Ernie Sites - Country Troubadour

Ernie Sites - Country Troubadour

Ernie Sites brings a unique style of Western America to the stage. He is a true Southern Idaho Cowboy. He's a bareback rider, bull rider, team and calf roper and rodeo clown. he's also a professional Western Entertainer.

Born in Idaho Falls and raised in Wendell, Idaho, Ernie began honing his skill in rodeo and Cowboy entertainment at a young age. From the time he could barely wrap his arms around his father's oversized guitar his training had begun. This training in subsequent years would eventually become a career taking him around the world in preserving the traditional ethics of an ever-changing Cowboy lifestyle.

When Ernie's father Ernie Sites, Sr., who once played baseball for the Pittsburgh Pirates, mentioned to his wife and children he'd like to play the guitar, they presented him with his wish for Christmas. After a few lessons he set it aside because of work, but 8-year-old Ernie picked it up and struggled to form chords with his small hands.

His father modified the neck of the guitar so little Ernie could reach, but with this modification came a challenge from his parents. If he could learn "Boogie Woogie" on the acoustic guitar, they would buy him an electric guitar. The challenge took 4 years to accomplish. By this time the family had moved from Austin, Minnesota out West where his parents had bought a small farm on the desert plains of Wendell. They held true to their promise and he was awarded an electric guitar. "When he got his new guitar that's when he moved out to the barn," his mother Ivie Sites says with a smile, "because it came with an amplifier."

Ernie learned to play the guitar in the back room of the local barbershop in Wendell. The local barber, also a musician, took Ernie under his wing and taught him to associate song with music. An integral lesson that enabled him to blend his talent on the guitar with a voice that learned to yodel, whistle and yip along with singing the lusty songs of the old west. He once said he felt sorry for anybody who got a haircut when he was singing off-key.

An intrinsic love for rhyme and the written word started Ernie creating poems long before he'd learn to sing. "I still have many of the poems he wrote for me when he was a little boy," says his mother, who was also one of his greatest examples.

This combination of music and lyrics would ultimately lead Ernie to the recording studio. A series of seven CDs "Cowboy Classics," "Rage of the Sage," "Great American Hero", "Idaho Winds," "Saddle Bags and Wishes," "Trail Ridin'" and "Singing the Stories of the West," become Ernie's signature testament to his Western devotion.

He eventually became well-recognized by the Western Music Association (WMA) and began performing with big names in Western music history, such as Gene Autry, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, Patsy Montana, Riders in the Sky and Sons of the Pioneers. This core of entertainers attracted him to a much larger audience as he pursued cowboy entertainment singing and yodeling, along with performing rope tricks and sharing Cowboy history.

Ernie also considers his work with children one of his greatest accomplishments. He wrote and helped produce a theatrical program for children called "Native Americans Indians and Cowboys Too," a performance that ran for five years during the winter months in Queens College, New York, and entertained 2,000 children a day, five days a week. Along with his current program, "Singing the Stories of the West," and as an artist in residence, Ernie conducts creative writing classes that focus on rhyming poetry as well as free verse which is mainly for children in 3rd to 6th grades, as well as special needs children. His goals for the future are to continue developing educational programs and to keep touring

GENERAL CONCERT INFORMATION

Our Summer Concert Series in July concerts are generally offered on a pay-as-you-wish basis and take place on the Boyd Family Concert Lawn aside Lake Carmel.

All concerts in this July series are on Fridays and start at 7 PM. Concerts are rain or shine and may be held indoors if it is severe weather.

Lawn chairs, food and drink are welcome. Limited refreshments will be available on site. Parking is limited so we suggest arriving at least 20 minutes before the concert.

All these events are made possible by the many local business sponsors who support us, so we ask that you support their endeavors.

Email office@artsonthelake.org for any questions or call 845 228 2685.

These concerts are made possible by our supporters and in part through the Putnam Arts Council's Arts Link Grant Program with Public Funds provided from the Putnam Count and through the New York State Council on the Arts with support from the Governor's office and the NY State Legislature.

We are grateful to the staff of the Putnam Arts Council for their excellence in supporting the arts throughout Putnam County.

Most of all we are grateful to the sponsors who make these concerts possible.  Please support their business.

2024 Sponsors

Double Diamond

Boyd Artesian Well Co., Inc.

Diamond

Patterson Crossing Reality CO. LLC. (Camarda Realty Investments )
PCSB Community Foundation
Putnam Septic

Platinum

Burke Energy
Carmel-Kent Chamber of Commerce
Chris' Automotive Center
Holly Real Estate
Kent Countryside Nursery Inc.
Kent Liquors
Law Offices of Joseph J. Tock
Radovich and Dean Music, Inc.
Volz Auto Group - Meadowland of Carmel

Gold

Extreme Designs
George Hartshorn Paving
Sue and Frank Kotzur
Sal Tripi CPA
Spotless Cleaning Systems
Tavern on 52
The New 52 Nails and Sap Inc.
Timothy J. Curtiss, Esq.
Twilight Orchestra

Silver

Aaspen HVAC, Inc
Anthony Jewelers
Balsamo Cordovano Funeral Home
Carmel Advertising Specialties Co.
Cassidy Plumbing & Heating Inc.
Cutillos Restaurant
Doyle Dental
Eileen Civitillo Landscape Design Inc.
Friends of Kent Library
Kent Chiropractic - Dr. Louis Sacer
Law Office of Thomas J. Jacobellis
Patterson Auto Body and Service Center
Putnam Wines & Spirits
Tyndall Septic Systems Inc.
Well Pump Pro

Friend

Carmel Nursery School
Drew Nursery School
Katherine's Gift Shop
Metric Motors
Putnam Propane