COWBOY JIM GARLING
Guthrie resident combines a variety of styles for a memorable performance
J im Garling can ’ t change the cattle market , but his music can sure enough make you take your mind off it . Boots tap , hands clap , and grins grow like new spring grass when the native Oklahoman begins to play . If it ’ s live music you ’ re seeking for your event , there are few performers who bring more life to a room than the talented , personable Garling of Guthrie , Oklahoma .
Garling loves reaching into the past not to imitate Gene Autry , Roy Rogers , the Sons of the Pioneers or Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys , but to combine their sounds for just the right mix of old-style , acoustic western cowboy music and western swing .
He ’ s so good at it , he was inducted into the Western Swing Hall of Fame
this past Spring .
Rest assured , audiences young and old enjoy Garling ’ s incredible vocal style , his remarkable and long-proven guitar skills and the little dose of short histories and interesting anecdotes he gladly shares about the songs he sings .
Garling doesn ’ t just talk about the past , which includes his great grandfather making the land run in 1889 , and the family settling for generations around Norman .
He takes listeners back to those days of pioneers . Garling ’ s a neighbor , whether you live by him , or make your home 500 miles away . Everyone soon feels like they ’ ve known him for years , not hours .
Several Oklahoma schools , libraries and museum have selected Garling to do programs that incorporate western
cowboy music and the history of the State of Oklahoma and traditions of our country . He is continually promoting and performing cowboy / western music to preserve it for generations to come . IBF
GOOD FRIENDS BLUEGRASS BAND
D oris Tresemer , Mike Perry , Bob French , and Ron Mashore are The Good Friends Bluegrass Band . They are long-time friends who have played together for years . Their shows are based on entertaining material from a variety of musical genres that they truly enjoy performing .
Tresemer grew up in southeastern Oklahoma and started developing her incredible vocal skills as a youngster singing with her daddy , a fiddler . She got her bluegrass start in an all-girl group called Angel Band .
Perry grew up in the Oklahoma bluegrass scene with his family producing those great Little River and Cement Bluegrass Festivals . He started playing music in one of those kid “ super bands ” called the Blue Grass Revue . Over the years , Mike has supplied upright bass with such notable musicians as Vince Gill , Ricky Skaggs , and Buck White .
Mashore started playing bluegrass in southern Oklahoma . Moving to France , he joined a local acoustic group and found some “ interesting opportunities ” to broaden his repertoire . While living in South Carolina , he concentrated on traditional bluegrass .
French started playing banjo in 1973 in Norman , Oklahoma . He has had the good fortune of playing with some of the best musicians Oklahoma has to offer over the last 45 years .
The GFBB members are known for playing in such long-term and well-known bands such as Cimarron Station , The John Arnold Band , and High Ground Bluegrass Band . IBF
10 / OKLAHOMA ’ S INTERNATIONAL BLUEGRASS FESTIVAL 2022