Photo credit: Lefty Brandon
The Winnsboro Center for the Arts (WCA) will present their annual “Trails Country Treasure Award” to Winnsboro residents Lynn Adler and Lindy Hearne at a reception to be held at the WCA on September 23, 2012 at 2:00 pm.
The public is invited to attend the event, where the community will have the opportunity to thank Adler and Hearne for all that they have done to keep the arts alive in East Texas.
Lynn and Lindy were instrumental in starting the Winnsboro Center for the Arts and were on the Board of Directors when it was called the Trails Country Center for the Arts.
"We were so happy when TCCA started," Lynn says. "It provided us a venue for our music and it is an important part of Winnsboro because it continues to encourage artists in all mediums and expressions."
For performing songwriters Lynn Adler and Lindy Hearne one of their fondest early memories of Winnsboro was being greeted by Robert and Shirley Watters in the homey atmosphere of the R.H. McCrary Hardware store on Main Street in the spring of 2001. They both remember noticing the sign above the soda fountain that read: “Tourists treated same as home folks.”
“I remember sitting at the counter and visiting with this unassuming couple who turned out to be the owners – Robert and Shirley Watters,” Adler recalls. “Robert had left the corporate world in Dallas, and was sitting there in his overalls, content at being a business owner in a small town. Lindy and I were smitten with that whole idea of moving toward a simpler life, and in such a beautiful corner of the world.”
Not long afterward, Adler and Hearne relocated from Dallas and Fort Worth to Winnsboro and established what they call the “Spring Hollow Organic Song Farm” where songwriting, photography, music and other creativity abound.
Once they were settled into their home in Winnsboro, Adler and Hearne penned a three-song musical composition entitled “The Crossroads Trilogy,” based on local historian Bill Jones’ prolific writings on the early days of Winnsboro – originally named Crossroads. The singing and songwriting partners often perform this trilogy for community and historical events that benefit various organizations.
It was serendipitous that a few years after moving here, the place where the couple had first felt so welcomed would become the home of Crossroads Coffeehouse and Music Company, a live music venue that was instrumental in starting a boom of business in downtown Winnsboro.
They chose to name the business after the town’s original name as their homage to Winnsboro’s heritage. Crossroads prospered in that venerable old building for several years, featuring a stage that replicated the front porch of a Mississippi Delta farmhouse.
They attracted some of the best names in music, and Diddley Squat even made a live CD recording there. The setting was also used for community events, luncheons and dinners, birthday parties, family gatherings, and other special events. There's no doubt that Crossroads Music Company has done a lot for the city of Winnsboro by bringing superb talent to the stage and getting attention from Texas media.
Among the many awards and accolades the couple has earned include the 22nd Annual B.W. Stevenson Memorial Singer/Songwriter Competition award Lynn won in 2010. Over the years she and Lindy Hearne have won numerous awards, being finalists at such prestigious songwriting festivals as the Wildflower Festival Performing Songwriter Showcase in Richardson, Texas, the Walnut Valley Festival NewSongs Showcase at Winfield, Kansas, and the Kerrville Folk Festival's NewFolk songwriting competition.
Their two latest CD releases, ”To The Heart” and “Adler & Hearne Live At Eddie’s Attic” have ranked in the Top 20 of the Folk radio charts in 2010 and 2012. Coming up for the duo: a reissue of the Crossroads Trilogy recording, and a new project in the works, scheduled for release this winter.
"To the Heart" was recorded at Nashville’s House of David Studio, by producer Rick Clark. “Over all the years of working in music,” says Clark, “I’ve never worked on a project that was as deeply soulful as this. There were times in the making of this album when it was obvious everyone involved was clearly touched, and there was a sense of something special clearly happening in the grooves.”
That is so true of all the music that comes out of the Spring Hollow Organic Song Farm just outside of Winnsboro where Adler & Hearne create their beautiful ballads. For more information, visit www.adlerandhearne.com .
