Upcoming Shows

Ripe, ELEL

TodayMay 25, 20178:00pm $10 advance / $12 door

Ripe is a Funk/Pop band out of Boston, MA that was born as a result of its seven members' uniting over one belief: with enough passion and honesty, music can still make the earth shake. With one eye looking back to the inception of both funk and psychedelic music, and the other looking forward with a modern concept of what....

Well-Known Strangers, Listening Party, Jay Matthes

TomorrowMay 26, 20178:00pm $10.00

Well-Known Strangers have been entertaining Midwest audiences with their cello infused, alternative pop/rock, with-a-tinge-of-country, band sound. Together, the band members have an amazing mix of energy and creativity that provides a unique sound that is reminiscent of familiar of music from the 90s while being....

Super-Unknown, Big Bang Baby, Chained

SaturdayMay 27, 20178:00pm $10.00

Join us for a really solid 90s hard rock themed triple-bill tribute. Super-Unknown is the Midwest's premiere Soundgarden, Audioslave, & Temple Of The Dog tribute. Big Bang Baby is an authentic Stone Temple Pilots experience channeling the late, great Scott Weiland. Chained is an Alice in Chains tribute band scattered with....

Recently Added Shows

Broccoli Samurai

ThursdayJune 8, 20178:00pm $7 advance / $10 door

Since forming in the Rustbelt of Cleveland, OH in 2010, Broccoli Samurai has been taking the club and festival scene by storm. The band's synth-laden, drum and bass influenced, progressive electronica has been thrilling audiences throughout the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, and Northeast markets, winning them a massive and....

Guthrie Brown, Future Thieves

ThursdayJuly 20, 20178:00pm $10.00

JD Eicher, Mike Mains, Matt Brown

FridayJuly 21, 20178:00pm $10.00

Chocolate Ice 2

SaturdayJuly 22, 20178:00pm $10.00

Music is The Universal Language brought to you by...Chocolate Ice 2, a Milwaukee high energy band with a soulful twist, puts the F in Funk, takes you back to the real old school R&B. This band has songs that hit the charts in the 80s with Class A and Key to Love, back then known as The Majestics. Chocolate Ice 2 has....

Walter Trout

SundayJuly 23, 20178:00pm $20.00

Art's Fishing Club

ThursdayAugust 3, 20178:00pm $10 advance / $12 door

Art's Fishing Club (aka Al's Fish Camp) is a name that works for us in two ways. First - as homage to our Grandfather (Art) who has taken us all on many fishing trips and given so much to our family through his example of integrity and wisdom. Secondly - Art's Fishing Club is an allegory to the pursuit of Artistry....

Kristin Diable

SaturdayAugust 12, 20178:00pm $10.00

Stick Men featuring: Tony Levin, Pat Mastelotto and Markus Reuter

SaturdaySeptember 2, 20178:00pm $20.00

Pierre Bensusan

SundaySeptember 3, 20178:00pm $20 advance / $25 door

Carbon Leaf

ThursdaySeptember 21, 20178:00pm $20.00

With 16 albums and over 2,300 live shows spanning a 24-year career, Carbon Leaf's independent music and spirit continue to resonate with its fans into 2017. Blending folk, Celtic, bluegrass, Americana and rock traditions into what the group calls Ether-Electrified Porch Music, the Virginia quintet's songs of love, life,....

Stanley Jordan

ThursdayOctober 12, 20178:00pm $30.00

Alternative Concert Group Presents

Daniel O'Donnell

SaturdayJune 3, 20178:00pm $89.75, $69.75, $59.75

At The Riverside Theater, Milwaukee, WI.

Tickets on sale at pabsttheater.org, by calling 414-286-3663, or by stopping at the Pabst or Riverside box offices during normal operating hours.

Arlo Guthrie

FridayOctober 6, 20178:00pm

At The Pabst Theater, Milwaukee, WI.

Tickets on sale at The Pabst Theater box office, online at pabsttheater.org, or by phone at 414-286-3663.

Peter Yarrow and Noel Paul Stookey of Peter, Paul and Mary

SundayOctober 8, 20177:00pm $49.50 - $75

At the Capitol Theater, Madison, WI.

Tickets on sale at overture.org, the Overture box office, or by phone at 608-258-4141 (Mon-Fri 11:00am-5:30pm, Sat 11:00am-2:00pm).

Bruce Cockburn

TuesdayNovember 21, 20177:30pm $35.00

At the Barrymore Theatre, Madison, WI.

Tickets on sale at barrymorelive.com, or by phone at 608-241-8633 (Mon-Fri noon-5pm).

Quick Calendar

Michael McDermott burst onto the scene in his early 20's with his exceptional debut, 620 W. Surf and subsequently found himself touted as Rock's 'Next Big Thing'. MTV, Rolling Stone, The New York Times and even author, Stephen King added their appreciative nods and having the backing of Giant Records and prestigious producers like, Brian Koppelman and Don Gehman, seemed to go a long way towards assuring his success - overnight success.

The missteps and failures that followed, the collapse of an industry that once embraced him as its next sensation, are troubles and travails that either ruin a person completely, or they force a change of attitude and staunch determination to gather one's resolve to not only survive, but overcome. McDermott vowed to do both. Ten albums in, it's resulted in Willow Springs (Pauper Sky, June 17, 2016), one of the most honest, daring and defiant recordings of McDermott's career. Named for the small town where he now resides with his wife and young daughter, it reflects a certain circumspect about his life, the situations he's encountered, while realizing that ultimately, his fate resided in his own hands.

"This is an album of reckoning I suppose," McDermott reflects. "There was a real cacophony of change going on in my life at the time... being a new father, losing my own father, leaving the city for the country, dealing with sobriety, grief, death, mortality, shame and forgiveness. It was a veritable emotional tsunami and yet somehow I had to navigate through it all. That journey is reflected in these songs. Willow Springs is the name of the place where I took refuge and had to confront a lot of things".

Recorded at his home in the country and fan-funded, Willow Springs finds McDermott behind the boards as producer for the first time with longtime producer and collaborator, Lex Price doing the mix. Having enlisted a stellar support group of musicians -- including multi-instrumentalist, Price; guitarist, Will Kimbrough; keyboard player, John Deaderick ; sax player Rich Parenteau; and McDermott's wife, Heather Horton on backing vocals - McDermott found himself able to craft the unassuming yet cutting sound he envisioned.

Indeed, the results bear out the fact that Willow Springs is the most honest and expressive album of McDermott's extraordinary 25 year career. Songs such as, 'These Last Few Days', 'Getaway Car', 'Half Empty Kinda Guy', 'One Minus One' and the title track, convey all at once, a sound that's both reflective and confessional - borne by stark emotion and a tattered, battered delivery that's both sobering and sublime. McDermott remains more determined than ever, and Willow Springs is the result. "My enthusiasm is only matched by my desire to continue to evolve as an artist" he insists.

Accolades and kudos can be accumulated one minute and quickly dissipate the next. After all, the music biz is a fickle beast and it doesn't matter how much you pleased the masses last year, last month or even last week, but rather, about what you offer today.

Today, McDermott has offered his best.

Kudos to Michael McDermott - overnight success.

Sam Llanas (formerly of the BoDeans) is an iconic American singer, acoustic guitarist, and songwriter. Best known for his unique and distinctively soulful voice, Sam's fiery vocals fueled many of his former band's finest songs including their biggest hit "Closer To Free." It was Llanas' voice that supplied the trademark vocal on Robbie Robertson's "Somewhere Down the Crazy River."

In 1997 Llanas founded the band Absinthe. As Absinthe Sam released one album, 1998's critically acclaimed A Good Day To Die. In 2011 Sam Llanas left the BoDeans and released 4 A.M. (The Way Home) on Inner Knot Records. In 2013 he released the live retrospective 4/5 Live - Vol I.

In 2012 the music from 1998's A Good Day To Die was incorporated into a collaboration with playwright Doug Vincent and producer Gary Tanin in the production "A Day for Grace." By 2013 the play had evolved to include multi-city tours and multi-week runs in New York City.

On November 18th, 2014 Llanas is set to release The Whole Night Thru an all new studio record produced by longtime collaborator Gary Tanin. It features 9 new Llanas originals. The Whole Night Thru is Llanas' first studio outing after parting ways with the band he co- fronted for over a quarter century. Shedding new light on a multi-decade career Sam returns to his roots adding a refined rock sound complimented by a full band, all veterans of both studio and live performance. Behind his lone-wolf image and tuffness, Llanas continues to hone his skills. A master craftsman that feels most at home in the city he's always called home, Llanas has set the stage for fans to embrace his new identity.

Bent Knee is a band without frontiers. The Boston-based group seamlessly connects the worlds of rock, pop and the avant-garde into its own self-defining statement. On its globally-acclaimed Cuneiform release Say So, the band focuses on the sound of surprise. It's rock for the thinking person. The group's lyrics are dark and infused with themes focusing on the emergence of personal demons, unwanted situations and the difficulty of conquering them. Its mercurial sound matches its subject matter. It's a thrilling aural roller-coaster ride with arrangements designed to make listeners throw their arms up in wild abandon as they engage with them.

The album has received glowing reviews across major media, including The Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, NPR, Consequence of Sound, and Prog. BBC Radio 6 and BBC Radio 3 have also playlisted and championed the band across Europe.

"Say So resoundingly demonstrates the increasing refinement and confidence of a group that doesn't quite fit any conventional pigeonhole, with emphatic crunch, a knack for complexity, mixed with lively wit," said Steve Smith of The Boston Globe. "Live, the band projects visceral glee, exactingly harmonized and wholly infectious."

Founded in 2009, Bent Knee is a true collective. The band operates as a democratic entity with sky-high standards and a determination to push boundaries. Frontwoman and keyboardist Courtney Swain's acrobatic, multi-octave vocals are nothing less than extraordinary. Guitarist Ben Levin morphs between the hauntingly melodic and extreme, dissonant sonics--sometimes within a single verse or passage. Bassist Jessica Kion and drummer Gavin Wallace-Ailsworth deliver deep and thunderous grooves, full of engaging, intriguing ornamentation. Violinist Chris Baum's driving melodic overlays and atmospheres further take the band's sound into wild territory. And all of it is brilliantly processed and produced by sound designer Vince Welch.

Bent Knee has remained on a skyward trajectory since forming. Its last two albums, 2014's Shiny Eyed Babies and its self-titled 2011 release, were hailed as significant art-rock achievements. The group has performed more than 375 shows across the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Japan to date. They've also headlined at major festivals and venues including Lincoln Center, ROSfest, Tulsa Center of the Universe, Burg Herzberg Festival, and Campbell Bay Music Fest. During the fall of 2016, they opened for The Dillinger Escape Plan on the U.S. leg of their farewell tour.

"What Bent Knee does is fuse the most extreme ends of pop and avant-garde music together," says Welch. "We feel those things aren't nearly as mutually exclusive as most people think."

"When I listen back to Say So, I think it's the most accessible thing Bent Knee has ever done," continues Wallace-Ailsworth. "But other times, I think it's the strangest thing Bent Knee has ever done. For instance, 'Leak Water' is a relatively linear rock tune by our standards, whereas 'Eve' is a sprawling, epic with radical twists and turns. I think the album reflects the full spectrum of our diverse musical personalities."

Those extremes are also mirrored in the album's lyrical themes.

"On Say So, we're looking at the bigger picture and figuring out where we as individuals stand and how we carve out meaning in this giant universe," explains Baum. "The album art captures that idea too. It's why it features a figure lost in the woods, surrounded by darkness but looking out into the light."

Even with those signifiers and aims, the band prefers its lyrics to be wide open to interpretation. It feels both listeners and the group itself benefit from that perspective.

"I've had listeners come up to me and say 'Good Girl' from Say So is a strong statement against women being patronized or oppressed and that hit me really hard," says Swain. "It's possible to consider those lyrics in that context, and that perspective helped me connect even more closely with the song. How people perceive our songs helps enrich and refresh the pieces for us as we perform them over time."

One of the elements that significantly distinguishes Bent Knee is its adventurous arrangements. Each track is a true journey. In fact, pieces like 'Eve' and 'Counselor' are so diverse they reflect an almost "songs-within-a- song" approach.

"We try not to repeat ourselves within our structures," says Kion. "If we find we're creating a pattern such as ramping into a loud section and landing in a soft section right after it twice in a row, we'll break it as soon as we notice it. We don't want to bore ourselves. We also want to surprise and intrigue listeners. We're always trying to do new things with arrangements."

"Another thing that stands out for us on Say So is that there are more dynamics within the sections of each piece," adds Levin. "On previous albums, there were huge dynamic differences between sections. You'd hear songs that alternate between quiet passages, explosions, grooves, and long builds. On Say So, within a section, you'll hear a lot more variety of loud and quiet, fullness and emptiness, ambience and dryness, and timbre changes. If you drew the dynamic arc of some of these pieces, it would look kind of like a Rorschach inkblot."

Adding to Say So's intrigue is the group's decision to record some of the album in an unconventional space.

"A friend of ours pointed us to an empty, unlocked, million-square foot industrial complex in Boston," says Baum. "We went in there to record so we could explore its unique sonic atmosphere. It felt like zombies were going to jump out anytime. It was a foreboding locale and gave the session a distinctly dark vibe. We captured some wild, reverb-drenched background vocals there."

Prior to hitting the studio, the band road-tested Say So's material at more than 50 gigs.

"It was extremely valuable to see how the pieces went over with audiences," says Swain. "Playing live also gives all six of us a comprehensive understanding of where we sit in the registers of the songs, enabling us to adjust where the instruments fit in the mix. It's also important for us to see how the lyrical motifs go over. The songs would be presented 70-80 percent finished to the audiences, leaving us with room to evolve the approach before finalizing them."

Say So is a world-class album on every level. The band collectively obsessed over every detail in its determination to set a new standard for itself and the universe of ambitious songcraft.

"We now live in a time in which pretty much anyone in the Western world has access to the vast majority of recordings online," says Welch. "So, the competition for musicians isn't just the band down the street anymore. The competition is bands as big as Radiohead. To have a shot at success you have to aim to be that good. But even that's not enough. You have to be patient and work at building up your audience like we've done for the last seven years. One of our mentors, the producer Susan Rogers, said to us 'Slow growth is real growth.' It's advice we've taken to heart across this journey."

District 97 is undoubtedly the most musically adventurous rock band in the world to feature an American Idol Top 10 Female Finalist. The release of 2012's critically-acclaimed Trouble With Machines ushered in an exciting era for the Chicago-based Progressive Rock band; In 2013, the band toured both Europe and the US with legendary bassist and vocalist John Wetton (King Crimson/UK/Asia), which was documented on 2014's live release, One More Red Night: Live in Chicago. 2013 also saw the band nominated for a Breakthrough Artist Award by Prog Magazine. Rather than rest on their laurels, District 97 took to the studio in 2014 to record the new material they'd been honing at home and on the road. The resulting album, In Vaults (released June 2015), continues and accelerates the upward trajectory of great songwriting and incredible musicianship that's been evident since the band's 2010 debut, Hybrid Child. One listen perfectly illustrates why John Wetton says, "I've said it before, and I maintain that D97 is the best young progressive band around right now. Gifted players, great material, and a brilliant, charismatic singer in Leslie Hunt.

DISTRICT 97 was formed in the fall of 2006 by drummer Jonathan Schang, keyboardist Rob Clearfield, bassist Patrick Mulcahy and guitarist Sam Krahn (replaced in 2008 by current guitarist Jim Tashjian). The foursome from Chicago honed a no-holds barred style of Liquid Tension Experiment-inspired Instrumental Rock before deciding the right vocalist was needed to complement their sound; enter 2007 American Idol Top 10 Female Finalist, Leslie Hunt. With a look, sound and stage presence comparable to a young Ann Wilson from Heart, Leslie's dynamic performances pushed the band into a new direction that forged a unique marriage between accessible, catchy vocal melodies and an adventurous instrumental prowess. She was followed shortly thereafter by one of Chicago's finest young guitarists, Jim Tashjian. With this new blend of charisma and stellar musicianship in place, their live shows over the past several years at festivals such as RoSfest and Prog Dreams II, and numerous appearances across the USA, UK and Europe cemented the band as a force to be reckoned with onstage, as well as in the recording studio.

In August 2015, Rob Clearfield and Patrick Mulcahy left the group and were eventually succeeded by Andrew Lawrence and TIm Seisser, respectively. The new lineup will debuted in highly successful tours across Europe and the US in 2016. Currently the band is focused on writing and rehearsing new music, as well as more touring in 2017, including reuniting with John Wetton aboard Yes' Cruise to the Edge.

The Skints are a band from London, UK, described by Clash Music as 'the torchbearers for modern British reggae music'. Dubbing their sound as 'music from Jamaica in a London style', The Skints mix reggae, ska and dub with touches of grime and hip-hop; a contemporary style that draws as much from the streets of the nation's capital as it does from the Caribbean. Playing hundreds of shows since 2007, The Skints have had a steady rise from the UK underground, bringing their own rays of sunshine to festivals over Europe and beyond, with even The Guardian confirming that The Skints 'brought the house down' at 2014's Reading Festival.

The Skints' latest album Part and Parcel saw them fully galvanise on their live reputation with a stunning sophomore release. Recorded with British dub vanguard Prince Fatty (Gregory Isaacs, Hollie Cook) and featuring guest vocal talents of dancehall emcee Parly B, the crowdfunded album was an instant critical hit, with Rock Sound declaring it a 'modern dub, reggae and hip-hop inspired classic'. Buoyed by the viral success of the video of their cover of Katy B's 'On a Mission' -- supported on social media by the song's original producer Benga and Katy B herself and with over 500,000 plays on YouTube -- The Skints went on to promote the release with tours with You Me At Six, Easy Star Allstars and Sublime With Rome. Winning over fans and critics along the way, their ten date headline tour of the UK sold out every venue, ending at an oversold Scala. Their ascent continued across 2013, with a sold-out London show at the 1,400 capacity Koko and the record's successful release on the Soulbeats label in France being particular highlights. A remarkable run of European festivals followed in 2014 including Reggae Sun Ska, Summerjam, Dour Festival, Reading and Leeds Festival, Chiemsee Summer, Radio 1's Big Weekend and a memorable set in the rain in front of a 10,000 strong crowd of die-hard Skints fans at Lion's Den Stage, Boomtown Fair.

Not bad going for a band who started out as friends at a culturally-mixed London school back in 2005, then teenagers knee-deep in an underground scene ruled by punk and ska music. It wasn't long before the group's record collections reached back across the history of rebel music to the likes of Johnny Clarke, Culture and The Abyssinians for altogether more rootsy inspirations. Across an EP in 2008, and début album Live, Breathe, Build, Believe in 2009, The Skints progressed from playing squats to stages and refined their identity from punk ragga urchins to become an outfit deemed 'the most accessible pure British reggae music you'll find these days' by A New Take. Tours with The Slackers, Reel Big Fish and Gym Class Heroes refined The Skints live set, embellishing their own compositions with cover versions, multi-instrumentation and uplifting, positive vibes.

After whetting the fan's appetites with the interim Short Change EP, The Skints are currently in the studio recording their third full-length. A concept album of sorts, Prince Fatty is back in the producer's chair with guests including reggae legends Tippa Irie and Horseman, and grime MC Rival. Finishing 2014 with the Jagermeister Music Tour with Me First and Gimme Gimmes - taking in Brixton Academy in the process - 2015 promises to be another heavy year for The Skints, with the new album on its way and plans of a US tour coming to fruition.

The Tritonics write, arrange and perform original music inspired by the Jamaican roots styles of rock steady, ska and roots reggae. They also perform crucial standards of those genres by artists like Alton Ellis, Delroy Wilson, Toots and the Maytalls, The Heptones, Johnny Clarke, The Valentines and The Jamaicans. In addition, The Tritonics apply a unique process they've dubbed "doowopification" to rock n roll classics by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks and many others. Doowopification reinterprets and revitalizes (Ital-izes!) classic rock standards, anointing them in the name of Jah with stripped down, Jamaican roots-style arrangements, one drop-centered rhythms and harmony-heavy vocals. The Tritonics Jeff Stehr, Dave Bolyard, Tom Plutshack, Dave Cusma and Glenn Asch - are committed to keeping the citizenry drinking, dancing and well informed through song.

Right from the impressive first minutes of their new album, Fates Warning proves itself to be one of those rare veteran bands capable of delivering new material as poignant and powerful as their many high points of the past. One listen to the textures, momentum, attack and emotion in "From The Rooftops," and it's apparent that the band who defined progressive metal with albums such as AwakenThe Guardian, PerfectSymmetry, Parallels and A Pleasant Shade Of Gray has plenty of new paths to travel...

Performed by the core lineup that returned to form with 2013's Darkness In A Different Light (guitarist Jim Matheos, vocalist Ray Alder, bassist Joey Vera, and drummer Bobby Jarzombek), Fates Warning's twelfth album, Theories Of Flight, is a new facet of the band's signature mix of melodic finesse, high-level performance and brooding melancholy. It even pushes the goalposts of the previous album out a bit further in each direction. Subdued parts are that much more lush, while other moments strike with ferocity not heard on a Fates album in quite some time. With the aforementioned core four providing most of the performances, occasional Fates member Frank Aresti performs guitar solos on "From The Rooftops" and "White Flag," while current touring member Michael Abdow also has a guitar solo spot on the latter tune. With hooky, melodic burners such as "Seven Stars" and "SOS" leading to the more involved "The Light And Shade Of Things," and even more light and shade beyond that, until the dramatic title track concludes the journey, Theories Of Flight's 53 minutes is definitive Fates Warning.

While Darkness... was the first album release since 2004's FWX, its own follow-up took considerably less time to emerge. "I started writing in January 2015," says guitarist and main composer Jim Matheos. "About a year after Darkness, I started gathering ideas and getting serious about it."

As for the direction Theories Of Flight, which was produced by Jim Matheos and mixed/mastered by Jens Bogren at Fascination Street Studios (Opeth, Symphony X, Haken, etc.), eventually took, Jim let his muse lead the way. "I don't usually look at it as 'what do I want to do?,' I'm usually just consumed by terror that I won't come up with anything. Whatever comes up, I'm just happy that something comes up, and I let that take me in the direction that it's going in. I don't sit down and have a specific idea of where I want to go. The beginning is always the hardest part. Once you have the first couple songs down, then a direction starts to present itself and you take it more in that direction."

Apparently it all came rushing out in a flood, evidenced by the myriad of highlights throughout Theories Of Flight. The calmer middle breakdown of "SOS" introduces a ghostly drone that changes a mysterious mood to pure dread; drummer Bobby Jarzombek's nearly inhuman dexterity in parts of "From The Rooftops" is something to behold; the samples and soundscapes within "The Ghosts Of Home" sets an almost theatrical tone for what might be the album's emotional climax, all 10-and-a-half minutes of it. The album's galvanizing, exciting, go-back-and-listen-again moments are too numerous to mention.

As main lyricist, vocalist Ray Alder had plenty of musical emotion to work with. Themes of upcoming change -- deliberate choices to take a different direction in life -- are a large part of the album's overarching themes of transience, disconnection and the search for solid ground. Alder's writing and passionate singing in "Like Stars Our Eyes Have Seen" is beautifully reflective, urging us to trust our memories, to hold onto them even as we forge into future unknowns: "See the dark road that's ahead / Lit by memories you knew / Now the ghosts begin to follow / Let it all come back to you."

Matheos's sole lyric credit is an especially personal one. "'The Ghosts Of Home' is me reflecting on how moving frequently as a child -- eight times in the first nine years of school -- affected and shaped my personality, something I've only recently been digging in to. It also references me revisiting a lot of those places as an adult. Similarly, a lot of Ray's lyrics touch on a big move or change coming for him, although by choice. So, we're both talking about various uprootings, escapes...flights."

These themes are also reflected in the cover artwork by Michigan-based artist Graceann Warn. "The working title for the album was 'The Ghosts of Home,' and the song with that name was first called 'Home Again.' When I started searching for artwork I came across the piece that's now the cover and it was called 'Theories of Flight.' In fact, the title you see on the cover is part of the original art, not something we added. I was immediately drawn to that phrase as being a better description of what some of the songs are about."

New York City-based progressive metal band Infinite Spectrum has garnered rave notices and struck a chord with prog rock fans the world over. Closing a three-year gap since their acclaimed 2013 debut album, Misguided, INFINITE SPECTRUM's Sensory Records debut, Haunter Of The Dark is a full-length concept recording based on the short story by master of horror, H. P. Lovecraft, with the band bringing the famed short story to life through ambitious compositions featuring an abundance of dynamic, virtuosic playing, and powerful, melodic vocals. Re-teaming with Grammy award-winning engineer Chris Theis to capture their signature sound, with Haunter Of The Dark, INFINITE SPECTRUM has created a remarkable sonic journey for fans of prog both old and new. INFINITE SPECTRUM's Haunter of the Dark has been heralded in online outlets from PROG to Metal Underground and print magazines such as Rock N Roll Industries ("...completely captivating.") and Outburn ("9 out of 10"). INFINITE SPECTRUM has shared the stage with Haken, Thank You Scientist, Carl Palmer's ELP Legacy, Brand X, The Fringe and many more. Combining theatrical elements with the progressive metal genre, the band has crafted their own brand of musical storytelling, which includes elements of radio-style drama for a uniquely cinematic listening experience. The music of INFINITE SPECTRUM is eclectic, innovative, and experimental in nature. Their current line-up features Will Severin (vocals), Alex Raykin (guitar), Alex Repetti (bass), Greg Schwab (drums), and Katie Pachnos (keys).

Allison Iraheta + Halo Circus is a critically-acclaimed bilingual alternative rock band, featuring its star singer Allison Iraheta. Crafting "anthems for introverts," Iraheta digs deep into dark places and transforms this anguish into lush, unforgettable melodies. Halo Circus' debut earned instant acclaim, with LA Magazine declaring, "Allison Iraheta has moved beyond reality TV, forming a group that Duran Duran bassist John Taylor called 'the best live band in the U.S.A.' Think: dark, anthemic rock with a knack for soaring hooks."

Halo Circus quickly earned a reputation for their impressive live performances, which led to a series of high profile bookings, including: The Grammys "Women Who Rock Festival At Sea" with Heart, Emmylou Harris, and other iconic female singers; a fourweek Friday night residency at the prestigious Hotel Cafe in Los Angeles; and "Say It Loud! A Night of Cultural Disruption" at the legendary Troubadour. Iraheta also performed on The Tonight Show, making history as the only guest vocalist to sing with the show's band for an entire week.

On February 8, 2016, Halo Circus shocked the music industry by announcing, via Billboard, the first fully crowdsourced American tour ever to be attempted on such a large scale. Through Road Nation, the band declared that any town in America that raises $600 would get Halo Circus to play there this summer and fall. Nine weeks later, the campaign reached 100% backing by fans, making music history with the first successful US crowdfunded tour to date, with 30 cities confirmed.

Next up is the release of Halo Circus' highly anticipated debut album, Bunny, produced by Matthew Hager and mixed by multiple Grammy Award-winner Craig Bauer (Kanye West, Smashing Pumpkins). Iraheta explains, "our aim was high: play as much as possible, and try to develop a reputation as a great live band before releasing an album. Somehow along the way we learned how to play these songs to an audience and the band actually started to take on a life of its own."

She continues, "We decided to rerecord what we recorded a year before. We wanted to capture the evolution of our live sound. We wanted Halo Circus to have the opportunity to record an album with the same quality and attention to detail that was given to bands in the 90's." And this band's effort for perfection is paying off. The first single off the album, "Desire (Lo Que Vale La Pena)," was downloaded 647,000 times in its first week of release in a promotion with BitTorrent Bundle. The album, entitled Bunny will be released on June 24.

For Allison Iraheta, life before and with Halo Circus is like night and day. The daughter of Salvadoran immigrants, she was raised in South Central L.A., with Spanish as her native language. She draws from her background as inspiration for Halo Circus' most popular songs: "Yo Me Voy," "All I Have," and "Desire (Lo Que Vale La Pena)."

Individually, the members of Halo Circus are veteran musicians. Prior to forming Halo Circus, bassist/keyboardist Matthew Hager was a No. 1 Billboard multiplatinum producer who crossed multiple genres working with the likes of Duran Duran, Scott Weiland, Mindi Abair, and Mandy Moore. In addition to being an accomplished Cantonese and orchestral drummer, Veronica Bellino's previous work with Jeff Beck and DMC of Run DMC has helped to shape her live performances with Halo Circus. Brian Stead is a relentless guitar aficionado who evokes energy and charisma. He is a thoughtful guitarist with his own voice, one that makes him unique. Together, the band is one unstoppable force to be reckoned with as they continue down the rabbit hole and embark on the next chapter of their sound. Iraheta concludes, "Magic happens in this band. It happened when we were writing, when we were recording, and when we were failing. The only thing that mattered was keeping it honest and getting it right, whatever that means. We may be inconvenient, but we continue to attract believers."

Ruby Rose Fox, a vocal powerhouse of soul-driven, edgy rock 'n' roll (with a nod to newwave pop), whose voice threatens to knock down the walls of any room in which she performs is making 2016 her strongest year of new releases and live performances. The Boston Herald describes Ruby Rose Fox's music as "arty, edgy rock 'n' roll that lets her be Lou Reed and Nico at the same time... [and seems] to come from another scene, another world."

In July and August 2015 Ruby Rose Fox was both the Improper Bostonian magazine's pick for Best Musician of 2015 in the "Boston's Best" issue, and featured on the cover of its 2015 "Music" issue. Ruby also took home the "Best Pop Artist," and "Best Female Vocalist" honors at the 2015 Boston Music Awards, and was named "Female Performer of the Year," by the 2016 New England Music Awards.

In April, 2015, Ruby Rose Fox embarked on a very successful tour supporting Martha Davis and The Motels promoting the release of two new singles: Blue Angel and Good Friday. Upon return from her tour with The Motels, on June 10th, 2015, Ruby Rose Fox was the musical guest featured in a live production of WBUR/NPR's On Point Live! with Tom Ashbrook and Cheryl Strayed.

Late last Fall, Ruby Rose Fox went back to the studio, working on a fresh album in following a successful PledgeMusic campaign.

Ruby's new album, "Domestic" was released on 5/24/2016 , and charted at #8 on Billboard's Heatseeker's (northeast) chart in its first week, and rose to #6 in its second week on the charts. The album release has been supported by 4 music videos, with more to be released before the end of 2016.

Selwyn Birchwood, Florida's rising young blues fireball, is a guitar and lap-steel-playing bundle of pure energy. He delivers his original songs with a revival tent preacher's fervor and a natural storyteller's charisma made all the more impactful by his raw, unvarnished vocals. Birchwood plays high-octane blues -- at once deeply rooted, funky and up-to-the-minute -- with true passion and honest emotion. With his band feeding off his drive and exuberance, the striking 6'3" 29-year-old with his trademark Afro roams the stage (often barefoot), ripping out memorable guitar licks with ease. His ability to win over an audience -- any audience -- is proven night after night on the bandstand. With his warm, magnetic personality, Birchwood is as down-to-earth as his music is fun, thought-provoking and vital. His mission is to spread his music far and wide, to share his joy, to play his heart out, and to push the blues into the future. "There's nothing I'd rather be doing than playing the blues," he says. "And I try to convey that with every song and with every performance."

In 2013, Birchwood catapulted from local hero to shooting star. He won the world-renowned International Blues Challenge, beating out 125 other bands from the U.S. and abroad. He also took home the Albert King Guitarist Of The Year Award. It wasn't long before Alligator Records president Bruce Iglauer offered Birchwood a contract. His debut album, Don't Call No Ambulance, is a fully realized vision of contemporary blues. Birchwood's original songs range from raucous romps to hill country stomps, from searing, serious slow blues to modern blues rock. Between his uninhibited sense of fun and adventure and his serious-as-a-heart-attack musicianship, Don't Call No Ambulance is a window into the future of the blues. "All originals and no filler," he says of the album. "It's that genuineness of emotion in the songs that people can hear."

The Tampa Tribune says Birchwood plays with "power and precision reminiscent of blues guitar hero Buddy Guy. He is a gritty vocalist [who is] commanding with his axe." According to Iglauer, Birchwood is the real deal. "Selwyn Birchwood is a terrific young blues talent with a huge future. He writes smart, infectious, fresh songs and delivers them with a warm, conversational vocal style and a fun-loving attitude. He's a killer guitarist, switching between a regular six-string and lap steel. Live, he's a ball of energy, interacting with the audience like they were in his living room. Selwyn is destined to be one of the next stars in the blues world."

Birchwood, his father from Tobago, his mother from the UK, was born in 1985 in Orlando, Florida. He first grabbed a guitar at age 13 and soon became proficient at mimicking what he heard on the radio. But the popular grunge rock, hip-hop and metal of the 1990s didn't move him, and he quickly grew bored. And then he heard Jimi Hendrix. "He was larger than life. What he did was mind-blowing. When I realized Hendrix was influenced by the blues, I found my path," he says. By 17 he was deep into the blues, listening to Albert King, Freddie King, Albert Collins, Muddy Waters, Lightnin' Hopkins and especially Buddy Guy. As luck would have it, just as Birchwood was discovering Guy, the blues master had a concert scheduled in Orlando. Birchwood was there, front and center. "I was floored," he recalls. "I completely connected with the blues. I knew I had to make this music."

As Selwyn's guitar proficiency grew, a friend told him that his neighbor was a blues guitarist and had a band. The 19-year-old Selwyn went over to check it out and jam. The guitar-playing neighbor turned out to be the Texas-born blues legend Sonny Rhodes, who was instantly impressed with the enthusiastic young guitar slinger. Within one month's time, Rhodes asked Birchwood to pack his bags and join him on the road. It was an incredible experience for Birchwood, as Rhodes took the youngster under his wing, not only teaching him guitar and lap steel, but also how to conduct business, how to run a band, how to reach an audience. "Sonny always said, 'Play what's in your heart.' I've never lost sight of that," says Birchwood.

Rhodes insisted Birchwood go to college and always held the guitar spot in his band open for Selwyn whenever he was available. It was a win-win situation, as Birchwood -- through hard work and scholarships -- received his MBA from The University of Tampa. "I challenged myself to get that degree," Birchwood says. "These days, it's not good enough to just be a good player." Combining the musical lessons learned from Rhodes and his business acumen, Birchwood, now living in Tampa, formed the current version of The Selwyn Birchwood Band in 2010. The band, with the same members still together today, features veteran musicians older than Selwyn, testifying to Selwyn's musical chops and his leadership skills. On stage, they play off each other with ease, feeding each other energy, sharing the fun with the audience.

In 2011 the self-released FL Boy helped the band land gigs outside of their Tampa home, where they were becoming local heroes. Birchwood and his band won their way to spots at the 2012 and 2013 International Blues Challenges in Memphis. After taking ninth place in 2012, they came back determined the next year, taking first place. Alligator Records president Bruce Iglauer was sitting at the judges table at the time. "I saw Selwyn's potential in 2012. He absolutely deserved to win in 2013," he says. The victory opened more doors for Birchwood, increased his exposure and helped the band land a deal with Intrepid Artists booking agency, which led to more and better gigs.

The Selwyn Birchwood Band has been touring non-stop since winning the IBC. The band has performed at festivals including The Mississippi Valley Blues Festival, Springing The Blues Festival, The Tampa Bay Blues Festival, The North Atlantic Blues Festival, The King Biscuit Blues Festival as well as on The Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise. Birchwood has opened for major blues stars including Robert Cray and Buddy Guy and has shared the stage with another friend and teacher, Joe Louis Walker (who guests on Don't Call No Ambulance's The River Turned Red). He recently had the opportunity, when performing in San Francisco, to bring his friend and mentor Sonny Rhodes on stage to sit in with his band. It was a moment Birchwood will never forget. "He did so much for me; it was a real honor to return the favor, if only a little."

With Don't Call No Ambulance, Selwyn Birchwood steps onto the world stage, bringing a new wave of blues to a new generation of blues fans. "If I can play my music, travel the world, bring happiness to people, then I'm blessed and happy," he says. "It's like Sonny always told me, 'If you follow your heart, you'll always get what you want.'"

"Ain't we all the stars playing the leading part in our own soap opera?" Brandy Clark belts out that question to kick off Big Day in a Small Town, positing the premise of not just the opening track ("Soap Opera"), but all 10 songs that follow it. The towns that anchor Clark's new album may be small enough to warrant only a single blinking light, but the lives lived in them are anything but... and neither are the hopes and dreams that rise from their backroads and bedrooms.

When you grow up in a small town, oftentimes, your dreams are all you have. Whether it's to become a football star or a father, a homecoming queen or a hairdresser, your dreams might be the only thing that keep you going. For Clark, the dream she harbored in her small hometown of Morton, Washington, was to be a country singer. Sure, once she moved to Nashville, she had successful cuts as a songwriter [The Band Perry's "Better Dig Two," Miranda Lambert's "Mama's Broken Heart," and Kacey Musgraves' "Follow Your Arrow"which won the CMA Song of the Year Award in 2014], but being an artist in her own right was a dream she had stopped dreaming until three years ago when her first album, the stunning 12 Stories, debuted.

At the time, it was a passion project, more than anything... a passion project that went on to become a GRAMMY- and CMA-nominated release that topped a myriad of "Best Albums of 2013" lists; earn her opening slots on tours with Eric Church, Jennifer Nettles, and Alan Jackson; land her performances onThe Ellen DeGeneres Show , Good Morning America, The Late Show with David Letterman, and a much-talked about collaboration with Dwight Yoakam on the 2015 GRAMMY Awards in recognition of her nomination in the all-genre Best New Artist category; and win her a Warner Bros. Records deal. Now, as she gears up for her sophomore set, the alternately feisty and poignant Big Day in a Small Town, Clark has much higher hopes.

"When I made 12 Stories, I think my dreams were a lot more realistic, in that I didn't expect a lot to happen... then it did," she says. "This time, my dreams are very much what they were when I was going to Vince Gill and Patty Loveless concerts and decided I was going to move to Nashville. Right now, my dreams are as big as when I was naïve enough to really dream them."

Produced by Jay Joyce [Little Big Town, Eric Church], Big Day in a Small Town tells the stories of the football star, the father, the homecoming queen, and the hairdresser because those are the stories and people that Clark grew up knowing. "All these songs, there's some little truth in them, somewhere, that resonates with me or that is about me," she confesses. Explaining the genesis of "Soap Opera," she offers, "When I would get worried about what people thought of me or what was going on with me, my mom would always say, 'You know, we're all the star of our daytime drama. We're just bit players in someone else's. Nobody cares that much about what's going on with you. They'll only care until there's something juicier going on with somebody else two weeks later.'"

But Clark cares enough about all of these characters to tell their stories: the aging beauty of "Homecoming Queen" who wonders what happened to the life she always wanted... the tempted exes of "You Can Come Over" who do all they can to not get burned by the flame that flickers between them... the heartbroken heroine of "Daughter" who wishes a bit of karmic justice on her ex in the form of a daughter who's "just as sweet as she is hot"... the defiant wild child of "Girl Next Door" who refuses to fit her lover's misguided notion of womanhood.

"'Homecoming Queen' is really real for me -- I know that girl. 'You Can Come Over' is very real for me and 'Daughter' and 'Soap Opera'..." Clark's voice trails off as she thinks about the tales she tells. What about "Drinkin' Smokin' Cheatin'" with its pondering of ways to navigate the sometimes rocky waters of a relationship? Game plan? Wish list? "That's a total daydream," she says with a laugh. "I think we all have that daydream."

One of the most heartfelt moments on Big Day in a Small Town is the one that closes it, "Since You've Gone to Heaven." The song addresses the aftermath of losing someone close to you and it's one that Clark has wanted -- and attempted -- to write for years. "My dad was killed in a work accident the July before 9/11," she says. "When all that 9/11 stuff was going on and everyone was glued to the TV ... I thought right then, 'Since you've gone to heaven, the whole world has gone to hell.' But I sat on it for years and years because it seemed so bleak." As with all of Clark's compositions, there's some truth in it, just not necessarily the whole truth. "It's definitely not the story of my family in that song. I'll stress that," she says. "But I do think, a lot of times, when somebody dies, it blows things apart more than it brings things together."

While the lyrical themes echo those of 12 Stories, Clark pushed her vocal and musical boundaries on Big Day in a Small Town. Instead of building the songs from a simple guitar/vocal performance, Joyce brought the players in for five days of rehearsals before tracking live with the band. "A lot of those rehearsals became what the record was," Clark says, explaining that the recorded version of "You Can Come Over" includes her one- take, scratch vocal. "I wanted to fix a few things, but Jay wouldn't let me because he felt like it would lose emotion. He's about the heart of music. He's not about making it perfect."

"He is out to serve the artist and the song," she adds. Throughout the process, Joyce insisted that this be a "Brandy Clark record" not a "Jay Joyce record" because she was the one who would be performing it night- after-night even as he moved on to his next project. "If I didn't like something, he'd be the first person to change it. I think this project means nearly as much to him as it does to me."

Though Neil Young's Harvest was the only musical reference point the two discussed before heading into Neon Cross Studios, Clark and Joyce each brought their influences along -- including Clark's long-standing love of classic country and Joyce's well-documented affinity for edgier rock. "He and I definitely come from different places, musically, which I think is probably good," she offers. "On 'Daughter,' he started to play an organ part and I said, 'That sounds like [Patsy Cline's] "Back in Baby's Arms."' He said, 'What's that?' He didn't know it."

Along with Sturgill Simpson, Ashley Monroe, Chris Stapleton, and Kacey Musgraves (who provides guest vocals on "Daughter"), Clark is part of a new vanguard in country music -- one that tips a hat to tradition, while not eschewing its evolution. "I see what's happening right now and I feel this groundswell of people who love... I would say 'country' music, but I'll take it a step further and say 'real' music. I feel like there are people who are starved for that," she says. "The only music I've ever made is country music. The only music I've ever really listened to consistently is country music. And I want to keep that alive, so there's a responsibility in that, for me."

But, for Brandy Clark, that responsibility is a dream come true.

Fueled by an unyielding creative drive and a downhome country spirit, Nora Collins has established herself as one of country music's rising stars. Averaging over 200 appearances annually for the last five years, Nora has opened for national performers including Country Music Hall of Famer Ronnie Milsap, Phil Vassar, Kelsea Ballerini, Jon Pardi, Maren Morris, Brett Young, Jana Kramer, Ashley Monroe, Josh Thompson, Josh Turner, David Nail, Michael Ray and many more.

As an accomplished singer/songwriter, Nora has a unique vocal quality that is both sensitive and upbeat. Much like her personality, she brings a positive energy that carries across generations of fans.

Having self-released four albums of her original songs, Nora's current EP, which was recorded by legendary musician Tony Harrell and features co-writes from hitmakers Terry McBride, David Fanning and John Kennedy, was released on September 16, 2016.

Nora recently joined the CMT Artist Discovery campaign as the network debuted her single "Recover" on November 1. The CMT Artist Discovery includes exclusive world video premieres and custom on-air and cross-platform promotion to better connect emerging artists with a passionate new fan-base.

Guthrie Brown a Nashville transplant by way of "old Montana" began playing the guitar at age six. By the age of seventeen, he journeyed to Nashville to pursue the dream of being a professional songwriter, recording & performing artist. After settling in Music City, he recorded and produced his first self-titled EP, which got the attention of Nashville's premiere independent radio station, WRLT Lightning 100. Capitalizing on the initial success of his debut EP, Guthrie recorded and released his second EP "Spirit of the Elk" with producer Stuart Mathis (The Wallflowers, Lucinda Williams). Following his second release, he recruited his longtime friends and musicians John Ogelby (drums), Will Honaker (bass, keys) and John McNally (guitar) to join the band. Their musical pairing has since been compared to something as strong and pure as Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

Since the release of "Spirit of the Elk", Guthrie and his band of brothers, have continued their regiment of non-stop touring including coveted spots opening for Jonny Lang, Willie Nelson, Robert Randolf, and Bears Den and festivals such as Gasparilla, and CMJ Fest, just to name a few. In the summer of 2016, Guthrie signed his first publishing deal with BMG. He will spend the second half of the year touring and recording with multi Grammy Award winning producer, Jacquire King (Kings of Leon, Norah Jones, Tom waits, Moon Taxi, Of Monsters and Men, James Bay).

It was March 24th, 2016. Future Thieves were live-streaming their show at Blue Rock Studios in Wimberley, Texas. The adrenaline from performing at SXSW only a week earlier added some extra fuel to the band's blend of melodic rock and turbocharged Americana. "How's everybody doing out there in the world?" asks Elliot Collett (lead vocals / rhythm guitar) before launching into "The Floor." Viewers were glued to their screens as Elliot and band members Austin McCool (lead guitar), Nick Goss (bass), and Gianni Gibson (drums) deliver a stirring set of songs from their debut album Horizon Line (2015), plus new material that reflects why press and fans are raving about these "...incredible songwriters" (The Tennessean).

In less than sixty minutes, Future Thieves completed their next album, Live at Blue Rock.

From festivals like Bonnaroo, Summerfest, and Forecastle to standing room-only shows across the U.S., Future Thieves thrive in a live setting. Paste, American Songwriter, and several other outlets have spotlighted the group. The band regularly packs venues from Los Angeles to New York City to their home base, Nashville.

Though each band member followed a different route musically, the synergy between them sparked from the moment Future Thieves formed in October 2013. Nick and Austin knew each other from their time in Evansville, Indiana before settling in Nashville. Elliot hailed from Eastern Kentucky coming south with his old band and Gianni came to Nashville by way of LA, NY and London.

Future Thieves began recording Horizon Line during the summer of 2015 after sharpening their sound through months of gigs and touring. "We had a little three-song EP but we wanted to make something bigger," says Elliot. "It was good to go in the studio and record songs that we'd been performing live on the road."

Working with producer Alex Jarvis, the band recorded Horizon Line in their home studio and released it on their own label in October 2015.

Horizon Line burnished Future Thieves' profile in Nashville and beyond. Odyssey Media hailed the album as "a perfect cross-section of everything the band has to offer: ingenious guitar licks from Austin McCool, a voice that's equal parts smooth and raspy from Elliot Collett, and the driving rhythm section of bassist Nick Goss and drummer Gianni Gibson."

Brown Town Productions also praised the band's debut, noting "This record is jam-packed with energy, rock and well thought-out songs that draw your ears in immediately and never let go until the last note of the last track."

A year after the album's release, Horizon Line is still expanding the band's loyal fan base. "That first record brought us some great recognition and lots of fans, people are coming to the shows, singing the song. "It's as much as we can ask for!" The title track has also emerged as the album's most popular cut, garnering countless streams on SPOTIFY. "People can relate to the lyrics and the music," notes Gianni.

The band embarked on a national tour to promote Horizon Line, crossing the country in a van and giving 1,000% onstage every night. "It's interesting to play live in different cities because the feeling is essentially the same whether we are playing on a five foot wide stage or on a huge stage in front of thousands of fans." Says Nick.

Playing live is one of the essential elements to Future Thieves creative process. By the time they got to Blue Rock after performing three shows at SXSW, they had a batch of fresh songs that were already road-tested. Blue Rock was the perfect setting to capture the driving energy of infectious new tunes like "Just Sayin', "Ghosts," "Ugly Now," and "Dark in the Day," which the band subsequently performed on American Songwriter and Reverb Nation CONNECT's "Discover" concert series.

Listening to Live at Blue Rock is like being in the room with Future Thieves, soaking up all of the nuances that make the band such a thrilling live act. "The one thing we all found common ground on is when you listen to a band's record, you want to know that there are humans still playing the music," says Gianni. "That's what makes the true connection. I want someone to listen to our song "On Fire" in headphones and truly feel like you are transported. It takes you somewhere." Along that continuum, the band explores other dimensions in fan favorites like "Nightmares," a song that Forecastle included on its "2016 Artist Mixtape" alongside tracks by Gary Clark Jr, Dr. Dog, and Brandi Carlisle. "There are different versions of 'Nightmares,'" says Nick. "We're still figuring out how to take songs that we've played for a couple of years and just completely throw in a curve ball right in the middle of it, not only for our entertainment but to help the song grow and fit into new music that we write."

Future Thieves also possess a bold visual sensibility that's evidenced in the dramatic storyboard for "Nightmares" as well as their video for the Blue Rock version of "Soon." Nick explains, "We've got a stock pile of footage now. 'Soon' is high energy and it goes really well with live clips and it's just a really great introduction for this record."

A sense of adventure shapes Live at Blue Rock, bridging Horizon Line with the band's next studio effort while also coinciding with their upcoming 2017 tour of Europe. From the opening guitar riff on "Dark in the Day" to the thunderous closing vamp of "Nightmares," the album commands attention from start to finish.

The best way to experience Live at Blue Rock is to take a cue from Gianni's leap across the album cover. Press play and dive right in.

JD Eicher, the Youngstown, OH-area born and bred musician is set to release his new album (his first under just his name due to the very personal nature of the songs), The Middle Distance, via Rock Ridge Music on May 6, 2016. Eicher went for more of a journal entry/diary-type approach this time around, with the album being moodier, and focusing on a lot of internal struggle. Songwriting and superb singing are at the center of each track on The Middle Distance, with Eicher's Rust Belt upbringing evident as the foundation of his songwriting; Pittsburgh, not far from his hometown of Youngstown, has also embraced the performer and his music as their own.

With his band, The Goodnights, Eicher's soaring and graceful pop-rock songcraft garnered favorable comparisons to Coldplay, Keane, The Script, The Killers, and Death Cab for Cutie. Alternative Addiction named the group one of the top 10 unsigned bands. Live, JD Eicher & the Goodnights shared the stage with such diverse and respected artists as the Dave Matthews Band, Coldplay, Train, Maroon 5, Hot Chelle Rae, Pete Yorn, Anberlin, Rod Stewart, Bryan Adams, Kelly Clarkson, Cartel, Sister Hazel, and Matt Nathanson, among many others.

Mike Mains, a Detroit based musician, loves rock and roll. He also loves the creative craft of large hooks and lyrical sensibility. His earnest honesty is evident in his music, his shows, his life. Mike approaches his musical passion with lunch pal in hand, hammering out meaningful, well crafted songs like a skilled tradesman.

With two full length albums and an EP(2012's "Home", 2013's "Everything" EP and 2014's "Calm Down, Everything's Fine"), Mike has established himself as a more than just a song writer, he's a song "crafter". With high octane rockers like "Miracle"(Home), "Stereo"(Home), "Take it All"(CDEF), and "Burn"(CDEF) or slower, emotional tracks like "Lady Love"(Home), "Drifter"(Home, or "Where Love Dies"(CDEF) there is plenty to choose from for music lovers alike.

Performing over 300 shows the last 3 years, Mike Mains has built a committed fan base. His shows have proven to be high energy, interactive and exciting. 2016 has seen him captivate audiences in any setting. Wanting to offer an unique, intimate view into his songs, he played his first 9 week "Living Room Tour". This 35 date North American tour brought him into the homes and backyards of fans to perform his songs in a new context. The shows received raving reviews and many sold out shows.

Mike again will enter the studio in 2017 to record his 3rd full length LP. Early demos' point to an expansion of his already established foundation: exciting rock and roll.

With songs pulled from every era of his five-decade career, the 'ALIVE in Amsterdam' set is potent stuff indeed, from the stinging Luther Allison cover "I'm Back," to the plaintive B.B. King tribute "Say Goodbye To The Blues," which builds from neck-tingling guitar swells to a stunning virtuoso climax. 'Battle Scars' is well-represented by the harmony-bolstered rocker "Almost Gone" and the raucous "Tomorrow Seems So Far Away," while Trout is joined by his son Jon for "Rock Me Baby," and even finds time for a fistful of fan favorites, including "The Love That We Once Knew" and "Marie's Mood." "You can hear that a guy yells out for 'Marie's Mood,'" he laughs. "I actually hadn't planned on doing that one..."

But Trout has made a career-long habit of throwing us curveballs. A native of New Jersey, his practical schooling began in earnest when he arrived in Los Angeles in 1974, and promptly earned his reputation as an A-list sideman, backing John Lee Hooker, Big Mama Thornton, Finis Tasby, Pee Wee Crayton, Lowell Fulsom, Percy Mayfield and Joe Tex. In 1981, he joined the remaining original members of the legendary Canned Heat, but the real turning-point was his five-year tenure with British blues giant John Mayall, who invited Trout to become the latest in the Bluesbreakers' lineage of guitar greats (including Eric Clapton, Peter Green and Mick Taylor).

Trout founded his own solo band in 1989 and cut his debut album 'Life In The Jungle' that same year, rapidly becoming a chart-topping star in Europe. His first stateside release, 1998's critically heralded 'Walter Trout,' made him a fixture of the US blues-rock scene. Released in 2015, 'Battle Scars' is his 18th album on the Netherlands-based Provogue label, and his 42nd overall, including pre-solo recordings with Canned Heat and the Bluesbreakers.

Over the decades, Trout has accumulated numerous honors. He is a three-time winner of the Overseas Artist Of The Year title at the British Blues Awards, and a three-time Blues Music Awards nominee. In 2015, he won the Sena European Guitar Award, an honor he shares with acclaimed past winners like Brian May, Steve Lukather and Slash. Trout's six-string prowess also earned him the #6 slot in BBC Radio 1's Top 20 Guitarist listeners' poll.

Now, in 2016, 'ALIVE in Amsterdam' marks the latest twist in this fascinating bluesman's tale, and the chapter that we all prayed would come to pass. Urgent, impassioned and electrifying, it's a live album to treasure, and the perfect appetite-whetter as Trout heads out on tour this year, stopping off at some of the most prestigious venues and festivals in the US and Europe.

Walter shows you magic in the studio, of course. But it's on the stage where he truly comes alive. "I get into the energy and the moment and the excitement of it all," he says. "I think I'm a very different guitarist live..."

Autograph left an everlasting imprint on rock 'n' roll. The platinum-selling Southern California hard rock juggernauts gave the world the ubiquitous hit "Turn Up the Radio", seminal albums such as Sign In Please [1984], That's The Stuff [1985], and Loud and Clear [1987] as well as unforgettable sold out shows alongside everybody from Mötley Crüe and Ronnie James Dio to Van Halen and Aerosmith. Given those accolades, when they disbanded in 1989, they never left the hearts and minds of millions of fans around the globe. Simply put, a reunion was both inevitable and essential.

In 2011, founding guitarist Steve Lynch and bassist Randy Rand decided to meet up at the NAMM show in Anaheim. They rekindled their friendship first, opening up the lines of communication and bonding more than ever before. With the relationship rebuilt, they made a collective decision to jam again.

"We approached our original singer Steve Plunkett about a reunion," recalls Lynch. " He didn't have the time to join the band again due to how busy his business is. He did give us his blessing to move forward though, and that was important. We missed our fans. This is for them."

Fully embracing the future, the remaining members caught some videos of singer/guitarist Simon Daniels of Jailhouse on YouTube. Instantly, they sensed a connection and knew that he was meant for the open spot in the center stage.

"He has big shoes to fill," smiles Rand. "Nevertheless, he was born to front Autograph. His hard-edged, bluesy voice and massive riffing sharpen our edge. He's given us a new energy, and he impressed us immediately."

"We all had a euphoric feeling after the first rehearsal," Lynch adds. "These songs hadn't been played in 25 years, and it was indescribable. It was great to be making music with my friends again."

With the lineup solidified, Autograph stand poised to shake Rock 'n' Roll up yet again. It's as if every element has been enhanced from the guitars to the bass and vocals as well as drums with the addition of drummer Marc Wieland.

Lynch puts it best, "We're much heavier than before. We're not using keyboards and we're tuning down for a much fatter sound. That strengthens everything. At the same time, the melodic vocals and catchy hooks are still an integral part of our sound."

Successfully touring again since the beginning of 2014 Autograph has strived and shined at theaters, casinos, various venues and major Festivals as M3, Monsters of Rock Cruise, The Moondance Jam, Firefest, The Halfway Jam, Rockin the Rivers, Iowa State Fair among others reaching the 4 corners of the USA along with Canada and the UK as well as releasing 3 new anthem singles one of them "I lost my mind in America" making the TOP 10 ITUNES Charts, a crowd favorite " You are us, We are you" receiving great reviews and airplay and "Every Generation" recently released and featured in Classic Rock Magazine. The band delivers an undeniably bombastic live performance and it was also recently displayed in the USA TODAY news website. A new EP is due to be released soon as the Timeless Classic Rock Anthem Top 40 HIT Single "Turn up the Radio" continues to receive constant and permanent Radio Airplay from all Major Rock Radio stations around the World.

Don't try to snatch him back and hold him, he's a man on the move. John Németh had already established himself among the very top ranks of blues musicians and modern soul singers when he decided to break the mold with his new record, FEELIN' FREAKY. Németh fearlessly crushes all barriers of style and genre with an album of original songs that defies all the usual pigeonholes. Drawing from his strong influences in blues and R&B, as well as contemporary sounds in hip hop and rock & roll, John creates music that is personal as well as universal, and owes its origin to no one but John Németh. John's songs are groove and melody-driven, laced with thoughtful lyrics and nuanced humor, and cover themes from social issues of gun violence and class values to the pure hedonistic joy of dancing, sexuality and marijuana. He creates his songs from melodies and phrases he draws from the sounds of life, from early-morning Memphis songbirds to the din of the city. For this album John brought his new songs to his great touring band, the Blue Dreamers -- Danny Banks on drums, Matthew Wilson on bass and guitar, and Johnny Rhodes on guitar -- so they could hone the groove and finish building the album as a group. Under the simpatico guidance of Grammy-nominated producer Luther Dickinson (North Mississippi Allstars), FEELIN' FREAKY emerges as a modern personal masterpiece.

This album is a testament to power with taste and restraint, dramatic dynamics through the use of space. Németh's striking tenor vocals are already legendary, with a pitch-perfect purity of range and power that has drawn comparisons to soul singers from O.V. Wright to James Brown. He keeps that power under a tight leash, letting it rip at just the right places, using his voice to deliver and serve the song. Németh is also a very accomplished harmonica player who can boogie with the best of them, in various diatonic positions as well as on the mighty Chromatic harp, yet he plays relatively little on this record. What he plays are largely horn lines, trumpet-like staccato blasts that serve to create dramatic dynamic shifts, tension and release, all in service to the song, not the ego of the player. The few solos he delivers are concise, tasty and powerful.

FEELIN' FREAKY was recorded at the Dickinson family's Zebra Ranch Studios in Mississippi and Willie Mitchell's legendary Royal Studios in Memphis. Németh's touring band on their instruments and background vocals is at the heart of the recordings, along with musicians hand-picked to complement the individual tracks. John often works with horns, and Memphis players Marc Franklin (trumpet, flugelhorn) and Art Edmaiston (Tenor, Bari sax) deliver echoes of classic Memphis sound all over this record. Németh and Dickinson agreed that the B-3 Organ parts had to go to Charles Hodges, who contributed so much to the Hi Records sound on albums by the likes of Al Green and Ann Peebles. For extra depth and sweetness, they added strings by J. Kirkscey, B. Luscombe, J. Munson and P. Tsai.

A little history:

As a Boise, Idaho teenager in the early '90s, John Németh was drawn to the hard-edged hip hop sounds and rock bands of the day -- but when a friend exposed him to Buddy Guy and Junior Wells's classic "Hoodoo Man Blues," he was hooked. John played harp and sang in local bands, often opening the show for nationally touring blues acts. John soon caught the ear of established blues musicians, and before long he was releasing his own CDs -- THE JACK OF HARPS (2002) and COME AND GET IT (2004), featuring Junior Watson -- and performing in Junior Watson's band. John relocated to San Francisco in 2004, where he wound up doing a two-year stint with Anson Funderburgh and the Rockets, filling in for the ailing Sam Myers.

Németh immersed himself in the deep musical waters of the Bay area, absorbing more of the soul and funk grooves of what he calls "the early East Bay Grease sound" of San Francisco and Oakland bands. John's reputation continued to grow, and he soon signed a recording contract with Blind Pig Records. His national debut for that label -- MAGIC TOUCH (2007), produced by Anson Funderburgh and featuring Junior Watson on guitar -- received an ecstatic response from fans and the media, and he was hailed as the new voice of the Blues. Living Blues Magazine enthused, "Magic Touch gives hope that the blues will survive." In 2008 Németh was recruited by Elvin Bishop to do some performances and contribute four vocal tracks to his Grammy-nominated album THE BLUES ROLLS ON.

Németh released two more albums on the Blind Pig label -- LOVE ME TONIGHT (2009), NAME THE DAY! (2010) -- earning critical raves and strong sales, both hitting #6 on the Billboard Top Blues Album Charts, and beginning his long string of Blues Music Award nominations, numbering fourteen at last count. John also won two Blues Blast Music Awards -- Best New Artist Debut Recording and Sean Costello Rising Star Award -- voted on by nearly 11,000 blues fans. John followed up with two independently released live albums, BLUES LIVE and SOUL LIVE in 2012.

In 2013 John relocated to Memphis, Tennessee, where he quickly became a key player in the city's rich musical scene. He teamed up with producer Scott Bomar and his classic Memphis Soul band, the Bo-Keys to create an album of revisited Soul classics, MEMPHIS GREASE (2014), on the Blue Corn label, which debuted at #4 on the Billboard Blues Chart. John won the 2104 Blues Music Award in the Soul Blues Male Artist category, and MEMPHIS GREASE took the prize for Soul Blues Album in 2015.

John Németh continues to be one of the hottest stars in the musical firmament, touring nationally and internationally with his Memphis band, taking the world by storm. He is currently nominated for a 2017 Blues Music Award in the category of B.B. King Entertainer of the Year . FEELIN' FREAKY will be released in May 2017, on John's own Memphis Grease label, and it's already generating a firestorm among his devoted fans and the media. Stay tuned....

The Dick Dale Phenomenon. His style is something different and unique. Since his first appearances Balboa, Ca. at the famed Rendezvous Ballroom, he has set and broken attendance records everywhere he's performed. His appearances at the Rendezvous Ballroom broke every existing record for the Ballroom by drawing capacity crowds of over four thousand screaming dancing fans every weekend each night down on the Balboa peninsula.

Dick Dale invented surf music in the 1950's. Not the '60's as is commonly believed. He was given the title "King of the Surf Guitar" by his fellow surfers with whom he surfed with from sun-up to sun-down. He met Leo Fender the guitar and amplifier Guru and Leo asked Dale to play his newly creation, the Fender Stratocaster Electric Guitar. The minute Dale picked up the guitar, Leo Fender broke into uncontrolled laughter and disbelief, he was watching Dale play a right handed guitar upside down and backwards, Dale was playing a right handed guitar left handed and changing the chords in his head then transposing the chords to his hands to create a sound never heard before.

Leo Fender gave the Fender Stratocaster along with a Fender Amp to Dale and told him to beat it to death and tell him what he thought of it. Dale took the guitar and started to beat it to death, and he blew up Leo Fender's amp and blew out the speaker. Dale proceeded to blow up forty nine amps and speakers; they would actually catch on fire. Leo would say, 'Dick, why do you have to play so loud?' Dale would explain that he wanted to create the sound of Gene Krupa the famous jazz drummer that created the sounds of the native dancers in the jungles along with the roar of mother nature's creature's and the roar of the ocean.

Leo Fender kept giving Dale amps and Dale kept blowing them up! Till one night Leo and his right hand man Freddy T. went down to the Rendezvous Ballroom on the Balboa Peninsula in Balboa, California and stood in the middle of Four Thousand screaming dancing Dick Dale fans and said to Freddy, I now know what Dick Dale is trying to tell me. Back to the drawing board. A special 85 watt output transformer was made that peaked 100 watts when dale would pump up the volume of his amp, this transformer would create the sounds along with Dale's style of playing, the kind of sounds that Dale dreamed of. BUT! they now needed a speaker that would handle the power and not burn up from the volume that would come from Dale's guitar.

Leo, Freddy and Dale went to the James B. Lansing speaker company, and they explained that they wanted a fifteen inch speaker built to their specifications. That speaker would soon be known as the 15'' JBL -D130 speaker. It made the complete package for Dale to play through and was named the Single Showman Amp. When Dale plugged his Fender Stratocaster guitar into the new Showman Amp and speaker cabinet, Dale became the first creature on earth to jump from the volume scale of a modest quiet guitar player on a scale of 4 to blasting up through the volume scale to TEN! That is when Dale became the "Father of Heavy Metal" as quoted from Guitar Player Magazine. Dale broke through the electronic barrier limitations of that era!

Dale still wanted to go further, and as the crowds increased, Dale's volume increased, but he still wanted a bigger punch with thickness in the sound so that it would pulsate into the audience and leave them breathless. The JBL-D130 was doing its job until Dale froze it in the frame that held the speaker, the speaker cone would twist from the heavy playing from Dale and it would soon twist and stop to fluctuate back n forth.

Leo, Freddy and Dale went back to the JBL speaker company and told them to rubberize the front ridge of the speaker allowing it to push forward and backward from the signal of Dale's guitar without cocking and twisting. The new updated version was called the JBL D-130F; the F stood for Fender.

Leo, Freddy and Dale designed a speaker cabinet and in which they installed 2 -15''-JBL-D130F's. This caused Leo Fender to have to create a new and more powerful output transformer, they would call it the Dick Dale Transformer and it was made by the Triad Company.

This became the 100 watt output transformer that would actually peak 180 watts. Nothing like this had ever been done before in the world of guitars and amplifiers. This became known as the Dual-Showman Piggy Back Amp. This is why Dick Dale is called the Father of all the power Players in the world!

It is a Phenomena, that Dale is still playing with not only the same vengeance as he did in the 50's, but his playing is unleashed and shredding into the 90's with a focus and power as if from mother nature. He shares the stage with fellow players of all generations up into the alternative's of the 90's. Being completely self taught, Dick Dale plays left handed upside down which was a result of holding the guitar left-handed. The strings became upside-down, chords are designed for right handed players making it very difficult for a left handed player unless he were to change the strings for a left handed guitar, something that Dale never did.

Dale is also a master at the Acoustic, Electronic, Bass and Spanish Guitars'. As well as the Ukulele, Banjo, Drums, Piano, Organ, Electronic Keyboard, Harpsichord, Trumpet, Trombone, Saxophone, Harmonica, Xylophone and, believe it or not... the Accordion!

Dale was also responsible for another creation to the world of guitar players, "The Fender Tank Reverb". As Dale sang in his shows, he found that he did not have a vibrato in his voice, and he did not like the straight flat dry sound. to sustain his vocal notes, he turned to an old Hammond organ and found a reverb unit and showed it to Leo Fender and together they came up with the "Fender Tank Reverb". Dale then plugged a Shure Dynamic Bird cage Microphone into it and as Dale sang, his voice took on a very rich, sexy and full sound. Later, Dale then plugged his Fender Stratocaster guitar into the Reverb Tank to sustain his guitar notes which became Dale's trademark sound.) (NOTE) Dale had already been titled "King of the Surf Guitar" by his surfer friends before his creation of the Fender Reverb, Dale's first album called "Surfer's Choice" was the first Surfing album to be commercially sold with a picture of Dale surfing by the pier in San Clemente, Ca. with a surfing title on it. This album alone sold over eighty-eight thousand albums in the late 50's and today in the 90's it would be like 4 million. There was not one song on that album that had a Reverb for effects, everything was played with nothing but Dale's sheer force and power. A bit of trivia, Dale's recording of "Miserlou" became the title song for Quentin Tarantino's Blockbuster movie "Pulp Fiction".

Dick Dale has been called one of the hardest working men in show business. In the past five years he has maintained a heavy concert tour and public appearance schedule throughout the world. Focusing in Europe, Australia, Japan, Canada, South America and the U.S.

When we called it the American Dream, what we really meant was "the American Myth."

That myth convinced us that the right house/car/bank account/voting card could punch our tickets to a happily-ever-after, but for reasons too numerous and depressing to note, that myth is finally dying. Somewhere along the way, we realized the secret to mythology is not letting anyone sell it to you. You have to create your own. And now something new is springing up as we cast off the strange rules and crushing expectations of old. We're rediscovering that freedom comes from the inside out, not from the outside in.

Kristin Diable has been exploring freedom and choice in her music ever since she picked up an open mic at a lounge in Baton Rouge and stunned the audience into silence. She rode that vibe, away to New York and then back to her native Louisiana like a storm front, one that shook New Orleans and cooled the air. And her newest album, Create Your Own Mythology, invokes her Louisiana and Americana roots, while firing a rock-and-roll shot across the bow of borrowed myths.

Producer Dave Cobb expands upon a stellar year that had seen Sturgill Simpson's Metamodern Sounds in Country Music, Lindi Ortega's Tin Star, and Jason Isbell's Southeastern all arrive to critical acclaim--here he does double duty, producing and also standing the front lines on guitar. Cobb is known for spurring his performers to find their truest voices, and this is Diable's richest and most elaborate album to date.

It takes a person to write an album, but a good album writes a person too. Kristin realized Create Your Own Mythology was fighting its way into the world during her force-of-will tour, which alighted in Europe and Africa in 2013. Cut loose from the norm, discovering new venues almost as fast as she could perform in them, she found swimming in her head new songs about holding on, letting go, patience, and faith in the face of futility. And about penning your own rules and your own reality.

From the gospel notes of "True Devotion", written in Morocco during a Ramadan sunset, to the wistful universal waters flowing through "Deepest Blue", Diable weaves a dense, bewitching net. The idea of embracing the infinite unknown and finding freedom, clarity through the trials we experience along our journey as human beings is explored in songs like the lead single, "I'll Make Time for You", and "Eyes to the Horizon". The latter has been used twice in HBO's Treme performed by the character, Annie.

Rumi wrote, "Where did I come from, and what am I supposed to be doing? I have no idea. My soul is from elsewhere, I'm sure of that, and I intend to end up there."

Kristin says that music is her ticket on that journey to the soul's distant elsewhere, and this new album is her invitation to the listener--not to follow her on her mythical path, but to go questing for their own. That's a journey that will require some suffering, and acceptance, and evolution and honesty--these are the tokens hidden in these songs, smoothing that hard path, leading us away, and leading us home.

The Mississippi River makes a hairpin turn in Baton Rouge before swerving unstoppably into the Gulf of Mexico. As it slowly zigs and zags like a cautious alcoholic, rich sediment sloshes loose onto the sun-baked Louisiana turf. It's lush country. Things grow here. New Orleans grew here. Kristin Diable grew here and is still growing. And myths grow here like sugarcane does: fast, tall, and sweet.

Tony Levin and Pat Mastelotto, the powerhouse bass and drums of the group King Crimson for a few decades, bring that tradition to all their playing. Levin plays the Chapman Stick, from which the band takes it's name. Having bass and guitar strings, the Chapman Stick functions at times like two instruments. Markus Reuter plays his self-designed touch style guitar -- again covering much more ground than a guitar or a bass. And Mastelotto's drumming encompasses not just the acoustic kit, but a unique electronic setup too, allowing him to add loops, samples, percussion, and more. New studio album Prog Noir was released in October 2016, and the band is touring the USA and Canada in August/September 2017, and in 2018 will perform at the Cruise To The Edge 2018 and in Central America and The Caribbean (with special guest David Cross, ex-King Crimson),, and in Europe in March 2018.

TONY LEVIN - Born in Boston, Tony Levin started out in classical music, playing bass in the Rochester Philharmonic. Then moving into jazz and rock, he has had a notable career, recording and touring with John Lennon, Pink Floyd, Yes, Alice Cooper, Gary Burton, Buddy Rich and many more. He has also released 5 solo CDs and three books. In addition to touring with Stick Men, he is currently a member of King Crimson and Peter Gabriel Band, and jazz bands Levin Brothers and L'Image. His popular website, tonylevin.com, featured one of the web's first blogs, and has over 4 million visits.

PAT MASTELOTTO - Very rarely does a drummer go on to forge the most successful career on the demise of their former hit band. Phil Collins and Dave Grohl have managed it, so too has Pat Mastelotto, a self taught drummer from Northern California, who has also been involved with pushing the envelope of electronic drumming. Pat has spent a lifetime jumping genres from pop, to prog, to electronica to world music with -- among others -- Mr. Mister, XTC, David Sylvian, The Rembrandts, Kimmo Pohjonen, and for the last 20 years with King Crimson.

MARKUS REUTER - Markus is a composer, guitarist, and producer. Initially trained as a pianist, he subsequently studied Robert Fripp's Guitar Craft and learned to play the Chapman Stick, later moving onto the U8 Touch Guitar. Reuter has released several solo recordings and worked extensively with other musicians. He is one of the core members of the experimental band Centrozoon, is half of the duo Tuner (with Pat Mastelotto) and was also a member of Europa String Choir. Reuter has collaborated with Ian Boddy, Robert Rich, No-Man singer Tim Bowness, and many others.

Winner of the Independent Music Award, in the Live Performance Album category for his latest triple live album "Encore" (2014), "Rose d'Or" of the Montreux Festival for his first album, "Près de Paris" (Switzerland, 1976), "Best World Music Guitar Player " by the readers of Guitar Player Magazine (USA, 2008), Pierre Bensusan is recognized as one of the premier musicians of our time.

If "World Music" is music that pays tribute to the spirit of a collection of human beings through distinct rhythms, traditional instruments and harmonic colors, French-Algerian guitarist, singer and composer Pierre Bensusan can be recognized as one of the most eloquent and world musicians today.

Born in Oran, French-Algeria, in 1957, when France was decolonizing its Empire, Pierre Bensusan's family moved to Paris when he was 4. He began formal studies on piano at the age of 7 and at 11 taught himself guitar. Influenced in those early days by the folk revival blooming in Britain, France and North America, Bensusan began first to explore his own diverse musical heritage and then moved to the horizons beyond.

At 17 he signed his first recording contract, and one year later his first album "Pres de Paris" won the Grand Prix du Disque upon his debut at the Montreux Festival in Switzerland.

Described by the L.A. Times as "one of the most unique and brilliant acoustic guitar veterans in the world music scene today", Pierre's name became synonymous with contemporary acoustic guitar genius, long before the terms New Age, New Acoustic Music or World Music were invented. He has the ability to make a single guitar sound like an entire band as he brings the audience on a mesmerizing musical journey. And yet, Bensusan is more than what any musician or music lover expects from a guitarist. He is a composer as well as a bilingual and a brave improvisational vocalist, melding whistles and resonant low notes with something like his own scat technique.

There is a sense of something both playful and serious in his work, an unparalleled sense of freedom in his compositions and his improvisations. His "manner" of playing defies classification - crossing world, classical, jazz, traditional, folk and more. None can be isolated as simply "Brazilian", "Arabic" or "French"; rather, they represent our world in its current state, a world sharing itself, fusing cultures together in ways we have never experienced. A great embassador of peace. Not to be missed!

Bobby Whitlock represents the true southern blues/soul singer. Born in Memphis he was the first white artist to be signed to the Stax Hip label at the tender age of 16. Taken under the wings of Steve Cropper and Donald (Duck) Dunn at the time.

In 1969 Bobby left Stax and went to California to become the first "friend" in the group Delaney & Bonnie & Friends. For a short time in Europe, the guitar line up consisted of Eric Clapton, George Harrison and Dave Mason. It was during this time that Bobby became friends with Eric Clapton.

After leaving Delaney & Bonnie, Bobby joined Eric Clapton where they began to write together, becoming a formidable writing team and eventually recording Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs which is now celebrating its 40th year and is considered to be one of the most influential and great records in the history of rock-n- roll..The rest is of course music history.

Meanwhile CoCo had begun her career in London England. She took the road and played across Europe including Germany, Italy and France and back home in England. After nearly a decade in Europe, CoCo moved back to the United States residing in her home state of California, Los Angeles to be precise. She met and later married Delaney Bramlett.

During those years with Delaney, she produced and co/produced many records including her own solo record "First Fruit" which came out in 2010, with ex Delaney Bramlett featuring many songs written by the two. Bobby met CoCo Carmel after her marriage ended with Delaney in 2001. They immediately got to work and began writing and singing and recording and performing.

Beginning in the U.S., CoCo and Bobby played in New Jersey, New York, Alabama and Nashville, and a slew of radio stations. They have also toured various places around the world including Monaco, Geneva Switzerland, France and to Bangalore India to headline a Blues Festival. All the time CoCo producing record after record including the latest "Carnival". The live record comes complete with a red hot band, all top musicians hailing from Austin.

In 2011 Bobby's autobiography "Bobby Whitlock A Rock-n- Roll Autobiography" was released and has been a number one top rated book in rock music on Amazon.

With Bobby's incredible historical History, it is no wonder the past is constantly calling. In 2013 Light in The Attic re-released the newly mastered solo records of Bobby's appropriately titled "Where There's a Will There's a Way". It has been receiving great reviews worldwide and is available online and at stores around the world.

As 2015 rang in, so did a wonderful DVD/Blu Ray Documentary "The Road to Austin" featuring Kris Kristofferson, Bonnie Raitt, Stephen Bruton, Bobby Whitlock and CoCo Carmel. Their performance on the show with an audience of 20,000 ("Layla" and "Why Does Love Got to be so Sad" was superb, as is the entire DVD. The DVD is available online and some outlets in Texas.

This year Bobby will be releasing his first solo record in over fifteen years, produced by Rob Fraboni (The Last Waltz, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, The Band, John Lennon, Bonnie Raitt, Joe Cocker and more).

It is going to be a good year for Bobby Whitlock and CoCo Carmel.

In a career that took flight in 1985 with commercial and critical acclaim, guitar virtuoso Stanley Jordan has consistently displayed a chameleonic musical persona of openness, imagination, versatility and maverick daring. Be it bold reinventions of classical masterpieces or soulful explorations through pop-rock hits, to blazing straight ahead jazz forays and ultramodern improvisational works--solo or with a group--Jordan can always be counted on to take listeners on breathless journeys into the unexpected.

Key to Jordan's fast-track acclaim was his mastery of a special technique on the guitar's fretboard. Instead of conventional strumming and picking, Jordan's innovative "touch technique"is an advanced form of two-handed tapping. While a handful of other players were using similar techniques, Stanley's fluid, multi-layered textures and sheer virtuosity raised the bar for excellence. But his technique, though impressive, is always a means to a musical end. His music is imbued with a warmth and sensitivity that has captured the imagination of listeners worldwide. A classically trained pianist before playing guitar, Jordan wanted greater freedom in voicing chords on his guitar, so he applied piano principles to do so. Jordan's touch technique allows the guitarist to play melody and chords simultaneously with an unprecedented level of independence. It also allows Jordan to play simultaneously on two different guitars, or even on guitar and piano. He says that "I think of it as a single instrument, but one with a wide range of tonal colors--that's why I do it."

To date Jordan has performed in over 60 countries on 6 continents. He has performed at many festivals, including the Kool Jazz Festival, the Concord Jazz Festival, and the Montreaux International Jazz Festival. During the 1980s he collaborated with a diverse array of artists, including performances with Art Blakey and Richie Cole and recordings with Stanley Clarke and Kenny Rogers. The track with Rogers, "Morning Desire", became America's #1 country song in 1986. Later Jordan became a frequent guest with Les Paul during Paul's legendary Monday nights at Iridium in New York. Today Jordan performs frequently as a soloist and with his band, as well as collaborating with other guitarists such as Kevin Eubanks, Sharon Isbin and Muriel Anderson. He's also a frequent guest with jam bands such as the Dave Matthews Band, the String Cheese Incident, Phil Lesh, Moe and Umphrey's McGee.

Jordan has received four Grammy nominations. His most recent album "Friends" was nominated for an NAACP Image Award. Los Angeles Times jazz critic Leonard Feather wrote, "Genius is a word often tossed around in musical circles, but it has been rightfully applied to Stanley Jordan."Stanley Jordan was born in Chicago, Illinois, and grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. He began his music career at age six studying piano, then shifting his focus to guitar at age eleven. He then began playing in rock and soul bands. In 1976, while still in high school, Jordan performed with Quincy Jones and tied for first place as a soloist at the Reno International Jazz Festival. In 1981 he earned a BA in music from Princeton University, where he studied theory and composition with composer Milton Babbitt and computer music with composer Paul Lansky. While still at Princeton, Jordan performed with Benny Carter and Dizzy Gillespie.

Jordan came to prominence with the release of his 1985 album Magic Touch, a revolutionary project that placed him at the forefront of re-launching legendary Blue Note Records into a contemporary entity in jazz and beyond, as also established the then-twenty- something Jordan as among the most distinctive and refreshing new voices of the electric guitar. Jordan had begun applying his unique technique to his already exemplary traditional playing ten years prior to the Magic Touch album. Though Jordan showcased the technique in a variety of musical styles from swing to rock, it was smooth jazz radio support for his singular versions of "The Lady in My Life" (first recorded by Michael Jackson) and the Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby" that sent Magic Touch to the top of Billboard's jazz chart for a stunning and record-breaking 51 weeks. The album became a gold-seller (over 500,000 sold in the U.S. alone) - outstanding for any jazz or instrumental CD.

Subsequent albums found Jordan ushering his audience into deeper levels of his artistry and stretching his music beyond stylistic boundaries. These projects included a solo guitar album titled Standards Volume 1 (1986) where Stanley made the bold statement that songs by the likes of Stevie Wonder and Jimi Hendrix deserved recognition as standards just as much as older chestnuts like Hoagy Charmichael's "Georgia On My Mind." He followed that with the dance- pop album Flying Home (1988) and the especially edgy Cornucopia (1990), which spanned the gamut from straight-ahead jazz recorded live to multi-dimensional originals recorded in the studio. Still later in 1994 after a move to Arista Records (then helmed by pop music maverick Clive Davis), he recorded the bracingly eclectic Bolero album, featuring covers of Herbie Hancock's "Chameleon," Jimi Hendrix's "Drifting," his original "Plato's Blues" and the CD's centerpiece, a 17-minute arrangement of Ravel's "Bolero", which flowed seamlessly between rock, African, Latin, "groove" and "industrial" sections. During this era, Jordan also made history by creating the seminal "startup" sound for the first generation of Power Macintosh computers.

In 2002, Stanley released the album Dreams of Peace with the Italian band Novecento. It was remixed and re-released in the USA in 2004 on Steve Vai's Favored Nations label. Independently, he recorded two CDs: Ragas (a collaboration with musicians from India featuring Jay Kishor on sitar) and Relaxing Music for Difficult Situations Volume 1, an audio extension of his interest in music therapy. In 2007 Jordan signed with Mack Avenue Records and released State of Nature in 2008 and Friends in 2011. For Friends, he invited musical guests including guitarists Bucky Pizzarelli, Mike Stern, Russell Malone and Charlie Hunter; violinist Regina Carter; saxophonists Kenny Garrett and Ronnie Laws; trumpeter Nicholas Payton; bassists Christian McBride and Charnett Moffett; and drummer Kenwood Dennard. The results proved truly outstanding on numbers ranging from a Bela Bartok piece to a Katy Perry pop smash, a heady original blues and three jazz classics spanning swing, cool, samba and modern.

Jordan has been known to TV and film audiences as well. In 1987 he made a cameo appearance in the Blake Edwards movie Blind Date, starring Bruce Willis and Kim Basinger. In the tribute film, Les Paul: He Changed the Music Jordan performed with a guitar supergroup including Les Paul himself, Eddie Van Halen, BB King, Steve Miller, David Gilmour, and Brian Setzer. In 1995 Jordan created the score for the short film One Red Rose, starring Hill Harper and Victoria Rowell, directed by Charlie Jordan. In 1996 he created the score for an ABC afternoon TV special Daddy'''s Girl, directed by Diane Wynter. Since the mid 80s he has performed on numerous television shows, including The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, The David Letterman Show and the Grammy Awards. One notable appearance was a duet on the Tonight Show with the late rock superstar Robert Palmer.

Stanley is committed to music as an artistic, spiritual, and even health-promoting endeavor. He has been immersed for more than a decade in music therapy, towards which he is now working for a master's degree at Arizona State University. His involvement with music therapy leads him to do outreach in schools, hospitals and other venues wherever he tours. He is an artist- spokesperson for the American Music Therapy Association, and he has done numerous lectures and demonstrations on the healing applications of music.

Jordan has maintained an extensive and consistent international touring schedule. In between tour stops he is now at work on his next highly anticipated album from Mack Avenue Records, for release next year.

Jordan is currently a resident of Sedona, Arizona. He has one daughter, Julia. Julia Jordan is a singer/songwriter living in Lancaster, Pennsylvania who sometimes collaborates with her dad.

The Tangent is a Progressive Rock Band from Northern England. based around keyboards player, composer and idiosyncratic vocalist Andy Tillison Diskdrive. Their music is cinematic and lyrical, full of narrative, often telling stories or making observations about the world we live in - often choosing subject matter more associated with Anarcho-Punk bands than with the genre in which the band choose to base themselves. "No Hobbits or Orcs in our songs" The band have, for 12 years now, released a steady output of well regarded albums through their record label Insideout Music At the time of writing, the band's eighth studio album "A Spark In The Aether" is just weeks away from release.

The band has changed personnel many times and has used this fluidity to keep ideas fresh and lucid. The debut album released in 2003 The Music that Died Alone was often referred to as a "supergroup" project, though Tillison has always eschewed this title, preferring to go for the less obvious "a good idea".

In twelve years the group has had close affiliations with Swedish progressive legends The Flower Kings, and Jonas Reingold (bass) from that band remains in the Tangent to this day despite the departure of Roine Stolt from the Tangent ten years ago now. David Jackson (Van Der Graaf Generator) was heavily featured on that debut album, Jakko Jakszyk (now of King Crimson) has been a frequent collaborator along with Theo Travis (Steven Wilson Band, Soft Machine Legacy, Gong etc). Guy Manning, Gavin Harrison (Porcupine Tree), David Longdon (Big Big Train) have all played key roles in the band's development and the band was instrumental in bringing the talents of the astonishing young guitarist Luke Machin (Maschine) to the world for the first time.

Karmakanic kicked off their career in 2002, and now, 14 years, four studio albums and two live albums later, they are back with their fifth full-length album, DOT.

The band's founder, bassist Jonas Reingold says: "I got my inspiration to start writing DOT when I stumbled upon a text by the famous American author and astronomer Carl Sagan. He was talking about how small and insignificant we are in this vast universe.

Of course that can sound like a cliché and a lot of things have been said about our existence, universe, why are we here, where are we going, when will it end, when did it start, whats the purpose of it all? And so on. But he put it really elegantly in this rather short text, so I never looked at it as a cliché. The inspiration for him was actually a picture of the earth that Voyager 1 took 1990 from the outer areas of our solar system. The earth appeared in the picture as a small pixel, like a pale blue dot suspended in a sunbeam."

"Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every 'superstar,' every 'supreme leader,' every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam." -- Carl Sagan

"It's fascinating to think that this little dot is all we are and all we´ll ever be," says Reingold. "It gives us perspective. And I think perspective is a great tool for making good choices. Honestly, is it worth fighting over country borders, go to war, choose hate instead of love when you look at life from this perspective? So I decided to write a song about it: 'God - the universe and everything else no one really cares about'."

This song, presented in two parts, forms the centerpiece of DOT and clocks in just shy of 30 minutes' total playing time. Other songs are the short rocker "Steer by the Stars," co-written with Jonas's old buddy and colleague from The Tangent, Andy Tillison. Andy also contributes with some roaring Hammond organ on the aforementioned 30-minute epic.

Also featured on the album is "Higher Ground," a "mini epic" where Jonas writes about his upbringing and the good and bad off growing up in a small Swedish town; and "Traveling Minds," a majestic symphonic piece that brings us back to the vibe of the Yes classic "And You and I."

Karmakanic 2016 includes prominent members such as Morgan Ågren, a Grammy-winning musician on both sides of the Atlantic and known from his work with Frank Zappa, Kaipa, Steve Vai, Tony Iommy, Terry Bozzio, and was voted No. 1 in Modern Drummer's Readers Poll in 2010.

Göran Edman worked with Swedish stringbender Yngwie Malmsteen between 1990-1992, touring the world and recorded the album Fire and Ice and Eclipse.

Lalle Larsson is a leading star on the Progressive Rock scene, having recorded with artists such as Agents of Mercy, Jon Anderson, Gary Willis, and Randy Brecker. He has also released three albums with his own Lalle Larsson´s Weaveworld.

Binding together this fine cast of performers is the artwork of the legendary Hugh Syme, known best for his work on so many of those classic Rush album layouts. With Syme's unique approach, the current Karmakanic circle is complete.

All shows 21+

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