Genre: Folk

Summer Patio Series: Old Oaks Trio

Summer Patio Series: Old Oaks Trio

 

PAYMENT POLICY

We are a cashless facility meaning that we are unable to accept cash as a form of payment. Our Box Office and Coat Check will only accept credit and debit. Our Bars will only accept credit, debit, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. Please note that artist merchandise sales are separate and may still accept cash.

 

Series Supported by Tito’s Handmade Vodka

MALINDA<br>It’s All True Tour

MALINDA
It’s All True Tour

 

BAG POLICY

Bags (max size 12″ x 6″ x 12″) are allowed and will be searched upon entry. Exceptions will be made for necessary medical equipment and bags for nursing mothers. We encourage you to pack light with only the necessities to make the entry process as smooth as possible.

PAYMENT POLICY

We are a cashless facility meaning that we are unable to accept cash as a form of payment. Our Box Office and Coat Check will only accept credit and debit. Our Bars will only accept credit, debit, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. Please note that artist merchandise sales are separate and may still accept cash.

 

MALINDA is a NY/DC based singer, songwriter and actor with a mission to make community through her art. Her debut EP, Love Letter, and her subsequent singles draw influence from folk, pop, and jazz. Her debut Irish folk EP, “The Folks I Love” saw a return to the music that made her, thanks to a growing audience on TikTok. With the advent of her own music, Malinda is quickly becoming known for her strong sense of vocal storytelling, balancing her pure (to quote her fans) “angelic” tone with a more powerful raw belt.

She began her career as a professional actor in regional theatre, including originating the role of Ella in “Ella Enchanted: the Musical” and winning a Helen Hayes Award for her portrayal of Girl in the DC regional premiere of ONCE. Her original work is a creative exploration of what it is to be a young person in our world today. Dubbed a “social media luminary” by the Washington Post, her YouTube videos range from little conversations, to quirky songs, to fully produced original music videos.

Tommy Prine

Tommy Prine

 

BAG POLICY

Bags (max size 12″ x 6″ x 12″) are allowed and will be searched upon entry. Exceptions will be made for necessary medical equipment and bags for nursing mothers. We encourage you to pack light with only the necessities to make the entry process as smooth as possible.

PAYMENT POLICY

We are a cashless facility meaning that we are unable to accept cash as a form of payment. Our Box Office and Coat Check will only accept credit and debit. Our Bars will only accept credit, debit, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. Please note that artist merchandise sales are separate and may still accept cash.

 

Tommy Prine’s debut album “This Far South” coming June 23, 2023 is not only a long awaited introduction but a testimony to Prine’s 20’s and the loss, love, and growth that has defined them. Co-produced by close friend and kindred musical spirit, Ruston Kelly, and beloved Nashville engineer and producer, Gena Johnson, the album is rich and dynamic from cathartic jams to nostalgic storytelling.

The son of late songwriting legend, John Prine, Tommy Prine grew up in Nashville surrounded by music, art and writing. As a child, he thought all parents were musicians, as his father “going to work” meant performing shows for adoring fans and writing songs. Tommy learned to play guitar by watching his father play, copying the ways his fingers moved and inadvertently developing his own singular style. Summers in Ireland lent their own inspiration, as did 10 straight years camping at Bonnaroo. Prine’s musical tastes grew to become decidedly eclectic, spanning John Mayer, Outkast, Bon Iver, the Strokes and more.

It wasn’t until Prine reached his mid-twenties, though, that he considered a career of his own in music and began to share with others the songs he wrote in private. His songs were quickly met with excitement and enthusiasm, which sonically brings together a colorful patchwork of musical influences and lyrically explores existential questions and emotional experiences.

The album’s title track, “This Far South,” marks a turning point in Prine’s life as he found himself struggling to escape a dark, aimless period. He ultimately found the courage to act on choices that would see him to the other, brighter, side.

“There were several years where I felt without purpose, spent all my time partying, and just existing. I found myself at a fork in the road and chose the better path, and in that moment, I swore I would never be This Far South again.”

Grief is a major throughline of Prine’s current work. In 2017, Prine lost his best friend to an overdose.

“Since then, I have lost some more friends and have others who are still navigating the ups and downs of struggles with drug abuse.”

His song, “Letter To My Brother,” was written as a message to the friends he’s lost, those in Recovery, and to friends who are still struggling.

He still grapples with the passing of his father in April of 2020. “The world lost one of the greatest songwriters of all time, but I lost my dad.” Prine bears the loss of his father and the memories he carries for others on the track, “By The Way.”

“The comment I get the most is how much I look like him, and sometimes it makes me feel like I’m a sad reminder to those who loved him.”

While navigating that loss has been difficult, he’s found solace in connecting through music with others who have lost loved ones.

“When I’m playing certain songs, I can literally look out in the crowd and tell who else has lost their dad,” he says. “I can immediately tell which people have experienced, specifically, losing their father. They’ll come up and tell me afterwards, and I’ll be like, ‘Yeah, like, I figured that this conversation was going to happen,’ because I could see their reaction. It’s been really powerful to see real-deal evidence that grief is a shared experience, and that suffering is a shared experience between humans.”

Prine capped off 2022 with his first solo tour across the United States. He was heavily involved with You Got Gold, an event series in Nashville honoring the life and songs of John Prine, and performed at AmericanaFest as an official showcasing artist. He also debuted two original songs, “Ships in the Harbor” and “Turning Stones.”

“Ships in the Harbor” is a tender meditation on impermanence and change, with Prine communicating the universal experience of loss through poetic observations of the seemingly mundane. The song found its way onto a series of editorial playlists including Spotify’s Fresh Folk playlist and Amazon’s Fresh Folk & Ameriana playlist. It was also praised by a number of outlets including Billboard, Garden & Gun, and Saving Country Music who wrote, “With one song, Tommy Prine has already accomplished what many musicians and songwriters work their entire careers to accomplish, which is to make such an indelible emotional connection with an audience.”

This year, alongside his own runs of headline shows, Prine opened for Tyler Childers on his “Send In The Hounds Tour” in London. He was also named one of Amazon Music’s 2023 Breakthrough Artists to Watch.

“I feel like I’ve learned more about myself in the last year and a half than I ever have in my life,” Prine says. “And I think that speaks a lot to doing something that I’m passionate about. I love and respect the craft. Just hitting the road and doing what so many people before me have done and will continue to do, it’s really resonated with me. I think it’s transformed me into the person that I am meant to be.”

Jeffrey Martin + Anna Tivel

Jeffrey Martin + Anna Tivel

 

BAG POLICY

Bags (max size 12″ x 6″ x 12″) are allowed and will be searched upon entry. Exceptions will be made for necessary medical equipment and bags for nursing mothers. We encourage you to pack light with only the necessities to make the entry process as smooth as possible.

PAYMENT POLICY

We are a cashless facility meaning that we are unable to accept cash as a form of payment. Our Box Office and Coat Check will only accept credit and debit. Our Bars will only accept credit, debit, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. Please note that artist merchandise sales are separate and may still accept cash.

 

Jeffrey Martin

“Dogs in the Daylight is as close to a masterpiece as a folk album by an emerging singer-songwriter can get.” — No Depression

Portland, Oregon’s Jeffrey Martin is a minister’s son who can build a house with his bare hands and holds a master’s degree in English. He worked his way through school as a carpenter, then, following graduation, spent four years teaching high school.

It was during that time that his career as a songwriter came into bloom. Struggling to strike a balance between his increasingly rigorous Northwest/West Coast touring and his efforts to get teenagers to love words as much as he did, Martin found himself in the tricky position of having to choose between his two passions.

Much to the delight of his fans, music won the day. Now, with three intensely lyric-driven albums under his belt, two of which were released on the Portland indie-label, Fluff & Gravy Records, Martin has developed a loyal and growing audience, both domestically and abroad. Prior to the halting effects that a global pandemic placed on his ability to do so, Martin kept a restless touring schedule. It’s taken him on several laps around the U.S. and Europe and landed him on stages with luminaries from the genre including Courtney Marie Andrews, Joe Pug, Gregory Alan Isakov, Jeffrey Foucault, Sean Hayes, Peter Mulvey, Amanda Shires, Colter Wall, Ruth Moody, Caitlin Canty, and others.

Jeffrey Martin writes music that probes the depths of the human experience and doesn’t shy away from its darkest corners. His songs can feel like short stories from literary giants like Steinbeck, Burroughs, or Cormac McCarthy and possess a raw intensity that comes from seeing his subjects up close. All the struggle, hurt, strife, and heartbreak that comes from living in this world are laid bare and unvarnished, yet somehow, Martin manages to mine and make space for what beauty remains.

Presently, Jeffrey Martin is writing for his fourth full-length album at a deliberative pace and making plans to enter the studio to record this winter. He’s recently signed with Tommy Alexander of the Wassermann Agency and has returned to the road for an extended 52-date tour of the US and Canada. An extensive summer tour originally planned for 2020 is now scheduled for 2022 and will include stops in the U.K., Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, and Ireland.

Anna Tivel

Imagine the very first man on the moon, watching the earth rising up / Out of the darkness cerulean blue, water and thunder and dust

Oregon-based songwriter Anna Tivel’s newest album Outsiders starts with a lens so wide that we have left the planet to look back from a great distance at the turmoil and beauty of our shared humanity. From there, the lens pulls close and unfolds in a gripping collection of stories so often ignored. Tivel’s flawed and honest characters move through a landscape of hurt and loss, of small triumph and big love. In 11 songs full of recognition, veracity and hope, Tivel’s watchful and empathetic eye details the undeniable ache of living.

Outsiders, look up / The night is dark but brilliant and it turns out we are not so different

Recorded almost entirely live to tape in Rock Island, IL with producer and multi-instrumentalist Shane Leonard and engineer Brian Joseph (Bon Iver, Sufjan Stevens), the album is a truly collaborative exploration. Tivel gathered the same vibrant group of friends from her acclaimed record, The Question, which NPR heralded as “one of the most ambitious folk records of 2019.”

“We holed up together in a little house a few miles from the studio,” she says, “walked there every day to sink deep into the music. No one had heard the songs beforehand, and I would play each one sitting on the floor trying to convey the gut feeling. Then we’d face each other in a circle and feel our way through, working to find the heart of each song in a few takes. Shane brings this layer of uninhibited magic to every session, setting the stage for everyone to listen deep and react with open doors. He gives himself as fully to sonic atmosphere as I do to words and I have a great amount of trust in his vision and admiration for the care he takes with the world of each song.”

The constraints of analog recording fostered a rawness and immediacy in the final tracks. The arrangements on Outsiders are spacious and full of intrigue, drawing you into the cinema of Tivel’s lyrics. The title track opens the album with a meditation on the first moon landing. “I wrote it sitting on the floor in front of the TV between fragments of an Apollo 11 documentary,” she recalls. “The news was feeling especially dark, full of pain and distorted truths, and watching all that incredible footage of human hope and achievement hit me so hard. For just that one moment in the great upheaval of the times, everyone paused together to witness something new and full of wonder.”

The second track “Black Umbrella” is a winding story that follows a small-town robbery and a bystander who tries to help only to fall under the weight of misconception and old, broken systems. “It’s a song about all the ways we fail to really see each other,” Tivel shares, “about poverty and desperation, race and power, history, opportunity, and otherness.”

While writing the album in 2019-20, Tivel found herself circling back again and again to this idea of otherness. “The deep division and ugly rhetoric being amplified–especially in the US–seeped into everything I wrote. I kept wanting to explore this feeling of being unseen, profoundly lonely and disconnected, and how it affects our perception of the world and our place in it,” she says. “Outsiders is an album about looking more deeply into ourselves and each other, really trying to see and examine the internal and external forces that keep us from connecting in real ways and the forces that draw us together.”

Throughout her work, Tivel has emphasized storytelling and this album is no exception, building on the strength of her ability to observe and reflect with a clear-eyed empathy. Inspired by authors from Steinbeck to Morrison, Didion to Dubus, she imbues her songs with attentive detail and a dreamlike quality that leaves the ordinary feeling both palpable and poetic. “Tivel’s characters are common but unforgettable,” NPR’s Ann Powers writes, “Her images linger, and become populated with the energy of the real.”

Outsiders was released by Mama Bird Recording Co. on August 19th, 2022.

Hundreds of thousands of miles away, the endless expanse of a dream / Pausing the burning of cities to say we are beautiful when we believe

Water Street Jacks Album Release

Water Street Jacks Album Release

 

BAG POLICY

Bags (max size 12″ x 6″ x 12″) are allowed and will be searched upon entry. Exceptions will be made for necessary medical equipment and bags for nursing mothers. We encourage you to pack light with only the necessities to make the entry process as smooth as possible.

PAYMENT POLICY

We are a cashless facility meaning that we are unable to accept cash as a form of payment. Our Box Office and Coat Check will only accept credit and debit. Our Bars will only accept credit, debit, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. Please note that artist merchandise sales are separate and may still accept cash.

 

Water Street Jacks is an Americana, folk-rock band out of Sauk Prairie, Wisconsin. Educators by day, the band grew out of getting together to play for students at a staff variety show at Sauk Prairie Middle School where Ted Harter (lead vocals and rhythm guitar) is the principal and Hans Fester (drums, harmonica, vocals) is a Physical Education Teacher. Along the way Ted and Hans picked up two Sauk Prairie High School staff members: Vocal Music Teacher, Matt Brennan (keys, vocals) and School Counselor, Owen Murphy (mandolin, vocals). They began to play in earnest in 2016 for local events and at their home pub, The Woodshed Ale House. Since that time Water Street Jacks have toured extensively in southeast Wisconsin playing large events such as Summerfest and Isenroo Music Festival, legendary music bars such as the Come Back In and Up North Bar along with headlining Madison’s most beloved music venue, the iconic High Noon Saloon.

All of the members have strong musical backgrounds. Harter grew up playing trombone, singing and acting at Wabeno High School and milking cows to late 80’s/early 90’s country on the radio in his family’s dairy barn. Fester was a drummer and front man in punk bands in the late 80’s like Drop Forge and Skip Tracer out of Milwaukee. Murphy formed the bluegrass group Old Farm Dog with a lifelong friend a few years ago which was recognized in 2015 as Madison Area Music Awards Country/Bluegrass Performer of the Year. Brennan, a Sauk Prairie native, studied music at Drake University and has taken over a storied music program as the Vocal Music Teacher at Sauk Prairie High School; his musicals, show choirs and vocal soloists routinely win competitions across Southern Wisconsin as well as in Illinois, Iowa, and Minnesota. Recently, the band added bassist Hanjun Kim to the band.

While their musical roots are different, they share a love for the Americana, folk and alt-country music that has a foundation laid by artists like John Prine, Bob Dylan, and Bruce Springsteen and has recently made a resurgence thanks to groups like The Avett Brothers, Mumford and Sons, The Head and the Heart, The Lumineers, and Old Crow Medicine Show.

Since 2017, the band has collaborated to write and play over a dozen original songs along with the unique covers they play. Restless Heart and Adalie (Murphy), River and Someday (Fester), and Where to Stay and Heart of the Wilderness (Harter) all pull together the musical backgrounds, tastes, and life experiences of this fun group of guys. Water Street Jacks prides itself on killer four-part harmonies, devilish good looks, and a fresh perspective on Americana music that is sure to please the most diverse audiences!

Eric Hutchinson

Eric Hutchinson

 

BAG POLICY

Bags (max size 12″ x 6″ x 12″) are allowed and will be searched upon entry. Exceptions will be made for necessary medical equipment and bags for nursing mothers. We encourage you to pack light with only the necessities to make the entry process as smooth as possible.

PAYMENT POLICY

We are a cashless facility meaning that we are unable to accept cash as a form of payment. Our Box Office and Coat Check will only accept credit and debit. Our Bars will only accept credit, debit, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. Please note that artist merchandise sales are separate and may still accept cash.

 

Eric Hutchinson is an international platinum-selling singer, songwriter and seasoned touring artist. He has performed in all 50 states and has shared the stage with acts such as Jason Mraz, Amos Lee, Ingrid Michaelson, O.A.R., and Michael Franti. His single “Rock & Roll” earned him his first gold record in the United States and the song became a #1 hit in several countries.

The Cactus Blossoms

The Cactus Blossoms

 

BAG POLICY

Bags (max size 12″ x 6″ x 12″) are allowed and will be searched upon entry. Exceptions will be made for necessary medical equipment and bags for nursing mothers. We encourage you to pack light with only the necessities to make the entry process as smooth as possible.

PAYMENT POLICY

We are a cashless facility meaning that we are unable to accept cash as a form of payment. Our Box Office and Coat Check will only accept credit and debit. Our Bars will only accept credit, debit, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. Please note that artist merchandise sales are separate and may still accept cash.

 

The Cactus Blossoms

Blood Harmony. Whether it’s The Beach Boys, Bee Gees or First Aid Kit, that sibling vocal blend is the secret sauce in some of the most spine-tingling moments in popular music. The Cactus Blossoms – Minneapolis-based brothers Page Burkum and Jack Torrey – offer compelling evidence that this tradition is alive and well, with a deceptively unadorned musical approach that offers “creative turns of phrase, gorgeous harmonies, and an ageless sound” (NPR All Things Considered)

Their timeless sound and songwriting have earned them tour stints with artists such as Wilco, Jenny Lewis and Lucius, and a perfectly cast performance on David Lynch’s Twin Peaks. In 2022 the band released their full-length album, One Day, and an EP, If Not For You (Bob Dylan Songs Vol. 1).

Two Runner

Two Runner is Paige Anderson and Emilie Rose. The American Roots duo from Northern California embody the hills they grew up in. Through the mediums of clawhammer banjo, flatpicking guitar, vocal harmonies, and oldtime fiddle, Two Runner puts a hip take on the Appalachian feel.

Front woman Paige Anderson grew up touring in her family bluegrass band, Anderson Family Bluegrass, starting at the age of 9. The family of six traveled for about 12 years as Anderson Family Bluegrass and later The Fearless Kin. Paige wrote her first song with Chuck Ragan at 15, which kickstarted her love for songwriting. In the last few years, Paige has spent her time creating new music, played bass for Family of the Year (2018), wrote a plethora of new songs to share, and has been discovering a new sound for herself and Two Runner.

Fiddler Emilie Rose was raised on Scottish Fiddle and fiddle camps starting at the age of 9. In her early years, she led Celtic band The String Sisters who played together for 10 years in the Sierra Nevada Foothills. Emilie has a deep understanding and love for folk music traditions.

Emilie took the fiddle out of NorCal to study at Berklee College of Music, where she graduated in 2020. In her studies, Emilie was mentored by the greats such as Bruce Molsky, Natalie Haas, and Darol Anger.

Together, Two Runner brings a rich mix to the folk music world, with their harmonies, banjo pickin’, dirt kickin’ duo.

The Trouble Notes<br>“More Violins, Less Violence” Tour

The Trouble Notes
“More Violins, Less Violence” Tour

 

BAG POLICY

Bags (max size 12″ x 6″ x 12″) are allowed and will be searched upon entry. Exceptions will be made for necessary medical equipment and bags for nursing mothers. We encourage you to pack light with only the necessities to make the entry process as smooth as possible.

PAYMENT POLICY

We are a cashless facility meaning that we are unable to accept cash as a form of payment. Our Box Office and Coat Check will only accept credit and debit. Our Bars will only accept credit, debit, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. Please note that artist merchandise sales are separate and may still accept cash.

 

The Trouble Notes’ music is an eclectic fusion of genre across the entirety of the musical spectrum, creating a sound that is truly unique to its own. – Rob Underwood, BBC Radio Lincolnshire

Sitting somewhere between world folk, modern classical, and tribal dance music, The Trouble Notes have traveled their way across continents in search of musical influences. Travel across oceans and time with the soulful melodies of Bennet’s violin and Carola’s voice as your body pulses with the explosive energy from Florian’s guitar. Worldly percussion rhythms transport the audience across genres with an uplifting spirit for which The Trouble Notes have become world-renowned.

Their new show “More Violins, Less Violence” is packed with songs from their 2nd Studio album “Liberty Awaits”. Their repertoire brings the traditions of Europe and the Americas together and carries a message of Unity in Diversity. It includes songs like “Grand Masquerade” and “Never Dream Alone” that have featured in videos amassing millions of views worldwide.

Art and music must be a force for healing in this world. Help us support children affected by Violence. 1 dollar of every ticket and 1 dollar of every More Violins, Less Violence Shirt will be donated to Save the Children’s initiative “Stop War on Children” helping children affected by violence and war crimes.

Arts Fishing Club

Arts Fishing Club

 

BAG POLICY

Bags (max size 12″ x 6″ x 12″) are allowed and will be searched upon entry. Exceptions will be made for necessary medical equipment and bags for nursing mothers. We encourage you to pack light with only the necessities to make the entry process as smooth as possible.

PAYMENT POLICY

We are a cashless facility meaning that we are unable to accept cash as a form of payment. Our Box Office and Coat Check will only accept credit and debit. Our Bars will only accept credit, debit, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. Please note that artist merchandise sales are separate and may still accept cash.

 

Arts Fishing Club

Arts Fishing Club makes their musical berth in Nashville, TN and travels primarily throughout the midwest and east coast. Their sound blends modern indie-folk (Gregory Alan Isakov, The Head and the Heart, and Jose Gonzales) with classic 90s jam bands (Dave Matthews Band, Phish, OAR) to create a unique take on acoustic rock that will make you dance one moment and search your soul the next. In addition to the above influences, AFC is often compared to Edward Sharpe and Ben Harper.

After completing a 1,600 mile 60+ show walking tour from Maine to Nashville as one of The Walking Guys (Google us!), Christopher Kessenich (guitar/vox) has been focusing on piecing together the members of Arts Fishing Club. He met Matt Siffert (bass) in spring 2016 at songwriters campfire. The two took to each others’ songwriting and began meeting to workshop songs. Then in late July, Kessenich was introduced to Peter Eddins (Keys) who landed in Nashville after completion of his Movie Scoring and Composition degree from Berkelee School of Music. The three began playing shows together and everything clicked.

Arts Fishing Club – The name?

Arts Fishing Club is an allegory to the pursuit of artistry itself.

At the end of the day, we believe all artists are just throwing out lines into some intangible sea of creativity. There are no rules in art, so no one really has any idea what they’re doing. But if you cast the right line at the right time and place, art can unlock a deeper wisdom that is hidden inside us in some way, shape, or form.
We paint, we draw, we film, we act, we write, we skate, and we play music. These are all just different lines we cast out to tap into the creative wisdom inside of us. Of course the more you fish, the “better” fisherman you become (just as the more you Art the better Art-er you become) but at the end of the day, if the fish aren’t hungry, you ain’t catching anything. Nobody can control whether the fish are biting and nobody can control Art. But we can relentlessly cast out another line with hope in our hearts and the belief that there is value in the search whether or not you come up empty handed… And that search is what we plan to do.

Fishing is about being in the boat with the people we love, exploring nature, and pursuing adventure. Landing a big catch is a consequence of relentless pursuit.
That approach to fishing is how we approach music. It’s our search to make sense of this world. To try to explain the questions we have that we cannot answer with words alone. It’s an adventure, it’s personal, it’s social, it’s frustrating, and it’s joyous, but most of all… its about being in the boat.

Homes at Night

Homes at Night — the Nashville-based pairing of songwriters Hank Compton and Aksel Coe — create alternative pop/rock anthems that blur the boundaries between genre and generation. It’s a sound that’s both nostalgic and modern, layered with organic instruments, synth-driven soundscapes, cinematic hooks, and a percussive pulse. On their debut EP, If You Were a Stranger, the bandmates blend their indie sensibilities with story-driven songcraft, nodding to their Nashville roots while simultaneously pushing far beyond them.

Jarrod Dickenson, Chris Kasper, and Electric Blue Yonder

Jarrod Dickenson, Chris Kasper, and Electric Blue Yonder

 

BAG POLICY

Bags (max size 12″ x 6″ x 12″) are allowed and will be searched upon entry. Exceptions will be made for necessary medical equipment and bags for nursing mothers. We encourage you to pack light with only the necessities to make the entry process as smooth as possible.

PAYMENT POLICY

We are a cashless facility meaning that we are unable to accept cash as a form of payment. Our Box Office and Coat Check will only accept credit and debit. Our Bars will only accept credit, debit, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. Please note that artist merchandise sales are separate and may still accept cash.

 

Jarrod Dickenson

Storytelling is something of a Texas tradition. Tall hats and even taller tales are woven into the fabric of The Lone Star State, and singer-songwriter Jarrod Dickenson can spin a yarn with the best of them. Hailing from Waco, now based in Nashville via Brooklyn, Dickenson spends most of his time on the road bringing his own particular brand of soulful Americana to a wide variety of music loving audiences around the globe.

“His songs carry an independent spirit and grit… a hard-bitten, yet romantic eye that seems bred into Lone Star Songwriters” -Q Magazine

“Jarrod Dickenson’s rootsy, broad-ranged Americana draws deeply from tradition while forging all-new sounds.” – PopMatters

“His deep, emotional, often luxurious voice envelops songs of love and loss, enticing you into these stories.” – American Songwriter

Chris Kasper

Chris Kasper’s newest record, Holysmoke, is a treasure chest unto itself. It’s got groove, guts & grace, and is worth its weight in gold. The patchwork of genres that Kasper effortlessly weaves together reveals an even deeper dive into varied influences from rock n’ roll and dreamy pop, to junkyard blues and country-folk.

And it all began by the ocean.

In a rented seaside motel, Kasper recalls, “There were these three clocks in the room, all ticking out of time. Before it drove me mad and I had to take out all the batteries, there was a rhythm & a beat that became the base for a melody which I later wrote lyrics for.” Others were poems-turned-songs. Some tunes came by way of Nashville dive bars, and more arose in a camper van traveling across West Texas. He eventually made it back to a countryside home outside of Philadelphia and started on production.

Holysmoke has been a long time coming. Although complete, the whole world took a pause during the pandemic, and so it was kept at a low simmer for the sake of the song. It completes a trilogy, of sorts, with previous releases Bagabones (2012), and O, The Fool (2016). As the final star in a constellation that’s bound by lyrical prowess, deep-rooted rhythms, and artful arrangements of strings and melodies, this album shines bright.

If we’re living in the land of milk & honey, Chris Kasper’s music is an island of coffee & weed! And at a moment when fresh, timeless art is needed more than ever, his work fills the cup & soothes the soul.

Electric Blue Yonder

A traveling troupe of intrepid space folk explorers, Electric Blue Yonder (EBY) examines the mysteries of the universe and reports their findings through song. Described as “Real American Space Folk,” the band draws its inspiration from the psychedelic folk, surf, and cosmic country rock of the 60s and the Space Age prog/art rock explorations of David Bowie and Pink Floyd, all while shifting time to the early roots and parlour style guitar of the 20th century. The result is a genre-bending mix that captures a nostalgic familiarity while simultaneously transporting you into uncharted territory.

“…a meditative mashup of trippy folk-rock psychedelia, cut with a raw, Alabama flavor befitting their roots. Captivating harmony vocals and skilled, almost Nick Drake-like guitar fills complete the picture.” – Steve Morse, longtime Boston Globe staff music writer who now teaches Rock History at Berklee College of Music

The band includes founders Beth and Johnny Veres, who provide vocals and guitar, and Russell Thomas Bush on bass, with an expanding cast of talented musicians based on production scale. Beth met Johnny while back home for a summer between college and grad school and began playing in a reincarnated version of HellaKopta of Love (HOL), a progressive rock instrumental band from his days at Auburn University. They started writing songs inspired by roots music and harmony-driven vocals that outgrew the youthful experimentalism of HOL and retired from public performance for several years to incubate their newfound passion. In December 2015, Beth and Johnny were married. By the spring of 2016, they began performing as Blue Yonder, working on orchestral arrangements for their songs. In early 2017, Johnny asked Russell Thomas Bush, a friend and former band mate of Beth from her Tuscaloosa days playing in the band Squirrelhouse, to join them. Shortly after, they recorded their first EP, Born of the Sky, in their historic home with the help of Technical Earth Recorder’s Robert Shimp. After Colorado and East coast runs touring the EP, Blue Yonder added “Electric” to their name for the filming of an episode of the Zimmern List at Saw’s Juke Joint in 2018, augmenting their sound with vital vibrations.

“The emphasis is on the song,” adds Johnny. “It’s a collective thing to create this music. We record with talented musicians in our community. We take traditional forms and use those as a springboard to explore new musical territory, to examine the condition of our times from a critical distance and how our lives interconnect.”

EBY debuted Between Space and Time (B/TST) on February 29, 2020, just two weeks before the pandemic shutdowns. As an anthology, B/TST includes some of their earliest works interspersed with the ‘vital vibrations’ of what’s to come, thematically centered on the relationships between people as they bump and collide through the Large Hadron Collider of Life. Their songwriting shines through with earnest lyrics and a powerful delivery through their unique harmonies. Ranging from the weird country of “Brand New Day” and traces of gypsy jazz in “Actions” to the sonically dark musings on mortality in “Epitaph” and the grooving portrait of cosmic love on “Your Light”, the songs of Between Space and Time shine like the stars of a newly, emerging constellation. At the core of the album, the band hits their stride with laid-back rocker “Schtick Shift”, the spacious, Grateful Dead-esque “Bluster”, and the boot-stomping storm of “Thunder Train.”

“We wanted to make timeless music that future generations will seek out,” said Beth about the band, describing their style as Space Folk. “We try to be genuine in our approach to songwriting and lyrics.”

“EBY is a diamond-bright exploration of rock’s past, present and hopeful future. As saviors of the genre go, they make a powerful argument that theirs is one of the few revolutions left worth signing up for…” – Blue Sullivan of Slant Magazine.