Rita Hosking

By invitation, she has appeared at the White Crow Conservatory of Music in Saginaw, Michigan, the 17th Annual “Midsummer in the Northwoods” Bluegrass Festival in Wisconsin, high in the Colorado Rockies at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, and many other locations.

Leading up to her 2010 performance tour of Great Britain, she received increasing attention on the "East Side" of the pond. Reviewer Paul Kerr of Americana-UK remarked that she is ". . . a very talented artist with the ability to step up to that pantheon of great female country folk singers and writers." In the summer of 2010, Hosking played to packed venues in England, Wales, and Cornwall.

On July 16, 2010, she performed at the Larmer Tree Festival in England, at the famed Victorian pleasure garden on the Wiltshire/Dorset border. On July 22, she was the featured guest on the BBC radio show Bob Harris Country. On November 3, 2010, she performed at The Freight and Salvage Coffeehouse in Berkeley, California.

On June 18, 2009, Rita performed as a finalist at the acclaimed Telluride Troubadour Competition, held in conjunction with the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. The Competition judges songs based on composition, vocal delivery, and overall performance.

"Come Sunrise" was nominated in November 2009 as one of the five finalists for Album of the Year in the category of "country music" by the 9th annual Independent Music Awards. Hosking won the 9th annual Independent Music Awards Vox Pop / Peoples Choice / Best Country Album award for "Come Sunrise".

This collaboration evolved into "Come Sunrise", which was released in June 2009 and is available through CD Baby, Digstation, and iTunes. It was recorded and produced at Ace Recording in Austin, Texas.

In July 2009 "Come Sunrise" placed Number 12 on the national Freeform American Roots Chart.

"Come Sunrise" was selected as one of five contenders for the country music "album of the year" of the 9th annual Independent Music Awards, announced in November 2009 (see description under Recognition and Awards).

On September 6, 2008, Rita was selected the winner of the nationally respected Dave Carter Memorial Songwriting Contest at the Sisters Folk Festival in Sisters, Oregon.

During the spring of 2008 at the Strawberry Music Festival Rita heard a performance of Mississippi native Caroline Herring. Hosking bought Herring's album and discovered that Rich Brotherton, longtime mandolin and guitar player in Robert Earl Keen's band, had produced it. "I loved it," says Hosking, "so I 'My Spaced' him and said, 'Hi, my name is Rita. Would you be interested in producing my next album?' He wrote right back and said, 'Sure.'" In addition to Brotherton, she was backed by such musicians as Lloyd Maines (father of Dixie Chicks lead singer Natalie Maines and a well-known musician and record producer), Warren Hood of the Waybacks, and Tom Van Schaik and Marty Muse from Keen's band.

Rita was the 2007 Emerging Artist Winner at the Bluegrassin' In The Foothills festival in Plymouth, California.