Ocotillo

Travelling in the Mojave desert, Kirsty McGee first became aware of the rough-voiced, ardent picking of Robert Garson in April 2015 when she turned up at his studio carrying a musical saw.

Intrigued, a return trip to Joshua Tree in the fall marked the start of a musical friendship and of the duo Ocotillo, named after a Sonoran plant whose crimson rainflowers have earned it the nickname desert coral.

March 2016 brings these two artists together for the first time in a performance that promises to be a musical feast featuring heartfelt songs, unusual instruments and transatlantic inspiration.

UK songwriter Kirsty McGee is best known for her song 'Sandman', which featured in Danny Boyle’s film Trance (2013). Her sound is joyful, gentle and dusty with hints of gospel, 30s jazz and old vinyl blues.

Robert Garson was born in Arkansas and raised in the San Joaquin Valley in central California where his folks danced to Merle x`Haggard and Buck Owens performing at the Big Fresno Barn. Steeped in the traditions of country, bluegrass and rhythm and blues, he marries ancient and new lyric sensibility to the deep grooves heard in roadhouses from Bakersfield to New Orleans.