Burleson, Texas
Western swing, honky-tonk and old style Texas fiddle music

Grace, Sophia, and Hulda Quebe (pronounced Kway-bay) are three young sisters who play western swing, vintage country and traditional Texas fiddle tunes often in three-part harmony. Texas Cowboy Gathering director Red Steagall, in the Fort Worth Star Telegram, said of the group, "I think they're some of the most talented young people I've ever heard. Their tone is so true--they play so well together, it's almost like they're singing. People just stand around in awe when they play." Ricky Skaggs was impressed enough also to invite them to join him on stage at Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth, as well as be featured guests on his Texas tour dates and at the 78th birthday celebration of the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee.   The sisters have also performed on T Bone Burnett's Great High Mountain Tour with Alison Krauss, at the National Cowboy Hall of Fame (Oklahoma City), at the National Folk Festival, and opened for Ray Price and for Riders in the Sky

              Brought up and home schooled by their mother Debra, the family were introduced to fiddle music when they attended first met champion fiddlers Sherry and Joey McKenzie at a fiddle contest in Denton.   There the sisters fell in love with the music and began taking lessons every few weeks with the McKenzies who lived 55 miles away in Burleson. Recognizing the talents of the girls the McKenzies would load them up with material to learn, which the girls had nailed down by the time they returned for their next lesson.   Soon the Quebe family relocated to Burleson so they could take lessons more frequently from the McKenzies.

              In June 2002, the Quebe Sisters each entered the National Old-Time Fiddler's Contest in Idaho for the first time. Hulda won the junior-junior division (ages 9 - 13), while Grace and Sophia took first and second prize respectively in the junior division (ages 14 - 18). According to contest director Layna Hafer, quoted in the Fort Worth Star-Telegraph , "Typically fiddlers compete for several years before coming close to winning anything."   The Quebe sisters have now also won at the Texas State Champion fiddlers.

              The Quebe sisters are often accompanied by the McKenzies or Mark Abbott.   By the time Joey McKenzie was 12, he was accompanying fiddlers and playing old-time music, jazz and swing tunes on several different instruments. Joey has been one of the most successful competition musicians in the U.S., having won well over 100 fiddle contests and dozens of awards, including being a three-time World Champion Fiddler. Sherry McKenzie (bass) has also won numerous titles in state and national fiddle contests, including World Champion Fiddler, the only woman since the 1930s to have won that championship.   Alternate bass player Mark Abbott has played with many Texas-based groups and been involved in hundreds of recording sessions throughout Texas and the Southwest.

Links

http://www.nationalfolkfestival.com/index.php?area=performers_quebe

http://www.westernfolklife.org/site/index2.php?option

http://tinyurl.com/6wbbf

http://www.workingcowboy.com/ojcorral/oj15.shtml

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/quebesisters

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