Mansfield Daily, May 1996

Cacho #1 at Rose Garden
A 27-year old singer, whose travels brought him back to New England in hopes of furthering his folk music career, got just the encouragement he was looking for recently at the Rose Garden Coffeehouse. Carl Cacho, who now resides in Groveland, MA, bested two other finalists to win the fourth Annual Rose Garden Coffeehouse Singer/Songwriter Competition.

Cacho is originally from Maine and got his first musical inspiration in 1989 when he walked into the Nameless Coffeehouse in Cambridge and heard a then-unknown Ellis Paul perform. From there, he moved on to Colorado and then to Ann Arbor, MI where he earned a Master's Degree in Social Work from the University of Michigan. In Ann Arbor, he once again met up with Ellis Paul who encouraged him to return to the Boston area to pursue his dream.

In front of a full house at the Rose Garden Coffeehouse, Cacho performed two original compositions: "Tumbleweed's At The Fair" and "In This World." According to one of the three judges - Taylor Armeding from the bluegrass group "Northern Lights" - Cacho's "rapport with the audience and originality of song ideas" proved to be the deciding factor. As part of the winner's prize, Cacho will be a featured performer at the venue next season.