Doors: 8pm Show: 8:30pm General Admission: $10.00 in advance $15.00 day of show
Opener: TBD
Miranda Dawn and Chris Hawkes first met in 2010 when he crossed an Austin barroom floor and asked her to dance. A modest beginning became an undeniable attraction the first time they sang together.
Hawkes, a recording producer and touring artist, had a handful of solo records, while Dawn, a performing singer-songwriter, was hosting her own songwriter group showcases, literally setting the stage for their fateful convergence. “I went every week to Miranda’s showcase to hear friends play their new songs. That’s where I really heard Miranda’s lyrics.” Hawkes recalls. “One night, after closing time, a few of us were still sharing songs, and a great mandolin player — who I later learned was Miranda’s dad — asked her to play her song called ‘Forever Happily.’ It felt familiar so I picked up a guitar and played along.” Miranda Dawn admits “Our harmony just fell in and that was the moment we both felt that we should sing together. Something happened and it was as if there was suddenly this third voice.” She continues with more than a hint of genuine wonder “I’d sung harmony with other people before, but this was definitely its own beast.”
Dawn asked Hawkes to record her debut solo album and he joined her onstage at the 2012 Kerrville Folk Festival where Dawn was a finalist in the prestigious New Folk Songwriting Competition. Their first duo effort, Golden Heart EP, released shortly after, kicked off a whirlwind three years of constant cross-country touring, co-writing, and even a run on The Voice. Judge Adam Levine called their version of the Beatles’ “I’ve Just Seen a Face” his “favorite performance on the show – ever” and the single reached No. 1 on Billboard’s rock chart. Their original music followed climbing to No. 25 in Billboard’s Folk chart and landed at No. 2 in iTunes singer-songwriter albums. Likening it to playing one of the biggest festival bills in the world, they seized the opportunity to perform in front of millions. “In the end, it put more wind in our sails” Hawkes says of the experience, “but we’ve still got the same boat – and we have to keep our oars in the water.”
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The Cactus Cafe is a live music venue and bar in the historic Texas Union on the campus of The University of Texas at Austin. Located in Austin, Texas, a city frequently referred to as “the live music capital of the world,” a number of well-known artists have played in the Cactus, and Billboard Magazine named it as one of fifteen “solidly respected, savvy clubs” in the United States, “from which careers can be cut, that work with proven names and new faces.”
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