Kerry Grombacher plays guitar and mandolin and writes and performs contemporary folk and western songs. In the spirit of the troubadours of old, his songs paint vivid portraits and tell the fascinating stories of old camp cooks, roadside motels, wildland firefighters, cattle rustlers and wolf trappers - the landmarks and denizens of the west. You'll find him at Folk Music Festivals and Cowboy Poetry Gatherings, singing his songs, playing mandolin as a sideman, and picking in the jam sessions and around the campfires until the last song is sung.
Kerry has performed on stages as varied as the Newport Folk Festival (Newport, RI) and Cowboy Songs & Range Ballads (Cody, WY), the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival (New Orleans, LA) and the Durango Cowboy Poetry Gathering (Durango, CO). In addition to appearing at Folk Festivals and Cowboy Gatherings, he regularly sings his songs at performing arts centers, coffeehouses, house concerts and other music venues - and on Sands Motel parking lots!
Kerry's recordings include the cds, Sands Motel (2001) and Riding for the Brand (1999), and the tape releases, Dreams of New Orleans (1998) and Home to the West (1996). Artists including Chris Chandler, Duke Davis, the Texas Trail Hands, and Gary Prescott have recorded his songs, and one was featured at the dedication of the last memorial marker on the Chisolm Trail in Oklahoma. He's performed on the nationally distributed radio program, River City Folk, the Louisiana Jukebox television program and the Montana television show, It's Still the West. He's been featured on the Route 66 website (www.rt66nm.org) and in The Big Round-Up (www.cowboypoetry.com), and there's a room named for him at the Sands Motel on historic Route 66 in Grants NM!
Kerry Grombacher is a member of the North American Folk Alliance, the Western Music Association, the Academy of Western Artists and the Austin Performing Songwriters' Group, and he participates in the endorsement program for Elixir Guitar and Mandolin Strings. When he's not on the road, Kerry divides his time between Austin and New Orleans.