An Evening of Original Folk and Bluegrass

Green Tara Foundation Hosts 1st Annual Benefit for Tibetan Refugees

"John Coinman's songs move like the wind. You have to listen carefully." - John Densmore of the Doors

The Green Tara Foundation presents
An Evening of original Folk and Bluegrass with John Coinman and Peter McLaughlin

on Saturday, July 26 at OPM in Albuquerque.

If ever there was a soundtrack for New Mexico's high plains and simmering sunsets, then surely John Coinman would write the score. He has already served as Music Supervisor on the Academy Award winning film Dances With Wolves and written songs for Kevin Costner's film The Postman. Peter McLaughlin is a recording artist and National Flat picking Champion who performs at concerts and Bluegrass festivals. Together, John Coinman and Peter McLaughlin with Blair Forward, promise an evening of plaintive southwest ballads, haunting tales of love and High Plains Bluegrass, all with a shot of twang.

"We, the Tibetans in exile are not here to spend our life as refugees. Therefore, since the first day we became refugees, our basic objective is to rise to the very place where we have fallen down."

-H.H. the 14th Dalai Lama

The Green Tara Foundation is a New Mexico-based non-profit foundation established to help Tibetan refugees in Nepal with medical care, housing, clothing and education. Already, the Green Tara Foundation has sponsored an American physician in Nepal, helped fund a primary school in Jampaling, provided materials for buildings in several refugee camps, supplied clothing to villages in the Annapurna region, and funded high school and college scholarships for Tibetan students. The organization is run by volunteers and all proceeds go directly to benefit Tibetan refugees in Nepal. Every year members of the organization travel to Nepal at their own expense to provide services and deliver goods to the Tibetan people. For more information on the Green Tara Foundation call 878-9225 or visit <www.green-tara.org>.

John Coinman is a New Mexico native, born in Clayton, near the Oklahoma panhandle. He wrote his first song by age 14. At 17 he made his first recording at Norman Petty's studio in Clovis, New Mexico, home to many Buddy Holly hits. By his own estimate, Coinman has written about 400 songs during a 30-year musical career. Along the way he worked with Dances With Wolves writer Michael Blake, The Doors' John Densmore and Kevin Costner. His partnership with Kevin Costner came after years of struggling. "We met filming a low budget movie, he started hearing my music and began coming out to shows," Coinman said. "We both started attending acting workshops in LA and got to know each other better."

Coinman recorded his first solo CD, The Man Called Someone, in 1997. The album is filled with evocative southwest-bred country folk. An Arizona Daily Star review called it "…the sort of expansive music one imagines played during the panoramic dreams we have of the Southwest." A second CD, 41 Crosses, followed in late 1999, gaining airplay on college and independent radio stations. His third release, River of Fire, secured his place in the alternative-country Americana music scene. John Coinman's songs reflect the big sky and expansive plains of his New Mexico home. A compilation CD containing the best songs from his first three CDs will be released on the Netherlands based Corazong Records this fall in Europe, Canada and Japan.

No stranger to the spotlight, Peter McLaughlin is a National Guitar Flat-Picking Champion who twice won the Telluride Guitar Contest. McLaughlin has toured nationally and internationally with Laurie Lewis and Grant Street and currently plays Bluegrass festivals with Perfect Strangers. McLaughlin has recorded three CDs, the independent released Cliffs of Vermillion, the eponymous Perfect Strangers on Rebel Records released earlier this year and the new Copper Creek release Canyoneers.

Blair Forward will be accompanying John and Peter, on Bass. He is a songwriter, bass and guitar player, recording engineer and has co-written many songs with Coinman. He was in the band Roving Boy with Coinman and Costner and has several songs in films.

The musicians and Green Tara Board Members will be available for interview before the performance. To schedule an interview call Katrina Terry at 341-4985.