Whether she’s building a banjo, riding the Divide, singing around a campfire, floating the Grand, or hitchhiking across America, this little gal is doing her best to seize Life’s Rich Pageant. Miss “V,” as she is also known, has balanced her back-country experiences with countless asphalt tours, seeking enlightenment through solitude as well as through her interactions with people from all walks of life. A knack for recognizing the humor in everyday life, an appreciation for history, a hunger for adventure, and a ceaseless sense of creativity collectively establish Miss V’s unique perspective and personality. Her experiences, free spirit, clever lyricism, and classic rhythms on the guitar and her homemade banjo blend together to create her signature “Genuine Cowbilly” music. This Gypsy Cowbelle and her music possess a universal and timeless allure that has charmed fans from coffee houses and campfires to festivals and honky tonks across America for nearly two decades.
Interviewed by Raquel Paraíso, 10/13/2020.
Tag: wyoming
Interview with David Romtvedt, Buffalo, Wyoming
David Romtvedt was born in Portland, Oregon, and raised in southern Arizona. He is a writer and a musician. A recipient of two NEA fellowships, the Pushcart Prize, and the Wyoming Governor’s Arts Award, David served as the poet laureate of the state of Wyoming from 2003 to 2011, his work has appeared in numerous magazines, and he has published books of fiction, poetry, and essays including Gernikako Arbola, translations of the nineteenth century songwriter and poet Joxe Mari Iparragirre, and the 2021 poetry collection No Way, an American Tao Te Ching. He is a multi-instrumentalist and for many years played dance music of the Americas with the Wyoming-based band the Fireants. He is an ambassador of Basque culture and plays trikitixa, a two-row accordion designed specifically for Basque music. Romtvedt served as the program manager for the Centrum Foundation’s Festival of American Fiddle Tunes and International Folk Dance and Music Festival and continues to work with the Children’s Band Lab program at Fiddle Tunes. He lives in Buffalo, Wyoming, with his wife, the potter Margo Brown.
Interviewed by Raquel Paraíso, 09/10/2020.