Upcoming Artists
Sam Bush
Though he admits a certain discomfort with the moniker "King of Newgrass," Sam Bush has more than earned it. As cofounder and leader of the seminal progressive bluegrass band New Grass Revival through 18 years during the 1970s and '80s, Bush may not be the only person responsible for newgrass, the wild bluegrass stepchild that features rock 'n' roll grooves and extended virtuosic jams, but since New Grass Revival's dissolution in 1989, Bush has certainly been one of the most brilliant of newgrass's many bright lights.
Mike Farris
In 2007, when Mike Farris debuted his critically acclaimed Salvation in Lights, people who'd never heard of the former Screamin' Cheetah Wheelie's frontman, music business people and retailers who thought they'd "heard it all and seen it all," stood with mouths agape, eyes like saucers, aghast at how that sound, that soul, could come from such an unlikely source.
Miss Tess and The Bon Ton Parade
Named by the Boston Globe as a "Local on the Verge" for 2008, Miss Tess is a young, Boston-based performing songwriter. Aptly naming her style “Modern Vintage”, her music bridges eras and genres. Miss Tess is celebrating being named “Outstanding Folk Artist of the Year” at the December Boston Music Awards.
The Grascals
Already among the most beloved and acclaimed of contemporary bluegrass groups, The Grascals are the 2007 International Bluegrass Music Association’s Entertainers of the Year, first earning the top honor in 2006, only one year after being named Emerging Artist of the Year and winning Song of the Year for “Me and John and Paul.” Their trademark blend of traditional bluegrass and classic country with more modern elements, delivered with vocal and instrumental intensity and virtuosity, earned them Grammy nominations for their first two critically-acclaimed releases—The Grascals and Long List of Heartaches.
Holy Ghost Tent Revival
Characterized as "explosively intoxicating," this Greensboro, NC six-piece can only be described in terms of what has already been defined, for there is no way to narrow them into any perfect genre. Mixing euphonium with banjo, and acoustic guitar with drums, keys, and electric bass, Holy Ghost Tent Revival is an eclectic mix of so many things -- dirty jazz, ragtime, folk, roots country/bluegrass, big band and rock and roll.
Donna Ulisse
Donna Ulisse (pronounced "you-liss-ee") was born in Hampton Virginia and surrounded by a musical family. She made her first appearance singing at the tender age of three when she wandered onto the stage with a bluegrass band and broke out into "Take This Hammer". From that moment until now, there has never been any doubt that she would be creating music. She worked in a local western swing band where she met and married Rick Stanley, being fully indoctrinated into a bluegrass family when Rick's cousin Ralph Stanley, along with the Clinch Mountain Boys performed at their wedding reception.
Christabel and the Jons
Christabel and the Jons is a southern swing band based in east Tennessee that blends familiar standards with modern vintage sounding originals. Their music is acoustic and colorful, a blend of Appalachian mountain music and vintage swing. The group saunters and sways together with ease. Lead singer Christa DeCicco steals hearts with her come-hither delivery and charismatic stage performance.
Kristi Rose and Fats Kaplin
Kristi Rose and Fats Kaplin have long been revered as artists of “distinctive personal approach” Kristi Rose as a singer with a voice that can “sing the stars from the heavens” has been compared to artists ranging from Wanda Jackson to Patti Smith. Fats, as a “brilliant multi-instrumentalist” has been sought over the years by artists as diverse as The Tractors, The Manhattan Transfer, Pure Prairie League, Emmy Lou Harris, Nanci Griffith, The Mavericks, Suzy Boggus, Elvis Costello, The Judds, Buddy Miller, Jason Ringenberg, (with and w/o the Scorchers) and in his own Americana chart topping band, Kane-Welch-Kaplin, as well as many, many more. Together, Fats and Kristi Rose have created a musical genre, (and way of life) known as Pulp Country.
Chuck Mead
He’s been known as the co-founder of the three-time Grammy nominated BR549, the honky-tonk heroes that almost single-handedly lit and carried the blowtorch for the mid-‘90s alternative country explosion. He’s been hailed as ‘The Hillbilly Renaissance Man’ for his subsequent successes as a songwriter, performer, producer and musical theater director. Now after more than a decade as one of the most uncompromising and consistent talents in the American roots music movement, Chuck Mead at last emerges with the most anticipated role of his entire career: Solo Artist.
Big Daddy Love
BIG DADDY LOVE brings a natural blend of grass, roots and rock to the emerging North Carolina music scene. With fiery vocals, sweet-sugary harmonies, authentic song-craft, and undeniable musicianship, the quintet delivers high-energy performances comprised of their own brand of good-time music. It is the startling power of these live shows that resonate with their audience. Genuine and intensely personal lyrics captivate and connect. Be captivated. Get connected. Feel the love.
The Dixie Bee-Liners
Known equally for her golden pipes and lead foot, the dulcet-throated BRANDI HART is a native of the Bluegrass State. She grew up singing and playing music in Southern Baptist church choirs, where she got her start at the tender age of 2. Her thoughtfully penned originals cover a surprisingly broad range, from hard-driving bluesy scorchers to ancient-toned instrumentals. A prolific songwriter, Brandi is currently at work on three distinct bluegrass concept albums. She was featured in the OFFICIAL ASCAP/IBMA SONGWRITERS' SHOWCASE at World of Bluegrass 2006 in Nashville. She plays rhythm guitar, Nashville guitar, fiddle, and mountain dulcimer... and has been known to moonlight in theater, dance, and voiceover acting!
Izzy Cox
Izzy cox ........is an anarchist crooner.she has coined the style voodoobilly jazz as her own; influenced by old movie soundtracks, old time bar room blues and country singers. Her lyrics are like diary entries.. Stories of serial killers, buckaroo cowboys, snake handlers and sports of nature . She had a unusual childhood, for the formative years of her life she would live part of her years in rural texas, and then in french canadian montreal. Throughout her moving around she was part of a religious organization where she played in marching bands. At the age of twelve she found the traveling bug, she lived and worked in horse racing tracks, traveled with circuses and took part of many early punk rock mosh pits.. All by the age of sixteen..
NewFound Road
When it comes from NewFound Road, it comes from the soul. There are more famous bluegrass bands, but you’d be hard pressed to find one that plays and sings with more feeling and heart than this extraordinary ensemble. NewFound Road’s second collection for Rounder Records, Same Old Place, following their well-received 2006 CD Life in a Song, tells you all you need to know about this group’s depth of emotion. It’s chock full of driving rhythms, haunting ballads and classic bluegrass, all brought into sharp focus by the band’s instrumental prowess and the soulful vocals of Tim Shelton.
Kim Richey
"Kim Richey would rule the charts in a land where Marshall Crenshaw was king, Aimee Mann queen, and the The Beatles never put out another record after Revolver." Steve Horowitz, popmatters.com
Andrew Combs
With his roots in Texas, singer and songwriter Andrew Combs has been steadily growing his branches in Nashville. In essence, he is a storyteller. His sharp, southern voice carves out stories and carries you through the ridges, making you feel as if you whittled out this story from your own past. When accompanied by fellow singer and song- writer Heidi Feek, the contrast is deep, dark, and beautiful. Her tranquil and smokey style pairs with Combs' reflective exuberance like a cold glass of whiskey and a long cigarette on a sunny day.
Shotgun Party
The original Shotgun Party trio met in a little Texas dive bar in 2006. They got their start performing weekly at Austin's own Continental Club. Sparks flew and now Shotgun Party, the Austin based trio, really knows how to fire up a crowd! Their original songs are beautiful and timeless drawing influences from early blues, country, bluegrass and depression era swing. Katy Rose Cox's fearles fiddling is simply virtuosic. Miss Jenny Parrott's gorgeous vocals and addictive songs will bring you to your knees. ...and introducing Shotgun Party's newest member, Andrew Austin-Petersen (formerly of the Shake 'Em Ups) on show stopping upright bass! With tight harmonies and lively stage antics, Shotgun party will leave you with a smile ear to ear. Don't miss 'em!!
Westbound Rangers
Hailing from Nashville via North Carolina, Virginia, Alabama and Texas, The Westbound Rangers are forging a new sound that crosses boundaries between Americana, Bluegrass, and Old-Time. The four piece string band, consisting of clawhammer banjo, mandolin, guitar and doghouse bass, has been turning heads since the band’s unassuming start in 2008.
The SteelDrivers
Nashville, Tennessee is a nexus – a point where tradition and innovation intersect, where commerce collides with art. It may be the only town around where salaried songwriters and full-time session musicians are as common as accountants and schoolteachers. Music is the product, and the factories line the street, from the swank Music Row mini-high-rises to the low-slung Sylvain Park bungalows. And only Nashville could give birth to a band like the SteelDrivers: a group of seasoned veterans – each distinguished in his or her own right, each valued in the town’s commercial community – who are seizing an opportunity to follow their hearts to their souls’ reward. In doing so, they are braiding their bluegrass roots with new threads of their own design, bringing together country, soul, and other contemporary influences to create an unapologetic hybrid that is old as the hills but fresh as the morning dew. This is new music with the old feeling. SteelDrivers fan Vince Gill describes the band’s fusion as simply “an incredible combination.”
Dale Watson
Dale Watson isn't one to uphold the music industry's status quo. He's moving forward on his own terms and true to his own convictions. Even with frequent proclamations declaring him one of country music's last authentic voices (like that in Crazy Again--a recent documentary on Watson's life--when a fan declares, "son, you play country like country was when country was country"), Watson is done with the "C" word and what it's come to represent in modern times. So much so that he's created his own genre, simply called Ameripolitan. In a recent posting on his website (www.dalewatson.com), Dale explains it like this: "I've been trying to come up with a name the best describes this music that me and folks similar do. When folks ask, I hesitate, down right embarrassed really, to say country. I didn't used to be that way, but with the change in country, the term doesn't mean the same as it used to. If you say traditional, or old, or western swing most folks think 'retro' and dismiss it without hearing it. I wanted a name that didn't say country anything and didn't give anyone a preconceived idea. I came up with Ameripolitan. I even put it in Wikipedia defined as: Original music with 'prominent' roots influence." And so it goes with Dale Watson, the kind of unparalleled iconoclast that's far too rare in music today.
Suzi Ragsdale
Nashville native, Suzi Ragsdale virtually cut her teeth in the recording studio. Her dad a singer/songwriter as well, she grew up surrounded by music. At age 5, she sang with the kiddie chorus on her father Ray Stevens’ Grammy Award winning smash, “Everything Is Beautiful”. At 10, she began recording children’s albums and writing her own songs… by 13, she was singing other writers’ demos… & by 17 singing in local clubs.
Kara Clark
Kara Clark is a storyteller. It’s all about reality for Kara. Whether her songs were penned from actual personal experience or the stories she heard her mother telling her friends over the kitchen table, you will hear the validity of truth in the words and music that are Kara Clark. Each song unravels the events of a captivating tale that will leave you hanging on every word to find out what happens next. Whether good, bad, or just plain and simple honesty, her words will remind you that life is always believable and definitely much more interesting than anything that can be made up! No fairytales for Kara, only truth. No dressed up lies, only honesty in its rawest form. Refusing to sugarcoat reality, Kara Clark is honest, bold and real. With one line, slipped in at a most conspicuous spot, she can bring you face to face with your own reality. Kara Clark is a gifted storyteller.
The Infamous Stringdusters
The Infamous Stringdusters represent the cream of the crop of young bluegrass musicians. With Andy Hall on Resonator Guitar, Travis Book on bass, Chris Pandolfi on banjo, Jesse Cobb on mandolin, Jeremy Garrett on fiddle and Andy Falco on guitar, the band pulls together skill and experience well beyond their years. They boast a combined resume that includes collaborations with artists like Dolly Parton, Leftover Salmon, Earl Scruggs, Bering Strait, Ronnie Bowman and Levon Helm.
Barry Scott & Second Wind
Since the beginning of his musical journey at the age of seven, Barry Scott has served his time with several of Bluegrass and Gospel musics best known acts. This Georgia native has been a member of The Perry’s, The Dixie Melody Boys, Gold City Quartet, and most recently a nine year tour as tenor and lead vocalist with Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver.
Missy Raines & The New Hip
A beloved figure in bluegrass and a pioneering force in acoustic music, Missy Raines' adventurous musical spirit has always been her compass. Launching her career with experimental bluegrass outfit Cloud Valley, Raines next toured the country with Eddie and Martha Adcock. Soon she was lending her bass skills to the Masters (Adcock, Kenny Baker, Josh Graves and Jesse McReynolds). Raines joined Claire Lynch's popular Front Porch Band, and developed a successful duo with band mate Jim Hurst. Their CDs and live performances pushed the envelope on how much music two people with two acoustic instruments can make. A stint with the Brother Boys opened Raines' eyes to the value of spontaneity and immediacy in her musical approach.
Yarn
Brooklyn-based Americana/Alt-Country band Yarn’s sound owes as much to Gram Parsons and Earl Scruggs as to Jerry Garcia and Exile On Main Street-era Rolling Stones. Following in a fine tradition that includes forward thinking roots bands like The Flying Burrito Brothers and New Riders of The Purple Sage, Yarn weaves roots music idioms into a fresh sound that turns on hipsters and fans of country music alike with technically impressive song-crafting and universal tales from the road of life.
The Coal Men
Some people measure life in years. Dave Coleman measures it in moments. And capturing the impact of a moment is what the singer, guitarist and principal songwriter of The Coal Men set out to do on "Beauty Is a Moment," the band's second full-length release.
Folk Soul Revival
FOLK SOUL REVIVAL is an upbeat, rootsy foursome from the mountains of Appalachia. Based out of Southwest Virginia, these youthful musicians have been playing around the immediate area, for many years individually, and for the last several months in this configuration. Their diversity, creativity and passion is evident among those who have witnessed the boys hone their craft onstage. The band, with their distinct vocal approaches, back-porch instrumentation, haunting three-part harmonies and sheer talent have garnered local success with high profile gigs opening for the likes of guitarist Jason Isbell (of Drive-By Truckers fame), vocalist Justin Townes Earle (Steve Earle’s son), and multi-instrumentalist Chris Janson (fresh off tour with Hank Jr and Lynyrd Skynyrd).
Rhonda Vincent & The Rage
To another artist at a similar point in their career, the idea of self-producing a new album, recording it in their own studio, and then releasing it on their own label, would be an unthinkable gamble, fraught with loose ends, complications, and a distracting degree of responsibility. For Rhonda Vincent, however, it is simply the next logical step. Among the most complete and accomplished artists of her generation – in any genre – Vincent was born into a performing family, and from an early age has dedicated herself to understanding and excelling at every element of her craft. She is quick to point out that she is not infallible: in fact, her willingness to take chances and then diligently assess the results afterwards has insured her continuing artistic and professional growth.
The Harpers
Gaylon and Katrina were both raised around music: festivals, church singings and get together's. Katrina was born into the Bob Lewis Family Band from Doniphan, Mo. They traveled the bluegrass circuit for a couple of years upon hiring a young banjo picker named Gaylon Harper while he and Katrina were both seniors in high school. After marrying and making their home in Bunker, Mo. God has blessed them with three very talented children.
Next Best Thing
They didn't grow up playing instruments or singing everyday. Although they traveled thousands of miles and listened to more bluegrass than most people hear in a lifetime --- even BEFORE they were born.
Isaac Moore
The best way to describe this young man is UNBELIEVABLE!!! Isaac is 8yrs old, and sang his first bluegrass song, "Over the Clouds of Glory", at the age of 2 in its entirety. Isaac can remember the words to a song faster than most 20 year olds. Isaac has incredible pitch & loves to sing the songs of Del McCoury, Bill Monroe, Dr. Ralph Stanley, and Flatt & Scruggs. Isaac has that old time sound at age 7 that most Bluegrass singers strive for their entire life!!!! Isaac loves to sing and is ready to go anytime the word bluegrass is mentioned.
Jerry Douglas
Internationally recognized as the world's most renowned Dobro player, Jerry Douglas undoubtedly ranks amongst the top contemporary maestros in American music. Douglas has garnered twelve GRAMMY® Awards and numerous International Bluegrass Music Association awards, and holds the distinction of being named "Musician of the Year" by The Country Music Association (2002, 2005, 2007), The Academy of Country Music (11 times), and The Americana Music Association (2002, 2003). In 2004, the National Endowment for The Arts honored Douglas with a National Heritage Fellowship, acknowledging his artistic excellence and contribution to the nation's traditional arts, their highest such accolade.
Joey & Rory
Often times, Nashville goes to great lengths to sell you on how ‘real’ an artist is. Sometimes they’re not quite as genuine as they are advertised to be…but then again, sometimes they really are.
Mother Truckers
The Mother Truckers are a kick-ass rock 'n' roll band from Austin, Texas! Their music is high-octane Americana, blending elements of Country and Blues with loud guitars, big choruses and powerhouse vocals. Their creative songwriting and high energy live performances lift you up to a place that’s somewhere between a honky-tonk and a mosh-pit!
Frontier Ruckus
We’ve memorized so thoroughly the worlds from which we come. With a lifelong obsession, we’ve catalogued and internalized the apparently permanent fixtures of a cherished locality until our bodies have in fact become either physical extensions or microcosmic containers of these landscapes: arms kinking in unbroken strip-mall chains, gaping mouths mimicking the enormous vacancy of an evacuated sports dome. The chief business of Frontier Ruckus is the collection and organization of these solid, unmoving markers. We spool the vast confusion and depth of existence around fast-food restaurants in anchoring tethers; we use the vacuous space of the abandoned 90s mall, now dead and tomb-like, as leaky reservoirs of overflowing memory. We turn to these devices to render memory and its innumerable landmarks somehow less crippling in their abundance—to seek some agency, some proprietorship over a world as heavy and unwieldy with contents of the past as a backyard filling with nightfall.
John Oates
John Oates was destined to be a musician. Singing from the time he could talk and playing the guitar since the age of five, his calling in life was never in question. Born in New York City, his family moved to a small town outside of Philadelphia Pennsylvania in the early 50's ....a move that would change the course of his life. Like most kids at that time, the impact of the early days of rock left an lasting impression on John. At the age of four he witnessed his first live concert: Bill Haley and the Comets playing their classic rockabilly hits at a local amusement park. Then there were the records...
Jeff Black
A tin lily is just what it says—and much more than it seems. A thin piece of metal shaped in the petals of a delicate flower, it's designed to take a soft glow, often from a candle, and give it more shine. It's a hard element that does what it can to spread something as ethereal yet as essential as light.
Brian McGee
Having spent his musical adolescence in Pennsylvania playing in punk rock bands, Brian McGee is not the most natural figurehead for a movement of new Americana rock. But after living in Western North Carolina for the last ten years and absorbing the sounds and culture of the region, McGee has milled a new angle into his songwriting palette and taken to fusing his punk rock heritage to raw country sounds. Once it became obvious to him that Iggy Pop and The Carter Family played the same three chords, McGee was off and running.
Legendary Shack Shakers
The Legendary Shack Shakers’ hell-for-leather roadshow has earned quite a name for itself with its unique brand of Southern Gothic that is all-at-once irreverent, revisionist, dangerous, and fun. Led by their wildly charismatic, rail-thin frontman/blues-harpist, J.D. Wilkes, the Shack Shakers are a four-man wrecking crew from the South whose explosive interpretations of the blues, punk, rock and country have made fans, critics and legions of potential converts into true believers. With the recent addition of former Jesus Lizard guitarist Duane Denison (Hank III/Tomahawk) and drumming wunderkind, Brett Whitacre, the Legendary Shack Shakers have quickly become known for providing some of the best entertainment (live or otherwise) that you can get for your hard earned money.
The Ragbirds
Ask The Ragbirds how to describe their hard-to-define Folk Rock and World fusion and theyll tell you its infectious global groove. Led by fiery front-woman Erin Zindle (called Highly Impressive by USA TODAY), they put on a show that is designed to engage the audience on many levels - to get people thinking, listening and dancing. As the bands founder and songwriter, Zindle is like a bright excited tour guide through a beautiful foreign world of sights and sounds. Her earthy-sweet voice is the center of the storm of energy around her - the whirlwind of guitarist T.J. Zindle and dynamic bassist Dan Hildebrandt spinning over the ethnic grooves of drummer Randall Moore and percussionist Tim Dziekan. Amidst this blissful, restless energy Zindle skillfully switches between violin, mandolin, banjo, accordion, and percussion in addition to singing lead vocals (all while dancing!)
J D Crowe
Banjoist J.D. Crowe was one of the most influential progressive bluegrass musicians of the '70s. Initially influenced by Earl Scruggs, as well as rock & roll and the blues, Crowe worked his way through several bands during the '60s, developing a distinctive instrumental style that melded country, bluegrass, rock, and blues. Crowe didn't receive national exposure until the early '70s when he formed the New South, but after the release of the band's eponymous debut in 1972 he became a fixture on the bluegrass scene for the next 20 years.
Jennifer Niceley
"After some years spent in Nashville and releasing two recordings --- 2004's Seven Songs EP and 2007's full length Luminous--- I moved away from the city and found my way back into country life. Back to the family farm in East Tennessee just outside of Knoxville, where I was born and raised. I came back without knowing what the hell I was doing or why, didn't know how long I would stay, if music was just a dream, if I would ever write a song I liked again, and also wondering: does the world even need any more "singer-songwriters"?
Manda Mosher
“Here in the city of clowns, is where it all goes down” Not many can claim they are a sixth generation Californian, let alone Angeleno. Manda Mosher can. Still what does that mean? It’s not as easily defined as saying you are a sixth generation New Yorker, or Bostonian for that matter. Manda’s first ancestor to settle in the region, came to Downtown, Los Angeles in the 1800’s from Delhi, New York after the Civil War, additional family followed establishing a chicken farm in the Valley in 1911.
