Juni Fisher

'''Juni Fisher''' (born c. 1956) is a western and folk singer-songwriter.

She has received ten awards from the Western Music Association: the Crescendo Award (2005), Female Performer of the Year (2006, 2009, 2011), Song of the Year (2007, 2011, 2013), Songwriter of the Year (2008) and Album of the Year (2009)and Entertainer of the Year (2011).<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.westernmusic.com/award-artist-pg1.html#F |title=Western Music Association |access-date=December 23, 2008 |archive-date=December 10, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081210225129/http://www.westernmusic.com/award-artist-pg1.html#F |url-status=dead }}</ref> In addition, the Academy of Western Artists named her Female Performer of the Year in 2005.<ref>{{cite magazine| last = Evans Price| first = Deborah| title = Latest buzz| magazine = Billboard| volume = 117| issue = 30| pages = 31| location = New York| date = July 2, 2005}}</ref> The National Cowboy Museum awarded Fisher with the coveted Western Heritage "Wrangler Award" in 2009 for Most Outstanding Western Album, making her the first female recipient of that award in the history of the National Cowboy Museum's awards. True West Magazine named her the Most Outstanding Solo Artist of 2012. She was awarded the Western Writers of America Song of the Year in 2014 award for a song she co-wrote with Cowboy Poet Waddie Mitchell.

== Biography == Fisher was originally from a farming family in Strathmore, California. Her father was the late Howard Fisher; her mother, Ophelia "Buzz" Fisher, still runs the farm that grows oranges for Sunkist.<ref name="Bee2">{{cite news| last =Aguirre| first =Mary Lou| title =Singer tackles the western frontier Strathmore native Juni Fisher finds her niche| page =6| newspaper =The Fresno Bee| date =July 2, 2005}}</ref> Juni Fisher now lives in Franklin, Tennessee,<ref name="Bee1">{{cite news| last =Bergfalk| first =Terry| title =Award-winning balladeer comes home for Lindsay performances| page =2| newspaper =The Fresno Bee| date =May 4, 2007 }}</ref> to where she moved in 1991.<ref name="Bee2" />

She began singing while in elementary school, in a trio with her sisters.<ref name="Bee1" /> She started playing guitar at age seven and wrote her first song at age eight.<ref name="Press">{{cite news| last =O'Brien| first =Pat| title =Tales of trails: Cowboys at festival to sing and tell of life on the range| page =AA27| newspaper =The Press-Enterprise| date =July 2, 2006}}</ref> She graduated from Strathmore High School and College of the Sequoias.<ref name="Bee1" />

She has the highest regard for the Western ballad, which she has described as "a pure form of American folk music".<ref name="Bee1" /> Her musical influences early on included Marty Robbins, Joan Baez and Burl Ives.<ref name="Bee2" />

She enjoys fly fishing, and riding cutting and reined cow horses in her spare time.<ref name="Bee1" />

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== *[http://www.junifisher.com Juni Fisher official site]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fisher, Juni}} Category:American women country singers Category:American country singer-songwriters Category:American folk singers Category:1950s births Category:Living people Category:People from Tulare County, California Category:Singer-songwriters from California Category:Country musicians from California Category:21st-century American women Category:Year of birth missing (living people)