Awards & Accolades
Reviews
"Connie Dover is the finest folk ballad singer America has produced since Joan Baez" Scott Alarik, Boston Globe
"Connie Dover has become an American treasure who has rediscovered the musical synergy that existed between the British Isles and the American West." Cowboys & Indians Magazine
"Connie Dover possesses that most rare of instruments, a voice so evocative,
so perfect...a universal voice, following the thread of history, so steeped in tradition it conjures images of Scotland, of Ireland, of Appalachia, of the Old American West...a consummate singer." Jon Chandler, Old West Journal
For specific CD Reviews, visit the Music & Poetry page,
and scroll to the bottom to download Reviews as PDF's
2017 MMHOF
The Missouri Music Hall of Fame welcomed two new members and a classic venue into its hallowed halls as part of their 2017 ceremony.
Connie Dover, in an extremely rare and unanimous jury categorization, was inducted under both categories of Musician and Composer/Songwriter. The other 2017 honorees were Rhonda Vincent and the historic venue, the Lyceum Theatre in Arrow Rock, Missouri.
Connie was honored for her lifelong commitment to the collection, preservation, and performance of traditional songs and ballads. Connie's music has been featured in a number of films and documentaries. She has performed worldwide on radio, television, and in concert with folk ensembles, chamber orchestras, and cowboy bunkhouse bands from Cody, Wyoming to Dublin, Ireland, and from Buenos Aires to Istanbul.
She has been a guest on NPR’s Weekend Edition, Democracy Now!, A Prairie Home Companion, Thistle and Shamrock, and Mountain Stage.
Not only is she an award winning musician, singer, songwriter and producer, she also has been the receipient of multiple honors for her book of poetry, "Winter Count".
2007 Emmy Award
Connie received a 2007 Emmy Award for Musical Composition and Arrangement for her work on the KCPT Public Television 19 historical documentary, Bad Blood: The Border War that Triggered the Civil War. The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) hosted the 31st annual Mid-America Emmy Awards Gala on October 20, 2007, at the America's Center Ferraro Theatre in St. Louis, Missouri.
Dover and fellow Emmy winner, Clayton Stubbs (KCPT 19), who also received an Emmy in the Audio category for Bad Blood), were selected from 700 entries in 81 categories. Dover produced acoustic music for the 90-minute documentary and formed an ensemble -- "The Brother Green Band" -- with Mason Brown (guitar/bass viol/banjo), Kelly Werts (guitar/fiddle/percussion/recording engineer), Douglas Goodhart (fiddle/tenor viol) and Matthew Johnson (cello) to create a musical atmosphere to support the grim and heart-rending story of the border wars between Missouri and the Kansas Territory in the years from 1854 to 1860. Dover sings and plays piano and organ on the Bad Blood soundtrack, which also features instrumental work by Missouri music favorites, Cathy Barton and Dave Para.
Yellowstone and Teton Song Contest Winner
The Western Folklife Center (Elko, Nevada) announced the winners of the 2007 Yellowstone and Teton Song Contest. The Grand Prize of $1,000 went to Connie Dover for her song "Out Yonder." The second prize of $500 went to Ray Doyle for his song "The Jewel," and the Audience Award of a new Gibson Songwriter Deluxe guitar went to Jon Chandler for his song, "The Road That Leads to Yellowstone."
"Out Yonder" was written by Connie on the front porch of the cook house at the Double Diamond X Ranch where she worked as a ranch cook. The ranch headquarters overlooks the South Fork of the Shoshone River right on the edge of Yellowstone Park near Cody, Wyoming.
"Out Yonder" was recorded at a studio near Taos, NM, with accompaniment by friends and fellow musicians Mason Brown, Chipper Thompson and Don Richmond.
Hal Cannon, founding director of the Western Folklife Center and song contest organizer, along with co-producer Taki Telonidis, selected songs and produced a CD, Songs from Yellowstone and the Tetons.
"We want to give people a wonderful soundtrack of music to accompany their drive around the parks," explains Cannon. The CD was released early spring 2008.
Winner of the Speakeasy Prize in Poetry
Connie was selected as the winner of the Speakeasy Prize in Poetry. Chosen from over 700 entries, her poems, "Suler Monday", "Pablo y Maria" and "Winter Count" (the title poem of her new book poetry) were featured in Speakeasy Magazine. Connie's work, published in 2007, was awarded first prize by judge Li-Young Lee, who wrote, "A lively blend of narrative and song, the voice in these poems, particularly in ‘Suler Monday,’ speaks out of the richness of family cannon and apocrypha.”
The Loft Literary Center was founded in 1974 in a loft above a Minneapolis bookstore and is now the largest independent literary center in the nation.