March 2025

The Bow Tides is a powerhouse Celtic ensemble led by three Irish fiddlers: Ellery Klein, Jessie Burns and champion Irish dancer Katie Grennan. These dynamic women are veterans of the stage and studio, with a collective 16 years as the fiddlers with the Irish-American supergroup Gaelic Storm. Holding down the low end in the group are Grammy-nominated bassist Eric Thorin and guitarist/singer Jeff Lindblade.

The Bow Tides celebrate community and collaboration, delivering uplifting, unique Celtic music that evokes joy. Formed in 2020, the group was commissioned to produce online concerts for Spanish Peaks Irish Festival and Pittsburgh Irish Festival. Garnering rave reviews, and just one year later, they hit the main stage at Pittsburgh Irish Festival, debuting their stunning original compositions, rich harmonies and driving traditional tunes, songs and Irish dance arranged for three fiddles, guitar and double bass.

In 2023, they released their debut album Sailing On, packed full of gorgeous original compositions as well as a breadth of uniquely arranged traditional tunes from Ireland, Scotland and Galicia. 2024 has seen the Bow Tides headlining at festivals across the United States, including the nation's largest: Milwaukee Irish Festival.

Cosmic Charlie was born in the musical Mecca of Athens, Georgia. From its summer 1999 inception, the band swiftly cemented its reputation as a band that puts a unique and personal twist on the Grateful Dead catalogue. Cosmic Charlie is a Dead cover band for folks that are ambivalent about Dead cover bands.

Rather than mimicking the Dead exactly, Cosmic Charlie chooses to tap into the Dead's energy and style as a foundation on which to build. The result is healthy balance of creativity and tradition, where both the band and its audience are taken to that familiar edge with the sense that, music is actually being MADE here tonight.

Moving and shaking even the most skeptical of Deadheads, Cosmic Charlie storms into a town and plays with an energy that eludes other bands, an energy that sometimes eluded the Dead themselves. Those precious moments during Dead jams when the synchronicity is there and all is right with the world - these are the moments that Cosmic Charlie relishes and feverishly welcomes with open arms. Clearly, Cosmic Charlie's audiences are also eager to partake in these moments, and together with the band, they have indulged in many memorable evenings.

Most nights, Cosmic Charlie walks onstage without a setlist, not even knowing what the first song will be. Any Dead tune can rear its head at any moment, and fan requests are always welcome. "INSPIRATON, MOVE ME BRIGHTLY" is Cosmic Charlie's mantra, allowing the music to truly play the band.

"The last ten years have been a rollercoaster of deep despair and amazing opportunities that somehow present themselves at the last possible second," says Eef Barzelay. "That this record even exists, as far as I'm concerned, is a genuine miracle."

Indeed, the road to 'Forever Just Beyond,' Barzelay's stunning new album under the Clem Snide moniker, was an unlikely one, to say the least. Produced by Scott Avett of The Avett Brothers, the record is a work of exquisite beauty and profound questioning, a reckoning with faith and reality that rushes headlong into the unknown and the unknowable. The songs here grapple with hope and depression, identity and perception, God and the afterlife, all captured through Barzelay's uniquely off-kilter lens and rendered with an intimate, understated air that suggests the tender comfort of a late-night conversation between old friends. Avett's production is similarly warm and inviting, and the careful, spacious arrangement of gentle guitars and spare percussion carves a wide path for Barzelay's insightful lyrics and idiosyncratic delivery. Listening to the album now, Avett and Barzelay sound like an obvious pairing, but the truth is that there was nothing obvious about the survival of Clem Snide, and the series of cosmic coincidences that led to 'Forever Just Beyond' remains inexplicable even to Barzelay himself.

"About ten years ago, everything just seemed to fall apart," he explains. "The band bottomed out, I lost my house, and I had to declare bankruptcy. That started this process of ego death for me, where I realized the only way to survive would be to transcend myself and to try to find some kind of deeper, spiritual relationship with life and with being. Once I committed myself to that, miraculous things started to happen."

Some miracles were financial (a superfan in Spain, for instance, sent Barzelay an unsolicited thank-you-for-the-music donation that covered the exact amount he desperately owed his bankruptcy lawyer); other miracles were more intangible. Roughly four or five years ago, as Barzelay struggled with how and if to carry on, a fan sent him a video of Scott Avett singing a Clem Snide song in front of a massive audience. Shortly after that, another fan sent an interview in which Avett raved about Clem Snide's music. It seemed like a sign from the universe.

"I had just hit this low point where I realized I couldn't do it alone anymore," says Barzelay. "I passed along a little message and a new song I wrote to The Avett Brothers' manager, and Scott wrote me right back to say what a fan he was."

Avett was far from alone in his love for Clem Snide. Named for a William S. Borroughs character, the project first emerged from Boston as a three-piece in the early 1990's and would go on to become a cult and critical favorite, picking up high profile fans from Bon Iver to Ben Folds over the course of three decades and more than a dozen albums. NPR highlighted the Israeli-born Barzelay as "the most underrated songwriter in the business today, with a sneakily firm grasp on poignancy and humor," while Rolling Stone hailed his songwriting as "soulful and incisive," and The New Yorker praised the music's "soothing melodies and candid wit." Avett came to the music late, only discovering it in 2016, but he fell hard, saying in an interview, "With Clem Snide's songs, I feel like there is a voice that I understand very well... It just ignited my own writing. Which is the best flattery for me, that I listen to something and next thing I know I'm at the piano."

If Barzelay's music pushed Avett to write more, the feeling was certainly mutual. Avett's interest in producing the next Clem Snide record was like a shot of adrenaline, and Barzelay quickly found himself deep in the writing process, with a slew of new songs he'd written both on his own and remotely with Avett.

"Scott offered so much encouragement to keep the faith with my career and write these songs," says Barzelay, who trades off lead vocal duties with Avett throughout the album. "He and I come from very different backgrounds, but we both wrestle with the same things in our music, so there was this unspoken connection between us from the very beginning."

"I look up to Eef with total respect and admiration," adds Avett, "and I hope to survive like he survives: with total love for the new and the unknown. Eef's a crooner and an indie darling by sound and a mystic sage by depth. That's not common, but it's beautiful."

Rather than head into a traditional studio, the two decided to record the guts of the album on Avett's farm in North Carolina, where they converted Scott's painting space into a makeshift recording setup. They sourced a core band that included bassist Bill Reynolds (Band of Horses, Lissie) and drummer Mike Marsh (The Avett Brothers, Dashboard Confessional), and worked raw and loose to cut basic tracks live. Next, Barzelay headed to his adopted hometown of Nashville, TN, where he finished vocals and guitars and layered up additional parts from guests like Old Crow Medicine Show fiddler Ketch Secor and Avett Brothers cellist Joe Kwon. In the end, it was four long years between Avett and Barzelay's initial introduction and the completion of the album, but those lean times provided the fodder for some of Barzelay's strongest, most thought provoking writing to date.

"The line between desperation and inspiration has always been quite thin for me," says Barzelay. "You don't have to suffer to be an artist, but I think there's got to be some heat on you, because the ultimate goal is always to turn sorrow into grace."

That emotional alchemy is a defining characteristic of the record, which opens with the haunting "Roger Ebert." Joined by Avett on harmonies, Barzelay spins the famed film critic's final words into a gorgeous meditation on the mysteries of life and death on the track, which, like much of the album, seeks comfort in the acceptance of the inevitable. The breezy "Don't Bring No Ladder" aims to shed the material trappings of the corporeal world, while the dreamy title track learns to find gratitude even in suffering, and "The Stuff Of Us" contemplates the infinite power of the unseen.

"All this flesh and blood, that's not the realest part of us," says Barzelay. "The real stuff is eternal and free. They say that 95% of the universe is held together by dark matter that we can't see and we can't measure, but we know it's got to be there, and if that's not a metaphor, than I don't know what is."

While much of the album tackles these big picture ideas, Barzelay's strength as a writer has always been in his specificity, and he manages to humanize thorny existential issues on the record with a novelist's deft touch. The bare bones "Emily" comes to terms with the fact that the only mind you can ever truly change is your own, while "The Ballad Of Eef Barzelay" offers a philosophical take on suicide and redemption, and the cinematic "Easy" considers the necessity of delusion to our survival.

"Everybody has their own reality," says Barzelay. "We're all just seeing the world through these little keyholes, but maybe that's all our eyes can take."

With 'Forever Just Beyond,' Barzelay opens his eyes just a little bit wider, and in the process, manages to show us a world beyond the world we know. And that? That's a genuine miracle.

Sunny Sweeney, a genre-bending, songwriting spitfire who has spent equal time in the rich musical traditions of Texas and Tennessee, returns with Married Alone, the celebrated singer-songwriter's fifth studio album and the follow-up to 2017's critically acclaimed Trophy. Co-produced by beloved Texas musician and larger-than-life personality Paul Cauthen and the Texas Gentlemen's multi-hyphenate Beau Bedford, Married Alone is Sweeney's finest work yet, bringing together confessional songwriting, image-rich narratives and no shortage of sonic surprises for a loosely conceptual album about loss and healing.

Married Alone began as most of Sweeney's projects do: with a visit to her deep vault of unreleased songs. Since debuting with Heartbreaker's Hall of Fame in 2006, Sweeney has been a prolific writer, writing whatever is on her heart rather than with a particular project in mind. That habit afforded her a rich well of material for Married Alone, some of which is over a decade old.

"I have a lot of older songs that still make the cut of like, 'Am I gonna put this on a record?' And I always start with those songs, songs that have been important to me for whatever reason. And then I try to build around that. It doesn't necessarily have to be around a theme, but sometimes it turns out to be that there is one."

Opener "Tie Me Up" declares that, despite its loose theme, Married Alone is not a somber record, with Sweeney in full spitfire mode and cheekily declaring to a would-be suitor, "You can tie me up, but baby you can't tie me down." Cauthen's and Bedford's production especially shines on the track, which would sound at home at a roadside juke joint or in front of thousands of fans at a festival.

Cauthen joins Sweeney on "A Song Can't Fix Everything," one of the album's rawer moments. "That song can't bring my mother back to life," Sweeney sings at the song's start, before recounting the many ways that music may be able to transport us to the past but can never fix it. "Want You to Miss Me" is an honest take on the complexities of a difficult breakup, with Sweeney's nimble vocal wavering between defiance and doubt. "Easy as Hello" is Sweeney's writing at its finest, channeling the heartache that comes with the end of a treasured relationship, for a track that recalls -- vocally and lyrically -- the work of Stevie Nicks.

"Someday You'll Call My Name" reads as a break-up kiss-off -- and it's a great one, at that -- but the song, pulled from Sweeney's vault, was originally inspired by her early days as a musician, longing to be recognized by major country institutions like the Grand Ole Opry. She and co-writer Brennen Leigh reworked their 10-year-old version of the track to better fit Married Alone, and that session helped set the tone for what would become the full album.

The full potential of the album really revealed itself, though, when a friend sent Sweeney a demo of what would become its title track, "Married Alone." Though she wasn't a co-writer on the track, Sweeney felt her own story reflected in its lyrics. The song, which features a particularly emotional guest vocal from living country legend Vince Gill, charts the painful moments sometimes experienced in marriages that have run their course.

"There may be rings on our fingers, but we're married alone," she and Gill sing, over weeping pedal steel and reverbed guitar.

"My jaw hit the floor when I heard that song, because I had just gone through my second divorce, which is also cliche of a country singer," Sweeney says, with a laugh. "I was still pretty raw about my divorce, but also very candid and trying to find levity in the situation. You have to be able to laugh at yourself at some point and not let it just totally get you down."

A few months after securing the song and mining her own vault for a track list, Sweeney traveled to Dallas, TX, to record -- alongside Cauthen and Bedford -- what would become Married Alone.

Sweeney and team planned for Jeff Saenz to mix the album, but in the summer of 2021 -- a few days before mixing would start -- the widely loved, Dallas-based producer was electrocuted in a freak accident that left him without use of his arms. The group put the album on hold until they had word Saenz would pull through. While Sweeney was anxious to get her new music out, Saenz's accident shifted her priorities.

"Jeff lost his arms," she says. "His arms. Jeff's never going to hold his fianc�e's hand again, never going to hold his baby again. I had a major, major turning point with his accident, personally, as did most of our friends that know him."

About eight months later, Bedford had a surprise for Sweeney. When she arrived at the studio for one of their final mixing sessions, Bedford had brought Saenz along. Saenz was able to help the group finish up the album, a full-circle moment that was especially emotional for Sweeney.

"It was exactly how it should have been," she says. "And it was really, really emotional. Jeff definitely is a part of this album; I really wanted him to be a part of the album. And Beau knew that. So, Beau went and he made that happen."

In addition to releasing Married Alone, Sweeney is marking a new chapter in her professional life with a brand-new team by her side, most of whom are women. While it wasn't a conscious choice, Sweeney says, she feels like she's surrounded by the right group of people, who just happen to be "badass women."

Like the narrator of "Someday You'll Call My Name," Sweeney is not the kind of artist you come across then forget. With Married Alone, she further cements her status as one of country music's finest storytellers.

"They say things have to get worse before they can get better," Eilen Jewell reflects. "And for a while there, everything got worse."

Indeed, in the span of just a few months, Jewell watched as her marriage, her band, and what felt like her entire career fell apart in a series of spectacular, heartbreaking implosions. By the time the dust had finally settled, the critically acclaimed singer and songwriter was grieving and shocked, living in a remote cabin in the mountains and unsure if she'd ever get to make music again.

"Up to that point, I'd just been going with the flow and letting outside forces dictate the path of my life," Jewell explains. "Losing so much so fast forced me to figure out what really mattered. It made me realize that I've only got this one life, and I'd better get behind the wheel if I want to make the most of it."

With Get Behind The Wheel, her ninth studio album, Jewell does precisely that, planting herself firmly in the driver's seat as she picks up the pieces and finds new purpose and meaning in the process. Co-produced by multi-instrumental wizard Will Kimbrough (Todd Snider, Hayes Carll), the collection pushes Jewell's trademark blend of vintage roots-noir into more psychedelic territory, with spacious, cinematic arrangements complementing her revelatory explorations of grief, loss, resilience, and redemption. The band's performances are truly electrifying here, blending elements of early rock and rockabilly with old school country and soul, and Jewell's delivery is timeless to match, her voice effortlessly moving from unguarded intimacy to icy cool and back, sometimes within the very same song. The result is Jewell's boldest album yet, a powerful work of artistic alchemy that transforms heartache into genuine creative rebirth.

"I never wanted to make something that just wallowed in its misery because that's not what I got from this whole experience," Jewell says. "I'd be lying if I said it wasn't tough, but I survived and I've come out so much stronger and more in tune with myself, and that's the journey I wanted to capture in these songs."

Hailed as "one of America's most intriguing, creative, and idiosyncratic voices" by American Songwriter, Jewell built her career the old fashioned way, touring relentlessly with the kind of undeniable live show that converts the uninitiated into instant acolytes. Over the course of nearly two decades on the road, the Idaho native has crisscrossed the US, Europe, and Australia countless times, playing an endless series of headline and festival dates in addition to sharing bills with the likes of Lucinda Williams, Loretta Lynn, Mavis Staples, Wanda Jackson, George Jones, Emmylou Harris, and The Blind Boys of Alabama. Rolling Stone lauded Jewell's "clever writing," while NPR declared that she has a "sweet and clear voice with a killer instinct lurking beneath the shiny surface," and The Washington Post mused that "if Neko Case, Madeleine Peyroux and Billie Holiday had a baby girl who grew up to front a rockabilly band, she'd probably sound a lot like Eilen Jewell."

"From the outside, I'm sure everything looked very fun and exciting," Jewell reflects, "but somewhere along the way I started to feel like I was stuck in a life that wasn't my own, and I started drinking too much to escape all the stress."

By the time the COVID-19 pandemic brought touring and recording to a grinding halt, things were nearing a breaking point at home, and Jewell and her husband of roughly a decade decided to call it quits.

"My husband was also my drummer and my manager," Jewell explains, "so in one fell swoop, it felt like I'd lost everything."

The untimely deaths of several close friends and family members followed shortly after, and Jewell soon found herself in the midst of a painful period of transition and self-examination. She left her home in Boise for a small cabin in the Idaho mountains, where she dove deep into meditation. She went for long hikes in the wilderness to stave off the constant threat of panic attacks, and she began experimenting with psychedelics in a search for clarity amidst the chaos.

"When I'm going through something big, I just instinctively start writing," says Jewell, who began documenting her journey through lyrics and melodies. "I didn't think I'd get to make another record, but I needed to write anyway just for the catharsis of it."

The songs proved to be some of the finest, most arresting and emotionally nuanced writing of Jewell's careers so far. Her ex-husband agreed

"He really loved the songs, too," Jewell explains, "and he ultimately decided to stay with the band and come back on as my manager. We've always worked well together, and we co-parent really well, too, so when it was time to record, I think we were all just excited to get back to something that felt like normal."

That excitement is palpable on Get Behind The Wheel, which opens with the slow-burning "Alive." Raw and brooding, the track builds from a whisper to a gritty roar as it revels in the crucible-like quality of complete reinvention. "You gotta get behind the wheel / You gotta drive," Jewell sings over blistering guitars. "Baby how you feel? / I feel so alive." Like much of the album, the song grapples with a complicated swirl: longing, sadness, freedom, and fierce determination all churn just beneath the surface. The searing "Lethal Love" reckons with the dark side of romance, while the bittersweet "You Were A Friend Of Mine" contemplates loss and regret, and the soulful "Come Home Soon" finds new faith in the power of human connection.

"I used to think I was a natural hermit," Jewell reflects, "but I had some really profound experiences with complete strangers over the past few years that made me realize how important the bonds we share with other people are. We're all social creatures just trying to find home, and we need each other for that."

Such revelations help keep the album from ever drifting too far into despair. The playful "Winnemucca," for instance, embraces an openhearted joy. The instant classic "Crooked River" finds fervent hope in the possibility of a fresh start. The dreamy "Silver Wheels and Wings" sheds the trappings of the self to find buried spiritual treasure.

"I recently got engaged to someone I've known since I was a kid," Jewell says, "and I think that's a big part of the joyful element in this record. Sure, there's a lot of heaviness and loss here, but there's also a lot of hope and love and redemption, too. There's a phoenix rising from the ashes."

Things had to get worse before they could get better, and for Eilen Jewell, the best, it seems, is still to come.

Brant Bjork has spent over a quarter-century at the epicenter of underground rock & roll. A founding member and composer of the legendary desert band Kyuss, as well as propelling the seminal fuzz of fellow Stoner rockers Fu Manchu from 1994-2000. Over the last 30 years Brant Bjork has embarked on his solo career as a singer, guitarist, composer and bandleader, founding his own record label and more, his history is a winding narrative of relentless, unflinching creativity.

Brant Bjork is a founding pioneer of the Stoner Rock / Desert Rock music scenes.

In 2024 the Brant Bjork Trio featuring old friend and influential desert rock pioneer Mario Lalli (Yawning Man, Fatso Jetson, Desert Sessions) on bass guitar and Brant Bjork band alumni Ryan Güt on drums.

The band will release a breakout full length LP on Brant Bjork's newly relaunched DUNA RECORDS distributed by COBRASIDE DISTRIBUTION (USA).

The new release titled "Once upon a time in the desert" is the result of a long collaborative friendship between Bjork, Lalli and Güt. The power trio recording the tracks at Donner & Blitzen studios in Southern California with another 20 plus year collaborator Mathias Shneeberger.

Mathias has recorded and engineered many of the classic desert rock albums over the years.

The music this band creates together is a heavy fluid groove, organic, honest desert rock & roll. The very elements of the genre were created by these veteran independent musicians. This record expresses the principles of those styles.

Socks in the Frying Pan, a multi-award-winning trio from Ennis, County Clare, Ireland--the mecca of Irish traditional music--was formed in 2014. Forged together by a fire of pure joy and passion for their art, the band comprises Aodan Coyne on guitar and lead vocals, Shane Hayes on accordion, and younger brother Fiachra Hayes on fiddle.

Their 'Socks Sound' combines virtuosic musicianship with a burning passion for the music and tradition, pitch-perfect harmonies, and a big splash of quick wit and banter. Their electrifying performances and on-stage charm have established them as the kingpins on the Irish Traditional Music scene today.

They have toured extensively, capturing hearts in 46 US states, dozens of countries, and every continent, showcasing at renowned festivals such as the Walnut Valley Festival in Kansas, Electric Picnic in Ireland, Tønder Festival in Denmark, and the world-famous New Orleans Jazz Festival.

To date, Socks in the Frying Pan have released three studio albums, each adding to their list of accolades including 'Best New Band', 'Best Live Band', 'Album of the Year', and 'Best Live Performance of the Year'. Their latest release, Raw & Ríl, recorded live at Glór Theatre, was immediately awarded 'Best Live Album'.

Karan Casey has long been recognized as one of the most innovative, provocative and imitated voices in Irish traditional and folk music. Singing songs charged with a sense of social responsibility in a career spanning over 25 years, Karan has released 7 solo albums as well as an album for children, a duet album with John Doyle and numerous contributions to other artists' projects. She has toured extensively throughout North America, Europe and Japan, performing with her own band as well as collaborating with numerous diverse musicians. In 2017, Karan was Traditional Artist in Residence at University College Cork, toured the UK with the Transatlantic Sessions, performed at Glasgow's Celtic Connections, and toured in the US both with her own band and with Lúnasa, including a performance at New York's Carnegie Hall. In 2018 Karan helped found FairPlé, an organization aimed at achieving fairness and gender balance for female performers in Irish traditional and folk music. Currently she is recording and touring as a trio with her Irish bandmates, Niamh Dunne (fiddle and back vocals) and Seán Óg Graham (guitar and back vocals). Karan has recently performed her new show with Director Sophie Motley called I Walked into My Head which premiered at the Kilkenny Arts Festival 2021. Karan is currently touring a stage show about women in the Irish revolutionary period, premiered at the Everyman Theatre in Cork in 2023. Karan's new album "Nine Apples of Gold" was released in February 2023 to great acclaim, holding the number one spot on the International Folk Charts for all of March 2023, with 8 of the songs from the album in the top 20 spots.

Ike Reilly is a punk-poet-troubadour and the leader of the ferocious musical outfit The Ike Reilly Assassination. The former doorman and gravedigger hailing from the seemingly idyllic town of Libertyville, Illinois is the subject of the award-winning documentary Don't Turn Your Back On Friday Night. The film, from Executive Producer Tom Morello, chronicles the songs, career and proverbial life of Reilly. Like the subject matter of his music, the film deals with booze, drugs, religion, family, financial calamity and culls over 30 years of footage to reveal a complicated and formidable artist in his pursuit of both greatness and authenticity. The film is both profound and personal.

Since his 2001 major label debut, Salesmen and Racists, Reilly has been creating rebellious punk/folk/country/blues-influenced rock 'n' roll records that are both poetic and cinematic. He's written songs for and collaborated with artists like Johnny Hickman and David Lowery of the band Cracker, Shooter Jennings and Tom Morello. Critical praise for his work has been plentiful. David Carr of the New York Times said, "Ike Reilly is a kind of natural resource mined from the bedrock of music, all the values that make Rock important to people-storytelling, melody, rage, laughter are part and parcel of every Ike Reilly show I've ever seen." The Washington Post called The Ike Reilly Assassination one of the best live bands in America and author Stephen King recently said "Ike Reilly is the Rock God not enough people have heard of."

The Ike Reilly Assassination will be heading out on their AMERICAN STEAL TOUR this February and Don't Turn Your Back On Friday Night is now streaming on APPLE TV, AMAZON PRIME, YOUTUBE and all major streaming platforms. bit.ly/4hoOMAr

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The Revenirs are a Berwyn-based Chicagoland Alt-Country band reminiscent of Lucero, 16 Horsepower, Centro-matic and the Drive By Truckers.

The Revenirs sound revolves around singer/songwriter Daniel Rey's tales of "sorrow and solitude" and features Dennis Kardys on lead guitar and Dean Radzik on drums--both alums of Chicagoland alt-country darlings, "The Dirty Green"-- alongside former "The Soup" (Denton TX) bassist, "Dodgy Mary" (Chicago) vocalist and Lone Star Native "Catfish" Willy Hudson on bass.

"Daniel Rey" began as the solo Alt-country, side-project of singer/songwriter Dejan Kralj (day-on kraal), who has spent the last three and a half decades as the bass guitarist and one of the primary songwriters for Milwaukee's reclusive alternative-rock band, The Gufs. The former Atlantic Recording/EMI Publishing Artist and 2012 Wisconsin Area Music Industry Hall of Fame Inductee is a life-time resident of the Midwest, Rey (the Spanish translation of Kralj) and divides his time between his current home in the Veltway community of Berwyn on Chicago's near-westside and a small farm in Southeastern Indiana, which has been the source of his alt-folk/alt-country musings over the last twenty-five years.

Daniel Rey has been performing throughout the Midwest since 2018 and released his debut LP "Living Low" on Milwaukee's Red Submarine Records in 2020. Daniel Rey & the Revenirs are currently working on Rey's follow-up and the band's debut LP "Too Busy Dying" for release later this year.

Ain't That America is the nation's most elaborate and accurate John Mellencamp tribute experience. The band will take you on a journey through all the timeless hits as well as provide history and insights into John Mellencamp's career, from "Cougar" to Mellencamp. Audiences are encouraged to "R.O.C.K. (in the USA)" along with all the hits including "Jack and Diane," "Hurts So Good," "Pink Houses," "Cherry Bomb," and many others for a "Wild Night" that they won't forget!

Born in 1953 in Detroit, Michigan, Marshall Crenshaw learned to tune a guitar correctly at age ten and has been trying ever since. His first big break came in 1978 playing John Lennon in "Beatlemania", first as an understudy in New York, then in the West Coast company followed by a national touring company. Removing himself from that situation in Feb. 1980, Marshall settled in New York City. After crossing paths with the great and legendary Alan Betrock, Marshall recorded his debut single "Something's Gonna Happen" (for Betrock's Shake Records label), which led to a deal with Warner Bros. His debut album, Marshall Crenshaw, was acclaimed as a masterpiece upon its release in 1982 and established him as a singular songwriter, record maker, and guitarist. The album spawned the hit single "Someday, Someway," and other classics such as "(You're My) Favorite Waste of Time," "Whenever You're On My Mind" and "Cynical Girl."

Over the course of a career that's spanned three decades, 13 albums, Grammy and Golden Globe nominations, film and TV appearances (Buddy Holly in "La Bamba") and thousands of performances, Marshall Crenshaw's musical output has maintained a consistent fidelity to the qualities of artfulness, craftsmanship and passion, and his efforts have been rewarded with the devotion of a broad and remarkably loyal fan base.

Along with touring around the country and the occasional recording project, Marshall currently hosts his own radio show, "The Bottomless Pit", every Saturday at 10 PM on New York's WFUV. Other current projects include a documentary film-in progress about legendary record producer Tom Wilson. Says Crenshaw, "This is a road that I never imagined taking before, but it's been amazing and is going great.."

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A soulful vocalist and innovative multi-instrumentalist, NYC singer/songwriter and producer Rachael Sage has earned a loyal following for her dynamic piano playing, delicate guitar work, and improvisational audience interaction.

Sage has shared stages with Beth Hart, Howard Jones, A Great Big World, Judy Collins, Shawn Colvin, Marc Cohn, Jamie Cullum, The Animals and Ani DiFranco. She has performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and received numerous songwriting awards including The John Lennon Songwriting Contest (Grand Prize) and six Independent Music Awards. Her songs have appeared on MTV, HBO, and the "Fame" soundtrack, among others.

Sage's 2020 album Character yielded the Billboard-charting single "Blue Sky Days"; her side project Poetica, an adventurous fusion of poetry with jazz, Americana, and classical musical elements in the vein of Leonard Cohen and Laurie Anderson, debuted in October 2021. Her latest full-length album, The Other Side and its companion album of acoustic reimaginings, Another Side are both out now on MPress/Universal/Virgin.

Sonny Landreth and Cindy Cashdollar are making some rare duo appearances in 2022 and 2023. The Louisiana slide guitar wizard's trademark bottle-neck chops and Cashdollar's dobro and steel string talents culminate in world renowned showcases of guitar virtuosity.

Revered for his unique slide guitar technique, Sonny Landreth has collaborated with many legendary performers including John Hiatt, Jimmy Buffett, Mark Knopfler and Eric Clapton. Summer of 2013, Sonny was part of the Peter Frampton led Guitar Circus tour, often closing the night playing with Frampton on an extended "While My Guitar Gently Weeps."

Cindy Cashdollar's expertise is in great demand on both steel guitar and dobro. She has worked with many leading artists in various genres including Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Rod Stewart and Ryan Adams. With the iconic western swing group Asleep At The Wheel, she garnered 5 Grammy awards and was the first woman to be inducted into the Texas Steel Guitar Hall of Fame in 2011.

Performing a mix of original songs with contemporary and traditional blues and roots music, the show is electric, virtuosic, and tastefully delivered by these two great instrumental masters.

Grammy nominee Shannon McNally's live music career began on the jam band circuit of the 1990s with bands like Derek Trucks and Railroad Earth. Since then, her catalog has grown to span the whole of the Americana music spectrum, both writing original songs as well as interpreting the songs of others. She brings a soul-stirring musicality to her craft. Her honest and, at times, elegant voice immediately grabs one by the heartstrings. Not to mention as it turns out, she is also an exceptional electric guitar player.

McNally has fourteen albums to her name and a string of single self-releases on her personal label, Queen Maeve Records. Her latest album, "Live At Dee's," is a career retrospective song list captured over four nights in September of 2022 with a revolving band of Nashville musicians. Showcasing McNally's wonderful storytelling and sense of wry humor, the 18-song disc captures her at her most relaxed in her natural habitat of neighborhood Honky Tonk.

For those who have followed McNally's twenty-plus-year career, the thing that sticks with listeners the most about her is the timeless effortlessness she brings to all she does. With an impressive catalog and extensive list of collaborators with whom she has written, recorded, and toured; McNally continues to turn out great music across wide-flung ends of the spectrum, defying genre-fication. At home on any stage, from Lincoln Center to the juke joints of Mississippi--she always brings the house down.

Seaside Zoo is a Madison, Wisconsin based tribute to the Grateful Dead started in 2018.

Dustin Sims is a nationally touring stand-up comedian from Oxford, Alabama, known for his razor-sharp storytelling and unmistakable Southern charm.

With viral Snapchat videos and his hit series Talking to Myself, Dustin has built a massive online following of over a million fans. His raw, unfiltered comedy--rooted in his own wildly bizarre life experiences--has made him one of the most sought-after social media personalities in the country.

His internet fame has seamlessly translated to the stage, selling out venues nationwide on multiple comedy tours. Since 2021, he's performed in over 100 cities, leaving audiences in stitches with his one-of-a-kind take on everyday chaos.

Whether online or on stage, Dustin Sims delivers non-stop laughs that keep fans coming back for more.

Grammy winner Mike Farris is an artist's artist, a musician's musician, celebrated and revered by his fellow performers. It's no wonder. He's the one who brings everything to his music and to every live performance, every time.

Mike is a Grammy, Americana and Dove Music Award winner with multiple solo recordings, including his last full length release; "Silver and Stone." His iconic personal appearances include the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame concert honoring Aretha Franklin.

He was featured on Patty Griffin's Grammy-winning "Downtown Church," and appeared with Griffin on Austin City Limits. He shared the stage with Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Double Trouble on the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame special and made his Grand Ole Opry debut in 2018.

Mike is also the frontman of the mainstream rock group The Screamin' Cheetah Wheelies, who launched onto the scene in the 90's with a major label release. They quickly became darlings of the critics and fans alike due in part to the extraordinary and controlled chaos of their lead singer's live vocal performances and stage charisma.

An amalgamation of the spiritual and the earthly, of gospel and rock 'n' roll, of faith and fire, Mike Farris will bring what Rolling Stone Country describes as a "supersized voice filled with the electricity of Saturday night and the godly grace of Sunday mornings."

Biting, genuine, thoughtful, playful, joyful, and sincere, Nashville's New Translations embrace contradictions and exist to confound. A band that captures the dizzy surreality of being alive in confusing times. After a series of singles and EPs like 2023's "The Business", New Translations singer Oliver Pierce, multi-instrumentalists Isaac Middleton and Andrés Ahogado, bassist and producer Ben Dunn, and drummer Philip Walker have settled into a new era that finds them doubling down on their complexities, while writing some of their most vulnerable songs to date.

With their debut album "VACATION", the band invites listeners to join them on a trip through 11 tracks, jetting from moments of lovelorn 21st century new wave, to bold, emotionally charged pop. "Love Bombb" features a loose delay-drenched guitar washing over head-nodding drums. A glitchy beat set "who i am tonight" in motion while the glassy "TV at Home" tempers organic instrumentation with warm electronics.

They paved the way for the album with "Coldest Century" and past singles "Post Hang", "Voided Velvet (feat. Michigander)", "Vacation", "Sally" and "Rat People".

With their new music, the members of New Translations stand confident in their role as boundary pushers and leaders of a non-country music vanguard in Nashville. Their mission remains: "I want us to find the outsiders and create a community that celebrates the strange," Pierce says.

Hailing from both the Appalachian and Piedmont regions of North Carolina, the Rangers have long held traditional bluegrass paramount, while possessing an exceptional ability to bring it down the mountain, and to incorporate accessible influence from all walks of the region. With the band's last few albums, they have gained recognition from well beyond the world of bluegrass, earning a reputation as some of the most influential songwriters in Americana today.

Newcomer to this ship, Aaron Burdett, brings a soul-stirring element to the Rangers' mastery of mountain music. Burdett is an award-winning singer-songwriter, and a student of folk tradition. He provides a fresh, emotional context to the songbook, which "can reach out and touch your heart or slap you in the face," to use the praise of drummer and multi-instrumentalist, Mike Ashworth.

Steep Canyon Rangers is made up of Graham Sharp on banjo and vocals, Mike Guggino on mandolin/mandola and vocals, Aaron Burdett on guitar and vocals, Nicky Sanders on fiddle and vocals, Mike Ashworth on drums and vocals, and Barrett Smith on bass, guitar, and vocals.

Over the band's esteemed career, the three-time Grammy nominees have released 14 studio albums, three collaborative albums with actor and banjoist Steve Martin, been inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame, and appeared on some of music's biggest stages. In 2013, Nobody Knows You won the GRAMMY Award for Best Bluegrass Album, while 2012's Rare Bird and 2020's North Carolina Songbook garnered nominations in the same category.

"Here's to life!" Fans around the world can be found singing the chorus of the Roger Clyne-penned fan favorite "Mekong" and toasting their glasses in unison to celebrate life through rock-n-roll. But the inspiration for the song dates back to the time Roger went to Taipei, Taiwan, as a college student to teach English during the day and busk with his guitar at night for money.

Today, as Clyne prepares to record his 11th studio album, he continues to transform his life experiences, inspirations, observations and his own muses into timeless music. And whether he's wearing his Converse high tops, boots or sandals, Clyne's blend of punk rock, country-western and mariachi influences have made him, drummer PH Naffah, guitarist Jim Dalton and bassist Nick Scropos -- collectively known as Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers -- one of America's best live rock-n-roll bands.

Starting with the seminal Tempe quartet, The Refreshments, Clyne and Naffah put the fun in rock during the 90s grunge era with a sense of humor. They also started what would become a trademark sound on all future albums by adding mariachi horns, something Clyne was influenced by while in college studying Cultural Anthropology with an ethnography study of mariachis during a three month immersion stay with a local family in Ensenada, Mexico.

The Refreshments' debut album, "Fizzy, Fuzzy, Big & Buzzy," became a cult classic. It produced the alternative radio hit "Banditos" which also had significant airplay on MTV and earned The Freshies an appearance on The Conan O'Brien Show. Clyne then penned and performed the theme song for the Mike Judge animated TV series, King of Hill. In 2017, Here's to Life: The story of The Refreshments, was released. The feature-length documentary was a hit with fans and critics alike.

Changes within their record label and internal band issues resulted in Clyne and Naffah going on a vision quest of sorts in the Whetstone Mountains near the Clyne Ranch in Southeastern Arizona. It was there that Clyne found inspiration in the rolling hills and the jukeboxes of small town taverns that still played Marty Robbins and Johnny Cash -- music he had shed from his youth in favor of bands like Camper Van Beethoven & They Might Be Giants. But after reconnecting with those old country records, Clyne and Naffah wrote and recorded under a new moniker what would become Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers' debut album, "Honky Tonk Union."

The album was the perfect combination of classic rock and twang, and fans immediately connected with it. Their independent release, "Honky Tonk Union," debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's internet sales chart in 1999 prompting a call from a Billboard exec to their Manager demanding, " Who the hell is Roger Clyne and why is he #1 on my chart?!" beating out much better known artists

RCPM released eight more albums that landed in the top ten of Billboard's Internet Sales Chart, including a No. 1 debut for their third album, "Americano!" -- all without the backing of a major record label and while flying under the radar of commercial radio.

In 2019, Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers were inducted into the Arizona Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame, joining the likes of fellow Arizona legends Alice Cooper, Buck Owens, Glen Campbell, Stevie Nicks, Linda Ronstadt and Waylon Jennings.

Later that fall, RCPM was invited by a man who, like Roger, also knows a little something about tequila and throwing big parties in Mexico. The band headlined Sammy Hagar's Cabo Wabo Cantina on the eve of Hagar's weekend birthday celebration.

Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers have curated their own annual music festival, Circus Mexicus, in the sleepy beach town of Puerto Pe�asco, Mexico, which draws thousands of fans from around the world. The festival not only has a major impact on the local economy, but charity events hosted by the band and fans alike help raise money for a local orphanage, support local youth sports and help feed shelter animals.

Clyne not only sings about life in the border-lands, he also produces his own ultra-premium spirit, Mexican Moonshine Tequila (soon to be re-named Canci�n Tequila). Owned by the entire band, it was the official tequila at the Arizona Diamondbacks Chase stadium in 2016, 2017 and 2018. Started in 2011, the award-winning spirit is distributed in multiple states as well as Sonora, Mexico.

Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers have toured all over the US and achieved a faithful following through hard work and great music. They have done this all while being independent, without the safety net of a label or a label's radio promotion department. Dubbed "The Springsteen of the Southwest," by the Asbury Park Press. The band delivers exciting live performances that garner declarations like the one from emcee Jay Peterman of the Seinfeld TV show at Alice Cooper's annual Christmas Pudding event, "Young man, you light that stage a-flame!"

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Led by free-wheeling front man Miles Nielsen, The Rusted Hearts have been wowing audiences for years with the diversity of their sound, the tightness of their four-part harmonies, and the quality of their songcraft. Equally comfortable in a compact three-minute pop song and an epic ten-minute jam, the band has toured incessantly since their inception in 2011, amassing an army of hardcore followers that have dubbed themselves the Rusted Herd.

Their album OHBAHOY finds the band venturing into a sphere of Americana that feels both familiar and excitingly new. Tight drums, rich guitar tones, gorgeous woodwinds, and sweeping harmonies provide the perfect complements to Nielsen's immense storytelling gifts and impeccable vocals. The album's name comes from an imaginary friend Nielsen had growing up, a fitting reminder as we get older to hold tightly to the noble ideals of freedom and creativity that seem so natural to us as children.