old Town Albuquerque NM 5 days of all Western Music!!! Great shows, jamming, workshops and camaraderie
Keep checking back often - more shows filling in soon …
Want to know what's coming up? Sign up on our mailing list (use the button at the top of the page) and we will keep you posted... Check out all our CDs ! Listen to clips on our "Trading Post" page...

 

Where We Were …  click here for previous years schedules

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News from the home ranch...

April 2024  - We've been featured on the cover of the Western Way, the International Western Music Association's quarterly magazine! There's a great article about us celebrating our 35 years performing and preserving Western Music. You can see the article (and read the whole magazine) at https://iwesternmusic.org/western-way-magazine.php October 2022 - A NEW CD! At long last we've released another CD, Saturday Matinee. It's a collection of songs that mostly come from the dime movie days of cowboy films. Packed with great harmony (including our daughter Angela Roltgen) and sweet fiddling by Suzanne Lansford, it's a 17 song trip back in time to cowboy heroes of old. Order your copy from our Trading Post! May 2021 - We are glad to have 2020 in the rear-view mirror, and a better outlook ahead in 2021. We're still working on our recording project but no promises on when it will be done. Plans include our daughter Angie singing harmony and she's one busy gal. But it's worth the wait and will be a fun album once it's all together! Meanwhile some live shows are coming back and we're healthy and doing OK. Happy trails to all and stay well! March 2020 - As you all know, this is turning out to be a sad and strange time for performing musicians everywhere. With all the precautions to slow the progress of the Coronavirus pandemic most shows are cancelled or postponed till who-knows-when and many musicians are struggling. We are fine and SO fortunate to have the resources to weather this crisis! We are making great use of our time at home to start working on a new recording project. Please keep checking our website for schedule updates or sign up on our email list and we will keep you posted on changes. If you know musicians who are hurting right now we urge you to visit their websites, buy their music and turn out in huge numbers when it's once again possible to do live shows. Stay well - happier trails will return! Dec 2016 - Looking back on another year filled with good music and good friends. We don't have any big announcements this year, but just keep riding along on our mission to keep classic Western Music alive. We have had some great shows playing with our daughter and son-in-law in our "expanded" version of KG & The Ranger. Hope to book lots more shows with them down the trail! One of the highlights this year was our trip to Albuquerque NM for the Western Music Association convention, where we were blown away by the talented youngsters who are playing this music and moving it into a new generation. Let us know if we can bring some cowboy spirit to an event near you..... Dec 2015 - YES! ANOTHER NEW CD filled with Classic Christmas songs and unique cowboy Christmas songs! We had a ton of fun recording this with all six of our grandkids taking part, plus our grownup "kids" and their spouses. A real family get-together for the Holidays! Check out the Trading Post for all the details on 'Tis The Season. May 15, 2014 - NEW CD IS DONE AND READY TO SHIP... Hard to believe it's been 10 years since our last release. Guess we've just been too busy having fun performing all around the country to get in studio time! But the wait is over - and we are very excited about our new project. We have excellent backup on vocals and bass from our daughter Angela Otte and her husband Tom Otte. And we finally had a chance to work with fiddler Suzanne Lansford, who we met about 5 years ago in Okeechobee Florida. It's a long story, but from the first time we heard her play we knew we had to record with her someday. She adds so much to the album - you will love her playing. The concept for this album came from our love of the poetic, lyrical songs in Western Music. Some of these we sing just for ourselves, or around a campfire with friends - seldom performing them on stage. Others are gems of the genre that we sing for all occasions. They are all favorites of ours and needed to be recorded. Here's a look at the songs included: Moonlight On The Trail; Lonely Yukon Stars; When The Bloom Is On The Sage; Cowboy’s Letter From Home; Young Lean and Seventeen (a Ranger Rick original); Night Rider’s Lament; Colorado Trail; Night Time In Nevada; Sandy River Belle / Old Bill Cheatham; Bad Girl’s Lament; Arizona Waltz; Another Cowboy Song; When Pay Day Rolls Around; Sundown On The Prairie; Born To The Saddle Hall Of Fame Induction August 2011 KG & The Ranger were inducted into "America's Old Time Country Music Hall of Fame", located in the Pioneer Musem in Anita IA! This is a nice honor from the National Traditional Country Music Association. The induction ceremony took place during the NTCMA Old Time Country Music Festival in LeMars IA, August 29 - Sept. 4, 2011. For more info go to the NTCMA website: www.orgsites.com/ia/oldtimemusic. November 20, 2010 KG & The Ranger awarded the Western Music Association"Outstanding Entertainer - Duo" of the year! We are so thrilled and honored by this award from our fans and peers in Western Music. MANY THANKS TO ALL OF YOU! Winners are nominated and voted on by the entire WMA membership. The award was presented in Albuquerque NM at the WMA Awards Banquet, the grande finale of the annual Showcase and Awards Festival. This festival is a gathering of top notch western music performers from around the country and fans from around the world - a “Who’s Who” event of cowboy musicians. For a complete list of categories and this year’s WMA winners please see www.westernmusic.com/awards-finalists.html. 2009 was KG & The Ranger's 20th Anniversary Our first show was in 1989 and we did a grand total of 3 shows that year. Last year we racked up about 100. We passed performance #2000 in September 2009. We are excited to be on to the next adventures and travels… November 21, 2007 - NEW AWARD! 1st Place winners of the Western Music Association Harmony Contest. Another plaque to add to our "Wall of Fame" - and a great honor to be part of the Western Music Association's 19th annual festival and convention. The halls of the Albuquerque Marriott Hotel rang with Western Music last weekend as musicians gathered from all corners of the country (and even from overseas) to learn about, celebrate and perform Western Music. To learn more, visit www.westernmusic.org.  October 2007: 2007 is galloping by, with lots of great musical adventures. We were privileged to be part of two grand 100th Birthday Celebrations this year: Gene Autry's and John Wayne's. Both events drew folks from all over the country and the world and were great successes.  Our summer was spent entertaining at County Fairs and events around Wisconsin, and the fall took us to South Dakota and Oklahoma. KG was honored to be one of five finalists for the Academy of Western Arts "Yodeler of the Year" (congratulations to Chelsea Beck, the winner). November 2005 - Three's the charm! For the third time, KG & The Ranger won the Western Music Association title of "Harmony Yodeling Champions". The contest was held at the annual Western Music Festival in Albuquerque NM. Yodel - ay - dee - hoo!   April 2005 - The Wild West Arts Club presented KG & The Ranger with the 2005 "Montie Montana Showmanship Award" at the WWAC 16th Annual International Convention in Claremore OK. This prestigious award is given to artists chosen by a panel of judges, including Montie Montana Jr., to honor excellence and professionalism in Western Arts performance.  Click on photo to download printable photo.     September 2004 - TROPHIES & PARADES! This must be the month for awards for KG & The Ranger. We won 3rd place (out of 16 contestants!) in the Minnesota Bluegrass Association's duet singing contest. We took 2nd place with our new parade rig in the New Lisbon Sesquicentennial Parade!  New fun - we're doing parades: "Shortcut Curly", aka Ranger Rick, rides "Timber" his giant stick-horse, with "Tall Tale Tillie", aka KG, riding shotgun in our mini prairie schooner, August 2005 update - we won an award for "Most Original" in the Edgerton Tobacco Heritage Days Parade. Check out our album "When Cowboys Dream"  Order by mail or online through CD Baby.com This is a wonderful collection of songs - including Ranger Rick's newest composition Happy Dreaming Cowboy, plus rare and vintage cowboy songs. We had the fun of working with the same great musicians we have recorded with in the past - Rodeo Kate on fiddle, Dave Fallow on guitar and Steve Kasprzac on bass. Recorded at Randy's Recording, our thanks go out to Randy for all his support and good advice.  Because of all the requests we have had for a recording of our contest-winning yodel, we have included Sagebrush Symphony complete with our grand finale "yodeling sampler" ending. So saddle up your dreams and click over to the Trading Post for more information.... March 2004 Ranger Rick spins out his 50 foot rope at the Grand Canyon! July 2003 KG & The Ranger with Michael Martin Murphey at The Great Circus Parade Festival: Milwaukee's Veteran's Park went "wild" - Wild West, that is! It was a great festival with a great response to the Wild West Revue. December 2002 KG & The Ranger once again take home honors from the Western Music Association. They are the 2002 International Harmony Yodeling Champions - winning this award for the second time (1999 was the first). They also were nominated by the WMA for the prestigious "Crescendo Award" which honors accomplishments in Western Music. Visit the WMA website for more information about the WMA and the festival. September 2002 FAMILY CD AVAILABLE For greenhorns to geezers: Tenderfoot Melody Roundup, a collection of new and old cowboy songs for the whole family. With the help of three nieces and a nephew (the "Tenderfoot Chorale" ages 5 - 11), we have recorded 13 songs about the American cowboy and the West. From original children's songs like "I Wanna be A Cowboy", by Ranger Rick, to timeless classics like "My Home's in Montana" and "Home on the Range", KG & The Ranger's new album will appeal to listeners of all ages. Order form Cowboy music is "family friendly" music with wholesome lyrics and a positive message for kids. KG & The Ranger have taken their Cowboy Music program to many schools, preschools and libraries across the country. This album was inspired by these experiences and by the fascination kids everywhere have for the American Cowboy. February 2002 Meet Short-cut Curly, the eight-foot tall cowboy and the newest member of our Western show. Be sure to look for him to make an appearance at our up-coming performances - you never know when he'll show up!   December 2001 This year has seen many accomplishments, including being nominated by the Academy of Western Artists for Rising Star of 2001, and also being in the top 5 finalists for the Western Music Association's new "Crescendo Award" - a fans' choice award for excellence in Western Music. Nov. 6, 1999: HARMONY YODELING CHAMPIONS! KG & The Ranger are the 1999 WMA Harmony Yodeling Champions!  www.westernmusic.org

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