Talent From Across the Pond
On Sunday, May 16th, Tinderbox, Monique Houraghan.and Dan Tucker, came all the way from England to perform at Crossroads Music Company in Winnsboro. According to Crossroads caretaker, Stephen Marshall, the duo found information about Crossroads on the Internet and contacted him about making an appearance as part of their U.S. tour.
Tinderbox is an acoustic duo featuring Monique on vocals and Dan playing guitar with an intricate finger style technique. After spending four years living in Dublin between 1997 and 2001 the duo spent two years traveling the world playing their music. On their return to the UK in late 2004 Monique and Dan settled in Bournemouth. They perform across Europe as well as touring in other parts of the world.
Their U.S. tour took them to several states including Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Texas. They were in Tulsa before coming to East Texas and headed to Dallas after spending some time with Stephen at his grandmother's house. "We ended up playing with my video camera," Stephen said. "And now a special DVD is in the works."
Stephen, a professional photographer and videographer, posted several videos on YouTube, chronicling 
Tinderbox's travels and visit to Winnsboro. (Links at the end of the story) He also took the pictures for this story.
Stephen said that a lot of the duo's music expresses the dark and painful realities of our present time but their lyrics offer a positive element of hope, so it ends up being positive. To illustrate that, Stephen created this special promo shot of the couple in black and white with the blue sky. "The blue sky in the black and white image symbolizes this hope," Stephen said.
Audiences at Crossroads enjoy having talent from many places around the United States, but they don't often get to experience musicians from another part of the world. "To have a performer come from so far away to our little town is unusual," Stephen said. "I guess the first was Druha Trava from the Czech Republic. It’s such an opportunity for us to experience another culture, and be exposed to their ideas, and beliefs. It opens our minds. But also it gives us a chance to realize our similarities.
"Sometimes we think people from another culture might as well be from another planet, another species," he continued. "But actually they’re pretty much like you and me. Humans have so much to share with each other."
Stephen said that Tinderbox enjoyed the visit to East Texas and said they would love to come back.
We hope they do.
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Visit the Web site for Tinderbox to read their blog about the trip to the U.S. They had lots of nice things to say about Winnsboro.
Links to videos that Stephen made:
YouTube VideoOne
YouTube Video2
YouTubeVideo3
YouTube Video4