Rawlins Cross update

August, 2002    November, 2002

A FEW NOTES ABOUT RAWLINS CROSS, AUGUST 2002
From: Nora Shorock

My family still gets questions from Kansas fans about this very entertaining and charismatic band. Obviously Don's Rawlins Cross Web site is frozen in time. At the time the band last played Kansas in June 2000 (Prairiefest in Arkansas City), they had already announced their impending disbandment (or as they now term it, semi-retirement), and gave their last performance in Calgary, Alberta at New Years 2001. Regrettably we have not made it to Canada to take more pictures! (Though I wouldn't rule it out).

However, we have kept up to a degree on the guys' activities post- Rawlins Cross, and a brief update is listed below.

Click for moreSince Rawlins Cross disbanded, Ian McKinnon has released two remarkable albums featuring tin whistle and bagpipe. Air Races (2000) is Celtic with a classical bent, combining his instruments with the gifted Gayle H. Martin on piano and pipe organ. Click for more. The hauntingly beautiful MacKinnon's Brook Suite (2001) is a symphonic work commissioned by Ian, based on his own family saga as immigrants from Scotland. It was awarded Classical Album Of The Year at the 2002 East Coast Music Awards, but has appeal far beyond the usual classical audience- and has sold very well in Canada. Both albums highlight the great power and sensitivity of Ian's musicianship. Ian is currently working for Adventus Interactive where they are developing music education software.

Songwriting brothers Dave and Geoff Panting are ever in demand as composers, producers and arrangers in their home town of St John's, Newfoundland. They also perform with their younger brother Sean and assorted friends as the Panting Brothers band, doing about any kind of traditional and contemporary music you care to name. Click for moreThey released an album, Trad., last year, that is strongly blues and Cajun flavored, but also includes some old time Newfoundland songs livened up by Sean's sizzling guitar. Click for more.In a quite different vein, Dave released an instrumental album for the holiday season in 2000, Mandolin Christmas. He recorded and mixed himself playing carols on a whole list of instruments, and the result is unique and quite beautiful. Old Dogs, New TricksIn 2004, Dave paired up with folksinger Rik Barron and produced an album called Old Dogs, New Tricks. Also, in 2004, Don built a web site for Dave. You can check it out at davepanting.com.

As a side note, brother Sean Panting is one of Canada's hottest young singer-songwriters, with a biting wit and and a challenging, brilliant sound. Sean was named MIA of Newfoundland and Labrador new artist of the year in 2000, and has two albums out on his own indie label.

Dave Panting's three young daughters also perform as a band, so you can see what a musical family he heads.

You can purchase Ian's albums (and more) from East Coast Catalogue . Try O'Brien's Music or Fred's Records, both in St.Johns, Newfoundland site for the Panting Brothers stuff. Or E-mail Dave at davepanting@hotmail.com and he will help you.

Vocalist Joey Kitson has taken a somewhat different path. With a growing family, he decided that life as a touring musician had its drawbacks. After the birth of his second child a few days after the band's last Kansas gig in 2000, he finished a computer degree and now works as a computer analyst for the province of Prince Edward Island. He can still be found singing in jazz and blues venues in Charlottetown.

Brian Bourne and Howie Southwood (Chapman stick and drums) are doing pretty much what they were doing pre-Rawlins Cross — being superb musicians, involved with a variety of groups, sessions and projects. Brian has played bass off and on for years with the popular traditional singer, Lennie Gallant, and has been touring with that band lately. Howie teaches drums, as well as performing with a variety of jazz artists in Ontario, but this summer has been touring with the Ennis Sisters.

If any fans from either side of the border can give more details or more recent developments, we would love to hear from you.

As a final note, Rawlins Cross has reunited for a few performances this spring and summer. They reportedly enjoyed themselves very much, and of course their fans hope they find time to get "all together now" again on occasion.

UPDATE TO THE UPDATE, NOVEMBER 2002

Ian tells us that Howie and Brian are BOTH now touring full time with Newfoundland's Ennis Sisters. Of note, if you belong to the Community Concert Association in Kansas, Oklahoma and Colorado, the Ennis Sisters are doing a string of concerts sponsored by that organization in early spring 2003. They are scheduled to perform in Pratt, Dodge City and Garden City, Kansas, the first week of March. (We hope they bring their full band).

Click for moreOn 11/12/02 Dave Panting released a solo album of original material, Look Around. We understand he is backed up by many gifted friends, including Colleen Powers and Fergus O'Byrne.

a Big StickIan states Brian Bourne is also finishing up a solo album. Brian is the one who told me in 2000, "You know, the music doesn't end with the band. It just gets spread around more". A comment I can appreciate much better in retrospect!

On a personal note, my husband and fellow Celtic music fan Don and I made a vacation trip to Newfoundland's Avalon Peninsula in 2003. We're making plans for another such trip in 2005.

Again, if anyone has comments/corrections/addendums for this Web site, including pictures, we would enjoy hearing from you.

Nora

Check out the photos from our Newfoundland trip. You'll find pictures of Dave and Geoff between August 1st and 4th.

On October 23, 2006, the show Drum! from Nova Scotia performed in Columbia, Missouri. We made the trip to visit with Brian and to enjoy the show. If it is in your area, go!!!