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RUDD, STRATTON PERFORM AT MAX TONIGHT
 COUNTRY CROONER: Debbie Rudd had a No. 21 charted hit on the European Country Music Association charts. (Submitted photo). LA GRANDE - The Thursday at the Max Concert Series continues tonight with Debbie Rudd of La Grande and Mark Stratton of Union. Next week it's Sweet Medicine. The music runs from 7 to 9 p.m. at Max Square. Admission is free. Rudd says she was asked to do tonight's Max Square concert as a solo. But, she says, it's much more entertaining to have more than one person, so she has asked Mark Stratton of Union to join her. "We will be taking turns singing and doing a duet or two as well," Rudd says. "He sings country too and is excellent. Stratton played at the Union County Fair. At the Max Rudd will be performing seven songs off her album. "The tracks will be the ones from the studio with the local musicians on it," she says. "I will play keys and Mark will bring his guitar and we play along with the accompaniment. "We are scheduled to play from 7 to 9, but if the crowd stays, we want to go until 10. Just for fun." Rudd achieved a few months of fame in 1998 when she had a No. 21 charted hit in all of Europe on the ECMA (European Country Music Association). Through that, she made some connections in the music industry. "Bobby Braddock is a huge man in the scene, and I met him through a good friend of mine in Nashville," Gidget Baird Kortright, a woman who wrote for renowned country singer Charlie Pride for five years," Rudd recalls. Braddock wrote "D-I-V-O-R-C-E" and 80 other hits. He is also the producer of Blake Shelton. "He is as big as it gets," Rudd says. No promises, but a promise to listen to my stuff. He could get my music places, and fast if he likes it." Rudd is recording in Christopher Bechtel's Digital Whispers Studio locally. The studio features local players such as Nolan Murray, Bechtel, Jerry Smith, Jeff Carman, Jamie Werner and more Rudd wrote seven songs on her album, and Kortright wrote the rest. Rudd is currently forming a new band. "Not a bar band so much," she says. "I want to do fairs, rodeos, weddings, street dances ... fun stuff. I'm bored with the bar scene pretty much unless it's a big event." /> REMAINING SERIES SCHEDULE Aug. 16 Debbie Rudd Aug. 23 Sweet Medicine Aug. 30 Dave Yoder Band |
