Davis' Rita Hosking is supremely talented singer songwriter whose music styles include Amercana, folk, bluegrass, and old time mountain music. Her group Cousin Jack features Rita on guitar, Sean Feder on banjo, Andy Lentz on fiddle, and Bill Dakin on bass and guitar. Her last two recordings have brought Rita to national attention, and she has just finished recording a new set of songs set for release in early 2013. That CD will be called Little Boats. Rita's music has roots to the great bluegrass and mountain music traditions of America's south, but Rita writes of her roots growing up in the hills and mountains of the West, rural Shasta County. Her songs are sprinkled with characters and images of the mountains and the rural west, "kitchen tables, springs, loss, miners, mountains, culture clash, stray dogs, hope, forest fires." Her delivery is, to put it simply, intense. "From the first time I heard Rita sing, her voice gripped me and did not let go," (Joe Craven.) That voice, called a "soulful howl from the mountains" (California Bluegrass Association), "This California girl comes by her mountain-music sensibility with true authenticity, with original songs deeply rooted in her family's frontier experience," (Dan Ruby, FestivalPreview.com.) Rita's songs have been lauded for story and sense of place, and her performances praised for capturing the audience. Honors include winner of the '08 Dave Carter Memorial Songwriting Contest at the Sisters Folk Festival, alternate finalist #1 for the '09 Telluride Troubadour Contest, and others as well. She has played her songs for appreciative listeners at the Strawberry Music Festival, Kate Wolf Music Festival, and many more. Rita points out that she likes to "get to the heart of the matter." As with a mystic, this means a loaded and stunning, yet gentle and compassionate delivery.   $20