Masquerading as The Evil Knievels - Great audience and great times at the 2023 Ghent Masquerade!
From VEER Magazine:
The Heart Stompers are a Norfolk, VA based band united in their love of American roots music. Formerly Gina Dalmas & The Cow Tipping Playboys, they have won multiple Veer Magazine Music Awards. Members, Gina Dalmas, Gordon Bradley, Greg Wikle, Christopher May and Gabriel Baesen have an alt-country sonic sound with harmonies soaring so high they bounce off the Lord's sandals! They are known to pepper their sets with Iron Maiden and that other Iron Maiden of country, Patsy Cline. Tight for precision and loose enough to have fun, The Heart Stompers will bring a welcome respite from the shenanigan-less shut-in season we've had this past year or so. This is the first Stockley festival in a year-and-a-half and Ghent is itching for a good time, and this will be it. Please come out and have a few beers, stopping short of shirtless wrasslin', but enough to caper about and sing along in delight! There will be wine available for you fancy folks, too!
New date added! Join us at Elation Brewing 2/27/2021. Recording new tunes this weekend! 2021 is already a vast improvement.
photo by Severin Di Croce
Some of had COVID and recovered, some of us had a million COVID tests. Very happy to report all of us are currently COVID-free and healthy. We hope you and yours are well as well! We are recording and cautiously adding a few dates to our 2021 calendar with high hopes. First show slated for April. Everybody stay safe out there!
Photo by Severin Di Croce
Two shows coming up this month, the first a last minute booking for this Saturday, September 5th! During these disturbing times, we ask everyone coming out to be safe and social distance. The shows are outdoors with plenty of room for social distancing. Bring a chair or a blanket and absolutely BRING A MASK. Masks are required to enter the brewery and use the restrooms. If you are drinking Oozlefinch’s delectable brews, you will undoubtedly need to use the facilities, and to do so you must WEAR a mask. Though it be a mighty burden, we also ask folks to refrain from hugging the band. Hugging would violate social distancing guidelines, plus we’ll be sweaty and possibly tipsy, we might fall and break a hip and no one wants that. The shows are September 5th and 18th (and are contingent upon good weather). September 5th is part of Oozlefinch’s 4th anniversary party, we play 7-10 pm. September 18th will be 7-9:30 pm. Come out and see us, and remember the dream of live music!
We’re excited to be part of the 6 Feet Together Live Stream series this Saturday May 30th. Tune in at 8 pm and watch us perform live and in your face! Please join the virtual party and support the cause - 50% of all donations go to Hampton Roads musicians and stage technicians - the other 50% goes to the technicians making the 6 Feet Together series happen.
Thank you to all who tuned in to our live Facebook feed Saturday night! And thank you to all who donated- we are donating half to Off Their Plate and the other half will help fund our new record. We were scheduled to be in the studio last weekend working on the new record, but were forced to postpone due to Covid-19. We'll reschedule for later this year. Everybody stay safe out there!
Below is an excerpt from 2/14/19 article from the Newport News, VA paper The Daily Press:
The idea of a name change had been in play for a long time.
In 2015, Gina Dalmas and the Cow Tippin’ Playboys almost re-branded themselves as Trailer Swift. They ended up keeping their name and using that as an album title.
But in September, it happened. The Cow Tippin’ Playboys, one of the region’s most popular country bands, became the Heart Stompers.
“We didn’t want — and I didn’t want — that focus to be so much on me,” Dalmas said. “It’s a group effort. I’m not the only one who sings, or the only one who writes songs. Plus, it’s a really long name and it didn’t always fit on marquees easily.”
Read the whole article here.
Photo by Robin Gustin
Tuesday, February 12 Gina Dalmas will be performing with a host of talented women at the 2019 Veer Music Awards. Wednesday you can catch her supporting the YWCA at Flick It Friday’s 3rd Annual Galentine’s Day Event 9 to 5. Joined by Skye Zentz, she’ll kick off the fundraising party by leading a singalong to Dolly Parton’s song 9 to 5. This event sells out every year, get there early for tickets!
Friday, February 15 the band will be performing on the Hampton Roads Show! The show will be broadcast at 11 am on NBC affiliate Wavy 10. Tune in and watch some of us struggle with being awake so early.
Saturday, February 16 Gina will be making a special appearance at The Lonely Teardrops Show @ Mojo Bones OV in Norfolk and singing a few songs with Katie Teardrop.
special guest
Katie & Gina @ Mojo Bones OV
Country music skeptic Jeff Hewitt weighs in on our 2.1.19 show with The Josephines: “To be clear, this is not my music. My appreciation of Country begins and ends with Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson. But these songs feel like an all access pass into the world of this music. Sitting through their set I get a sense of why some folks swear by the genre. And I find myself humming along despite my biases. This is how you know that something you're not particularly qualified to evaluate is probably really, really good. “ You can check out the whole review including his take on The Josephines here.
Check out this cool awesome video clip featuring Gina Dalmas on vocals! Thanks to songwriter/educator/performer Skye Zentz for recruiting Gina for this project. The video is part of GreenBeats, a WHRO-produced series of animated shorts targeted towards young children. Each segment focuses on critical environmental issues and themes and this one in particular has some sweet animation. You can watch the whole video here - share with kids you know! Also share with a**holes who don’t recycle!
We discovered Tyler Mahan Coe’s podcast Cocaine and Rhinestones earlier this year when we opened up for his dad (David Allan Coe). The New Yorker says it’s “an addictive, sparkling podcast About Country Music” and we have to agree. The podcast seemed relatively unknown when we started listening, but as evidenced by the referenced The New Yorker praise, it’s since pretty much become a hit. If you’re haven’t tried it, give it a go. Tyler’s voice took us some getting used to (can’t put our finger on why exactly, he just sounded…different than we imagined) but we were hooked in short order.
We are also completely in love with Mike Judge’s Tales From the Tour Bus — but it’s harder to access. If you have Cinemax, go watch it immediately. If not, find someone who does and won’t mind you parking your butt on their couch for a while.
By Any Other Name: Gina Dalmas and The Cow Tippin’ Playboys to Become The Heart Stompers
Norfolk, VA Sept 18, 2018: Norfolk band Gina Dalmas and The Cow Tippin’ Playboys announced this week that the band is officially changing its name to The Heart Stompers. The band explained the name change reflects their evolution as a collective group as opposed to a solo artist plus band. Gina Dalmas explained, “We’re a team, we all work together, and we want the name to reflect our collaborative effort. Plus, the old name was a bit wordy and sometimes hard to remember,” she added. “People come up and tell us they love our band name… but then they can’t quite remember what it is,” she laughed. “They’d get my name right, but then continue with The Cow Catching Cowboys, or The Cowboy Tippers, or ‘something about tipping cows’. We love the old name but hope folks will love the new name just as much.”
The band will be playing the Bristol Rhythm and Roots Festival (with Jason “Hoss” Hicks) in Bristol, TN later this weekend, September 21-23 and the Virginia Beach Neptune Fest September 28.
The Heart Stompers (formerly Gina Dalmas and The Cow Tippin’ Playboys) are an alt-country Americana band from Norfolk, VA. The group won the 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013 and the 2012 Veer Magazine Award for Best Country Artist, the 2009 Portfolio Music Award for Best Americana Music and the 2009 Meona Award for Best New Alt-Country Artist. Gina Dalmas and her Cow Tippin' Playboys reach deep into the roots of country music but end up making magic of their own. In a world of knock-off country bands aiming for that new radio sound, this band manages to keep country music like it should be, honest, straight forward, and from the heart.
Important news - Gina got the high score on Ms Pacman at The Thirsty Beaver in Charlotte! Also, the show was awesome. (All shows at The Thirsty Beaver are pretty much awesome). We'll be back there in November!
The Thirsty Beaver at 1225 Central Ave. in Charlotte has hung on through a disruptive construction project of new apartments that has literally turned it into Plaza Midwood’s version of the house from the movie “Up.” The business is owned by brothers Mark and Brian Wilson.
- Jeff Siner jsiner@charlotteobserver.com from The Charlotte Observer
Excited to be supporting Lillie Mae next week at The Camel in Richmond! "Lillie Mae is an Americana singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist and was a member of the sibling country/bluegrass family act Jypsi before working with Jack White and going solo." We'll be joined by Jason Hoss Hicks, mixing up our songs and his for a special set!
Yo everyone, it's spring, and that's way cool. Here's what's not cool: we had to cancel this Saturday's show at JVs due to a death in the family (not in the band). We know y'all understand, but we are sorry to cancel - DC peeps please go out and support JV's despite (or because of) our absence! We hope to be back again soon.
Hank Dietle's Tavern in Rockville, MD was devastated by fire early Feb 14, 2018. We are heartborken at the news. There are rumors of a possible rebuild, we sure hope those rumors come true.
Photo via Pete Piringer Chief Spokesperson for Montgomery County (MD) Fire & Rescue Service
We'll be playing with Gordon Bradley on Valentine's Day doing a set of Neil Young tunes at the Norva. It's a night of Neil Young, with Brackish Water Jamboree performing "Harvest" in it's entirety! Come out and share the love with us on Valentine's Day.
Heres a little write-up from No Depression the last time we played with Gordon Bradley:"One standout performance, though, belonged, to Dalmas with a heaven-piercing Led Zeppelin tune, her voice doing all the ups and downs required."
