Upcoming Shows

Rik Emmett of Triumph - Acoustic Duo Performance

FridaySeptember 29, 20178:00pm $35 / $70 VIP meet and greet

Rik Emmett gained international recognition as the lead singer/songwriter/guitarist with Triumph. The adjectives 'prolific' and 'eclectic' frequently pop up in Rik's profiles, after five decades in the biz. Following over a dozen platinum albums from his Triumph years, he produced 19 more as an indie, ranging from rock....

PHUN

SaturdaySeptember 30, 20178:00pm $8 advance / $12 door

PHUN is headed back to Milwaukee! The band will return to Shank Hall for the second time in 2017, and what a year it has been. The band has been playing in Milwaukee for many years but seems to have finally found a home in Shank Hall. The venue famously references the movie and fictional band Spinal Tap. In the movie,....

Cornell Thigpen

SundayOctober 1, 20177:00pm $20.00

Keyboard player, organ player, music producer and music director Cornell Thigpen's credits include working with legendary artists such as Mary J. Blige, Chaka Khan, Kenneth (BabyFace) Edmonds, Stevie Nicks, Patti Labelle, BeBe and CeCe Winans and many others. Cornell's extensive music career includes tours worldwide, as....

Recently Added Shows

TWRP, Planet Booty

TuesdayOctober 3, 20178:00pm $12 advance / $15 door

TWRP is an elite squad of rockstars from the future currently based in Toronto, on a mission to spread fun and eliminate boredom across the universe. Current stop: Earth, Current Continent: North America. They specialize in 80s/90s inspired synth/rock/funk jams sometimes instrumental but sometimes with deliciously cheesy....

Nora Jane Struthers

ThursdayOctober 19, 20178:00pm $10 advance / $12 door

Born in Virginia and raised in New Jersey, Nora Jane Struthers grew up playing and singing bluegrass and country music with her banjo-playing father. After a move to Nashville, Tennessee and a brief stint fronting the band Bearfoot, in 2012 she formed her band the Party Line and started taking her songs on the road,....

NRBQ, Miles Nielsen & The Rusted Hearts

ThursdayOctober 26, 20178:00pm $25.00

Richard Shindell

ThursdayNovember 2, 20178:00pm $25.00

Bob Schneider

FridayNovember 3, 20178:00pm $20.00

Hugh Masterson and The Contenders

WednesdayNovember 15, 20178:00pm $12 advance / $15 door

Guttermouth, Koffin Kats, The Atom Age, Gallows Bound

WednesdayDecember 6, 20178:00pm $20.00

Drivin' N Cryin', Lovespark

SaturdayDecember 16, 20178:00pm $20.00

Celebrating their 32nd Anniversary together, Atlanta-based folk rock act, Drivin N Cryin, have spent most of 2017 on tour. In October 1985 Drivin N Cryin played their first show at Atlanta's famed 688 Club. The band quickly gained attention for its blistering live shows and amassed a rabid fanbase in the fertile soil of....

Toronzo Cannon

FridayDecember 22, 20178:00pm $15.00

Local H

FridayDecember 29, 20178:00pm $20.00

Local H is known for their blistering live shows and for pioneering the two-man band set-up -- frontman Scott Lucas covers both guitar and bass through an extra pick up in his guitar and drummer Ryan Harding pounds out the rest of the sound. While they have earned praise in the past for their catalog of clever concept....

Davina and the Vagabonds

SaturdayFebruary 17, 20188:00pm $20.00

Davina Sowers and the Vagabonds have created a stir on the national blues scene with their high-energy live shows, sharp-dressed professionalism, and Sowers' commanding stage presence. With influences ranging from Fats Domino and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band to Aretha Franklin and Tom Waits, the band is converting....

Y&T

TuesdayMarch 6, 20188:00pm $25.00

Uli Jon Roth

ThursdayApril 26, 20188:00pm $25.00

Uli Jon Roth is a true multi-instrumentalist who writes his own musical scores and arrangements. He is also a music director, paints realistic oil paintings, writes his own poetry as well as philosophical treaties. Uli invented his own unique instrument - the by now legendary 6-octave Sky guitar which is without peer.....

Alternative Concert Group Presents

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).

Violent Femmes, Brett Newski

FridayOctober 20, 20178:00pm $45 - $55

At South Milwaukee Performing Arts Center, Milwaukee, WI.

Tickets on sale at the South Milwaukee Performing Arts Center box office, online at southmilwaukeepac.org/tickets, or by phone at 414-766-5049.

Violent Femmes, Brett Newski

SaturdayOctober 21, 20178:00pm $45 - $55

Violent Femmes, Brett Newski

SundayOctober 22, 20177:30pm

At the Grand Theater, Wausau, WI.

Tickets on sale at grandtheater.org or at the Grand Theater box office Monday-Friday 9:00am-5:30pm and 9:00am-noon on Saturdays from September through May.

Violent Femmes, Brett Newski

MondayOctober 23, 20177:30pm $60 / $55

At Grand Opera House, Oshkosh, WI.

Tickets on sale at grandoperahouse.org, by phone at 920-424-2350 or 1-866-96GRAND or at the Grand Opera House box office.

John Anderson

TuesdayOctober 24, 20177:30pm $45 / $49 / $59

At the Eau Claire Regional Arts Center, Eau Claire, WI.

Tickets on sale at eauclairearts.com, by calling 715-832-2787 or at the box office Monday-Friday 9:00am-4:30pm (9:00am-7:00pm on Thursdays).

Violent Femmes, Brett Newski

TuesdayOctober 24, 2017

At the Barrymore Theatre, Madison, WI.

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

John Anderson

WednesdayOctober 25, 20177:30pm $45.00

At the Barrymore Theatre, Madison, WI.

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

Violent Femmes, Brett Newski

WednesdayOctober 25, 2017

At Eau Claire Regional Arts Center-State Theatre, Eau Claire, WI

Tickets on sale online, at the State Theatre box office or by phone 715-832-2787.

The Marshall Tucker Band

ThursdayOctober 26, 20177:30pm $45 / $49 / $59

At the Eau Claire Regional Arts Center, Eau Claire, WI.

Tickets on sale at eauclairearts.com, by calling 715-832-2787 or at the box office Monday-Friday 9:00am-4:30pm (9:00am-7:00pm on Thursdays).

Violent Femmes, Brett Newski SOLD OUT

FridayOctober 27, 2017

At Meyer Theatre, Green Bay, WI

Tickets on sale at the Resch Center box office, Ticket Star or by phone 800-895-0071.

The Black Jacket Symphony presents Prince's Purple Rain

ThursdayNovember 2, 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).

The Black Jacket Symphony presents Prince's Purple Rain

FridayNovember 3, 20177:30pm $35.00

At Meyer Theatre, Green Bay, WI

Tickets on sale at the Resch Center box office, Ticket Star or by phone 800-895-0071.

The Black Jacket Symphony presents Prince's Purple Rain

SaturdayNovember 4, 20177:30pm $35.00

At the Eau Claire Regional Arts Center, Eau Claire, WI.

Tickets on sale at eauclairearts.com, by calling 715-832-2787 or at the box office Monday-Friday 9:00am-4:30pm (9:00am-7:00pm on Thursdays).

Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real and Nikki Lane Stagecoach Spotlight Tour

SaturdayNovember 4, 20178:00pm $25.00

At The Rave, Milwaukee, WI.

Tickets on sale at therave.com, etix.com, by calling 414-342-7283 or at The Rave box office Monday-Saturday 10:00am-6:00pm.

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).

King Crimson

SundayNovember 26, 20177:30pm $49.75 / $59.75 / $79.75 / $121.75

At The Riverside Theater, Milwaukee, WI.

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

George Winston

TuesdayDecember 19, 20177:30pm $38.00

At the Wilson Theatre at Vogel Hall at the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts, Milwaukee, WI. Tickets on sale at the Marcus Center box office, all Ticketmaster outlets, Ticketmaster.com or 414-273- 7206. ....

George Winston

WednesdayDecember 20, 20177:30pm $38.00

Steven Wilson

ThursdayMay 3, 2018

At The Pabst Theater, Milwaukee, WI.

Tickets on sale at Pabst or Riverside box offices, online at pabsttheater.org, or by phone at 414-286-3663.

Quick Calendar

Blazing soul-blues rocker Tommy Castro's musical roots run deep. As he unleashes his high-energy music to fans all over the world, Castro is inspired by the sounds he absorbed while coming of age on the rough and tumble side of San Jose, California. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, this was Castro's home turf--his stomping ground. It was a place where the street-tough Mexican Americans and the counter-culture hippies came together to drink, smoke, laugh, party and listen to tunes--the hippies with their blues and rock, the Mexicans with their soul music. Mixing the blues-rock he loved and the soul music he heard blasting out from the lowriders cruising the streets, along with the socially conscious message songs of the day, Tommy's own sound was born. He honed his guitar playing to a razor's edge on the city's competitive bar scene, where he learned how to capture an audience with his intensely passionate vocals, stellar musicianship and dynamic performances. Almost every major rock and soul act, from Ike & Tina Turner to Janis Joplin to Elvin Bishop to Taj Mahal, toured through the area, and Castro was at almost every show. He saw John Lee Hooker, Albert King and Buddy Guy & Junior Wells at the same local blues bar, JJ's, where he often jammed, dreaming of one day busting out.

Over the course of his career, Tommy Castro's San Jose DNA has always inspired his music, whether he's squeezing out the deepest blues or the funkiest soul grooves. He and The Painkillers--bassist Randy McDonald, keyboardist Michael Emerson and drummer Bowen Brown--have played hundreds of shows to thousands of music lovers, always leaving his audiences screaming for more. All of his albums are filled with original blues, soul and West Coast rock, each song showing a slightly different side of Castro's multifaceted musical personality. Billboard says the band plays "irresistible contemporary blues-rock" with "street-level grit and soul."

On his new album, Stompin' Ground, Tommy Castro opens windows into both his past and his always-evolving musical future. Produced by Castro and guitar wunderkind Kid Andersen and recorded at Andersen's soon-to-be legendary Greaseland Studio in San Jose, Stompin' Ground finds Castro letting loose on a set of 12 tracks featuring six originals and new versions of songs he learned and played as a young up-and-comer. He is simultaneously looking back with autobiographical originals and cover songs that inspired him, while forging a forward trail with modern lyrics atop blistering blues-rock. With The Painkillers firing on all cylinders behind him, Castro lays it all on the line from the opening notes of Nonchalant to the final, introspective Live Every Day. From the autobiographical My Old Neighborhood to the socially aware Enough Is Enough and Fear is The Enemy to versions of Elvin Bishop's Rock Bottom and Taj Majal's Further On Down The Road(two of his favorite songs from his earliest heroes), Stompin' Ground is pure musical pleasure. "As soon as we started cutting," Castro says, "we knew we were onto something."

In addition to the The Painkillers, Castro's friends Charlie Musselwhite (harp and vocals on Live Every Day), Mike Zito (guitar and vocals on Rock Bottom), Danielle Nicole (vocals on Soul Shake) and Los Lobos' David Hidalgo (guitar and vocals on Them Changes) add their talents to Stompin' Ground. "I heard each one of my friends' contributions to these songs in my head as I was working on them. Happily, when I reached out and actually asked, everyone said yes."

Born in San Jose, California in 1955, Tommy Castro first picked up a guitar at age 10. He fell under the spell of Eric Clapton, Elvin Bishop, Taj Mahal, Mike Bloomfield and other blues-rockers. As he got older, Castro discovered the bedrock blues of Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Freddie King, Buddy Guy, Elmore James and the deep-rooted soul of singers like Ray Charles, Wilson Pickett and James Brown. By his teenage years, he was regularly heading to San Francisco to see his favorite artists at legendary venues like The Fillmore West and Winterland. He began playing in a variety of Bay Area blues and soul bands in his early 20s, making a name for himself as a hotter than hot live artist. In 1985 he became lead singer and guitarist for the locally popular blues band NiteCry, and began gigging regularly throughout Northern California.

Castro joined Warner Brothers' artists The Dynatones in the late 1980s, gigging all over the country. He formed the first Tommy Castro Band in 1991, releasing his debut album in 1996 on Blind Pig. He hit the road hard, picking up new followers everywhere he went. In the mid-1990s The Tommy Castro Band served as the house band for three seasons on NBC Television's Comedy Showcase(airing right after Saturday Night Live), bringing him in front of millions of viewers every week. During the 1990s and into the 2000s, Castro released a series of critically acclaimed CDs for Blind Pig, Telarc and 33rd Street Records, as well as one on his own Heart And Soul label.

Castro joined Alligator Records in 2009, releasing Hard Believer to massive acclaim. He won four of his six career Blues Music Awards including the coveted B.B. King Entertainer Of The Year Award (the very highest award a blues performer can receive). His song Hard Believer took first place in the blues category of the International Songwriting Competition. His next release, 2011's Tommy Castro Presents The Legendary Rhythm & Blues Revue--Live!, was a boisterous and searing collection of highlights from a series of live performances anchored by Castro and an all-star collection of blues giants, including Rick Estrin, Michael "Iron Man" Burks and Joe Louis Walker. His relentless road-dog approach--gig after gig, night after night--has won him loyal, lifelong fans everywhere he plays. The Washington Post says Castro is "phenomenal and funky" with "soulful vocals and inspired blues-rock guitar."

Castro formed The Painkillers in 2012, creating a lean, mean four-piece lineup, capable of delivering soul-shaking, muscular music. The band released The Devil You Know in 2014 and Method To My Madness in 2015, with critics shouting praise and admirers cheering his every move. Castro had stripped his music down to its raw essence with the new, smaller band, sounding bigger than ever. On record and on stage, Tommy Castro & The Painkillers' road-hardened, seemingly telepathic musicianship bring an unmatched passion to Castro's blue-eyed California soul and hard-rocking, good-time songs. His hometown newspaper, The San Francisco Chronicle, describes Castro's music as, "funky Southern soul, big city blues and classic rock...silvery guitar licks that simultaneously sound familiar and fresh."

With months of tour dates across the U.S. and Europe, Tommy Castro & The Painkillers will be bringing the songs from their new album directly to their fans. No Depression says "Castro plays gritty, string-bending blues like a runaway soul train...a glorious blend that rocks the soul and lifts the spirits." Blues Revue says simply, "Tommy Castro can do no wrong." With Stompin' Ground, he is clearly, once again, doing everything right.

"Some artists are interested in being complicated, it's almost like they're speaking another language just to the connoisseur of the art," says Tristen. "I have no interest in that. My style is not to be exclusive. It's to be inclusive. I'm trying to be as clear as possible. I've always been interested in the purest form of the idea, so that it can communicate massively."That theme is at the core of Tristen's music -- music that is smart but accessible, meticulously constructed but undeniably infectious.

A native of South Side Chicago turned longtime Nashville resident, Tristen has released two critically acclaimed solo records -- 2011's Charlatans at the Garden Gate and 2013's CAVES -- and toured extensively as a member of Jenny Lewis' backing band. The folk-oriented Charlatans earned her praise as "Nashville's best-kept secret" (The Boston Globe), and the more synth-pop-oriented CAVES featured "tales of greed, alienation and heartache, made poignant but never saccharine by their electronically enhanced surroundings" (Nashville Scene).

Tristen has been singing since she could speak, and writing and recording her own songs since she was a teenager. Now an established touring musician with finely tuned chops and a knack for lashing exceptional melodies to her singularly poetic lyrics, she travels with a practiced backing trio of top-notch Nashville sidemen. Together, they bring Tristen's lush, expertly crafted arrangements to life, giving the singer room to brandish her outsized vocals and win audiences with her powerful stage presence -- performances that channel the rock 'n' roll eclecticism of David Bowie and the creative prowess of Dolly Parton.

"Performing is my favorite thing to do in the world," she says. "It's like meditation for me. I let go. Ultimately, performing is about the audience, the singer and the band, and the shared experience. And at the center is truth and beauty."

In 2016, Tristen released her first book of poetry, Saturnine, a collection of 18 poems that span from the "green carpet hills by San Francisco" to the "cold hard streets of Chicago" and brim with a kaleidoscope of characters. Her third album, Sneaker Waves, will be released July 7 via Modern Outsider Records.

New York-born singer-songwriter Jenny O. started her career in Los Angeles, California with her self-produced Home EP. Songs from this record were licensed for film and television, commercials for Subaru and Toyota, a video game called Rocksmith, and earned her tours with artists like Ben Harper, Leon Russell, and Father John Misty. Soon after, Jenny released her debut full-length album, Automechanic, and toured separately with Rodrigo Amarante and Mexican-American psychedelic musician Rodriguez across the U.S. and Europe.

Jenny appeared with her band on Last Call With Carson Daly twice in 2014 and recorded the theme song for ABC's Selfie, as well as a Coca-Cola commercial for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games. She spent the past year writing in Nashville and has returned to California to record her second album with producer Jonathan Wilson.

Jenny is a multi-instrumentalist, performing mainly on guitar but in the studio often plays bass, piano and her own string arrangements on viola. She writes songs reminiscent of classic styles of the 60s and 70s and has been likened to songwriters like Harry Nilsson, Judee Sill, and J.J. Cale. In 2014 LA Weekly named her one of The 10 Best Young L.A. Singer-Songwriters and in 2015 she has won the Holly Prize/Song Writers Hall of Fame.

Over 5 weeks, late in 2017, Frank Reader, Paul Livingston and John Douglas from the Trashcan Sinatras will be touring the USA as a three-piece acoustic lineup. The band mates celebrate their 30th anniversary, having formed in Irvine, Scotland in 1987. "I've been in the band for thirty years now," says Livingston. "That's a long time to be in any relationship. It's a good time to take stock, see how far we've come, and think about where we're headed."

With six well-spaced full-length albums to their credit, starting with debut Cake in 1990, through last year's Wild Pendulum, the band has written and released just north of 100 songs. Over the course of the tour, they plan to play each one of those songs. "Now that we've reached a century of songs," says Reader, "it feels like a good time to meet up with them all again, like a high school reunion." He adds, "Those songs whose love and friendship we've nourished over the years will no doubt turn up most nights and show us why we've remained so close over the years, but it'll be most interesting to see how those with whom we've lost touch have aged." He expects that some songs will "turn up drunk and disheveled," while others "may now be dashing and distinguishing, more so than we all would have guessed. I can't wait to meet them all again and find out."

Every show will consist of two unique sets and fans can expect to hear some covers, too. Although the band often delves into its back catalog for obscurities, particularly during acoustic tours, many songs have never been played live. Others may never be played again. "We will be playing some songs live that we have never attempted before, so in some ways, it's a tightrope walk for us. But, these songs are what we have done with our lives, so I accept the challenge and will try to not look down," says Douglas.

Performing acoustically will transport many of those 100 songs back to their origins. "Most of our songs are written with acoustic guitars and voices in quiet, solitary rooms, so it will be nervy but exciting to bring that sound out of the backroom and into the light," says Douglas. According to Livingston, "touring with no rhythm section means you have to take your cues more from the vocal. You can bend time and create space for the emotion of the song to come through."

Thirty years on, this is a chance for the band to reflect on its past, take a look at the present and imagine where they might go next. Playing all of the songs they've written seems a good way of celebrating the journey so far. Come along early, join the band in celebration and see which songs the evening brings.

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.

In Chicago, a city overflowing with unrivaled blues talent, world-renowned Lil' Ed & The Blues Imperials have been standing tall for almost 30 years. The band's big sound, fueled by Lil' Ed's gloriously rollicking slide work and deep blues string bending, along with his rough-edged, soulful vocals, is as real and hard-hitting as Chicago blues gets. The Chicago Sun-Times says, "Lil' Ed & The Blues Imperials are the hottest purveyors of bottleneck boogie to come out of Chicago since Hound Dog Taylor."

Lil' Ed Williams comes to the blues naturally. His uncle, Chicago slide guitar king and master songwriter J.B. Hutto, taught him how to feel, not just play the blues. Nine albums and thousands of performances later, Lil' Ed is now universally hailed as a giant of the genre. Lil' Ed and The Blues Imperials--bassist (and Ed's half-brother) James "Pookie" Young, guitarist Mike Garrett and drummer Kelly Littleton--have remained together for nearly 30 years (an extraordinary feat for any group), the band fueling Ed's songs with their rock-solid, road-tested, telepathic musicianship.

The Big Sound Of Lil' Ed & The Blues Imperials is the musically electrifying, emotionally intense and downright fun new album from the band Guitar Player calls "a snarling boogie-blues machine...they blow down the walls." The CD features Lil' Ed's incendiary playing and playful, passionate singing, with the ragged-but-right Blues Imperials cooking like mad alongside him. Produced by Williams and Alligator president Bruce Iglauer, it is a tour-de-force of authentic, deeply rooted Chicago blues. Williams wrote or co-wrote all but two of album's 14 songs, the other gems written by Uncle J.B. The Chicago Reader says the band's music "is a soundtrack for dancing and celebration infused with a sense of hard-won survival. Williams attacks his lyrics like he attacks his guitar: with bare-bones intensity that makes each word sound like a matter of life or death."

Born in Chicago on April 8, 1955, in the heart of Chicago's tough West Side, Ed grew up surrounded by music. He was playing guitar, then drums and bass, by the time he was 12. Ed and Pookie received lessons and support from their famous uncle. "J.B. taught me everything I know," says Ed. "I wouldn't be where I am today without him." Ed and Pookie spent their teen years making music together, and in 1975 formed the first incarnation of The Blues Imperials. They played their first gig at a West Side club called Big Duke's Blue Flame, splitting the $6 take four ways. Over the next few years, the group played every club in the neighborhood. Even so, they still needed day jobs to pay the bills. Ed worked ten hours a day as a buffer at the Red Carpet Car Wash. Pookie drove a school bus. Night after night they played their roaring brand of blues in tiny clubs, and eventually the word reached Alligator president Bruce Iglauer.

At the time, Iglauer was looking for local talent for The New Bluebloods, an anthology of some of Chicago's younger blues musicians. "Ed and his band had a good reputation," recalls Iglauer. "I had only seen them live once or twice. I knew Ed was a hot slide player, but I had no idea what he and the band were really capable of. I just knew that their music reminded me of Hound Dog Taylor and J.B. Hutto, two of my favorite musicians. It seemed like having a band this rough and ready would be a nice change of pace for the anthology, so I asked them to come down to the studio and cut a couple of songs. I never expected what happened."

The band--never having been in a recording studio before--treated the studio like a club, playing live to Iglauer, the engineer, and all the people on the other side of the control room glass. After Ed recorded his two rehearsed songs quickly, there was still plenty of studio time left, so they just kept playing. After 10 songs were in the can, Iglauer offered the band a full album contract. The end result of the session was 30 songs cut in three hours with no overdubs and only one second take. Twelve of those songs became the band's debut album, Roughhousin', released in September of 1986.

The national press reacted with amazement to the blues world's new discovery. Feature stories ran in Spin, Musician, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The Chicago Tribune and dozens of other publications. The Village Voice declared, "Roughhousin' just may be the blues album of the year." The New York Times raved, "Raw-boned, old-fashioned Chicago blues has a new young master--Lil' Ed Williams."

But it wasn't until 1987, when guitarist Mike Garrett joined the band, and a year later, when Garrett recruited his Detroit hometown friend Kelly Littleton to play drums, that things really began to take off. Garrett's risk-taking rhythm guitar work and Littleton's unpredictable, old school drumming were the perfect complement to Lil' Ed's and Pookie's rambunctious playing. With their 1989 album Chicken, Gravy & Biscuits, doors opened and audiences poured in. Through relentless touring, the group crystallized, becoming tighter with each performance, more adept in their abilities to read each other's musical moves. Their spontaneous and unpredictable live show became legendary among blues fans worldwide.

They have played the Chicago Blues Festival multiple times, and have appeared at The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Portland's Waterfront Blues Festival, The Tampa Bay Blues Festival, The San Diego Blues Festival, The Pennsylvania Blues Festival and dozens of other festivals around the country. Satisfying worldwide demand, they have performed at festivals in Canada, Great Britain, France, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Poland, Japan, Australia, India, Turkey and Panama.

Lil' Ed & The Blues Imperials released eight Alligator albums between 1986 and 2012. With each one, the band's national and international stature grew as their fan base--known internationally as "Ed Heads"--continued to expand. With 2006's Rattleshake, Ed and company reached a whole new audience. Die-hard "Ed Head" Conan O'Brien brought the band before millions of television viewers on two separate occasions. Success and accolades never stop pouring in. Living Blues called 2012's Jump Start "scorching and soulful" with "crafty, clever lyrics...joyous and stomping."

The group took home the Living Blues Award for Best Live Performer in 2011, 2012 and 2013. They won the prestigious Blues Music Award for Band Of The Year in both 2007 and 2009. The Associated Press says, "Williams fills Chicago's biggest shoes with more life and heat than anyone on stage today."

With The Big Sound Of Lil' Ed & The Blues Imperials, the band continues to bring their blistering Chicago blues to "Ed Heads" new and old. Their infectious energy, joyful showmanship and masterful playing have been honed to a razor's edge by their many years together. Lil' Ed, Pookie, Mike and Kelly have seen sports stars and presidents, musical fads and fashion trends come and go. Meanwhile, their fiery music has more than stood the test of time. "We're not band members," says Williams, "we're family, and families stay together." Night after night, gig after riotous gig, the musical family called Lil' Ed & The Blues Imperials bring their big, dynamic Chicago blues sound to fans across the country and around the world

You can't teach the blues. It's not something that can be codified in music books or learned on YouTube. It goes much deeper than that and it comes from the inside. It's about the way the guitar strings are bent and the sound gets transmuted directly from a player's soul. It's simple at the end of the day. Either you've got it, or you don't. JARED JAMES NICHOLS has definitely got it. The Wisconsin-born, Los Angeles-based singer, writer and guitarist's new EP Old Glory & The Wild Revival channels blues grit and gusto through bombastic arena-size rock 'n' roll. It's raw, raucous and righteously real. As soon as he got his first guitar at 14-years-old, the stage immediately called to Jared. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that he grew up minutes away from The Alpine Valley Resort--where Stevie Ray Vaughan performed his last show. However, no divine coincidence could truly foreshadow just how adept at the six-string he would eventually become. He personally traces the beginning of his story back to a blues jam that his mother brought him to. "Two weeks after I got an electric guitar, I was on stage with all of these old cats from Chicago playing the blues," he recalls with a smile. "The music immediately resonated with me. It was all about the feeling and the soul behind it. None of these guys were music nerds. They were true blues guys playing what they felt. That power and reality struck a chord in me." Soon, he found himself practicing for twelve hours every day. Hitting up the local jams, he ended up sharing the stage with legends including Buddy Guy, "Honeyboy" Edwards, and "Big Jim" Johnson as well as opening for Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Derek Trucks. By his 21st birthday, he had logged over 500 gigs. After a short stint at Berklee School of Music in Boston, he headed out to Los Angeles where he garnered numerous accolades at the world-renowned Musicians Institute, winning the 2010 Jerry Horton guitar contest, the 2011 Les Paul tribute contest, and the 2011 "Outstanding Guitarist" award. 2012 saw him release his debut EP, Live at the Viper Room, gaining the notice of both Guitar World and Guitar Player and inking a deal with Sony/MTV's Hype Music Publishing. However, everything simply laid the groundwork for Old Glory & The Wild Revival. Teaming up with Aerosmith engineer Warren Huart, Jared began working on the five-song set in early 2013. Honing his voice as a guitarist, songs like the first single "Let It Go" speak through a delta-style soul with the right amount of rock bravado. "That one is a blues rock song about love and give and take," he reveals. "It's got its own style and it opens the door to what I'm doing". Elsewhere on the EP, "Blackfoot" charges forward with a riff as sharp as a tomahawk and a whole lot of spirit punctuated by Jessica Childress of The Voice's backing harmonies. "In Wisconsin, I was surrounded by Indian reservations and culture," he continues. "I'd do casino and reservation tours as a kid. When I wrote the song, I was reading about all of these badass tribes. I love that spirit and vibe inherent in Native American culture. The Blackfoot were truly bad motherfuckers. That lick is what I feel their culture represented." On stage, it truly comes to life. Jared's presence becomes amplified with guitar in hand. Audiences have experienced that everywhere from his performances at NAMM and SXSW to the iconic Sturgis Buffalo Chip Festival where he will play alongside ZZ Top and Kid Rock and the Harley-Davidson 110th Anniversary in Milwaukee this summer. Ultimately, he lives up to that idea of Revival in the EPs title. "I want people to get excited," he concludes. "I want them to feel like anything is possible in this music. I want them to know great blues rock exists. If I can give someone the same inspiration I was blessed with, I've done something right."

With an undeniable voice and an arsenal of powerful songs, Martha Wainwright is a beguiling performer and a refreshingly different force in music. Martha began building a buzz with her well-noted EPs, prior to her 2005 critically and commercially successful debut LP, 'Martha Wainwright'. London's Sunday Times included the song, "Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole" in their songs of the year and Rolling Stone called it "a blistering prelude to her debut album."

In 2008, Martha followed with her sophomore album, 'I Know You're Married But I've Got Feelings Too', which showed her great musical maturity and talent as a songwriter. In 2010 she toured the world promoting her third album, 'San Fusils, Ni Souliers A Paris: Martha Wainwright's Piaf Album'. This extraordinary album, an homage to the great Edith Piaf, was received with glowing reviews, leaving audiences stunned by Martha's incredible range and talent. Her last album, 'Come Home To Mama', produced by Cibo Matto's Yuka Honda, was heralded by Mojo Magazine as a "substantial and brilliantly sung career best."

Now, four years later, 'Goodnight City' is poised to be her best record yet. This album returns to the rawness of her first release and includes songs by Martha, as well as songs written by notable artists to highlight her incredible voice. These songs are written by her friends and other great songwriters such as Beth Orton, Glen Hansard, her brother Rufus Wainwright, Michael Ondaatje, and Merrill Garbus of tUnE-yArDs.

'Goodnight City' was produced by Thomas Bartlett (Sufjan Stevens, Glen Hansard) and Brad Albetta (Angus and Julia Stone, Teddy Thompson) to create a poignant album that covers a dynamic spectrum in a fluid and cohesive manner. The album was recorded in Montreal, where Martha and her husband have resided for the last couple of years with their two children. 'Goodnight City' will be released November 11th worldwide.

Martha was born in New York City to folk legends Kate McGarrigle and Loudon Wainwright III. She is Rufus Wainwright's sister and they often collaborate in shows and on records. Martha is also half-sister to Lucy Wainwright Roche and they recently made a record together, 'Songs In The Dark' to much acclaim including a JUNO nomination. Martha tours her music around the world to sold out audiences on several continents. She has spent time on the silver screen playing characters in Martin Scorsese's "Aviator" and more recently in the HBO special "Olive Kitteridge" alongside Frances McDormand. Currently Martha is finishing up a book titled "Stories I Might Regret Telling You" which, like her songs, is a window into her life without artifice, pretension or fakery.

Nick Moss and his band have been featured performers at blues festivals across the globe, but it's at home in Chicago -- the capital city of the blues -- where he and his band get the ultimate stamp of approval from one Hall of Famer and blues icon Buddy Guy. Music fans the world over come to his famous club where they'll often find Moss playing that prestigious stage, booked by the icon himself because "Nick is a favorite at my club, Legends. He always works hard to please the audience." Other luminaries are equally effusive in their praise, rare in the competitive world of guitar gods, as none other than former Roomful of Blues bandleader and distinguished solo artist Ronnie Earl declares "Nick Moss is my favorite guitarist," high praise from one of the greatest practitioners of the instrument.

It's that ability to please, entertain, and amaze audiences with his staggering guitar skills that make the 16-time Blues Music Award nominee one of the top draws on the blues circuit and most exciting, dynamic performers working today. Noted author and historian Bill Dahl has praised Nick's "mastery of the classic Chicago sound" and declared him "a prolific songwriter, and the most exciting blues guitarist we have around here." That's quite an accolade from a man who has interviewed icons like Bo Diddley, written liner notes and overseen massive retrospectives of giants like Freddie King and Sam Phillips' historic Sun Records label, and written a respected book about the history of Motown.

Nick Moss demonstrates his mastery of the classic Chicago sound and so much more onstage -- and has also been recognized by the International Songwriting Competition for his ability to add amazing new songs to the venerable blues canon. His creativity, which has advanced his sound to incorporate new styles and ideas, has made an impression on blues master Jimmy Thackery, who says, "Nick is at it again, pushing the evolution of his music, stylistically as well as sonically." His recording career has brought him numerous accolades and his albums have been staples at blues radio nationwide, but he crosses boundaries now, and his songs have scored at rock and jam band stations as well. As a result, 2011's release Here I Am debuted at #2 on the Relix/Jambands.com Radio Chart.

Moss' aptness to please purists and cross boundaries that have helped him connect with audiences worldwide, winning fans and making friends every night in every city when he and his band take the stage. All the great ones make their mark onstage and that's where Moss is at his best. His superior talent is evident on his studio albums but it's his live albums and performances that put him in the rarified territory with the greats. Discovery for yourself what Bill Dahl, Ronnie Earl, Jimmy Thackery, Hall of Famer Buddy Guy, and audiences the world over already know: an evening with Nick Moss is an unforgettable experience and one not to be missed!

The Stone Foxes are San Francisco's rock band. They bear the torch of their predecessors with the knowledge that rock 'n roll can move a new generation. They’ve played in front of thousands at festivals like Outside Lands and Voodoo Fest, they’ve headlined the legendary Fillmore Theater in their hometown and they have supported acts like The Black Keys, Cage the Elephant and ZZ Top. Now, with the release of their fourth album, Twelve Spells, they have solidified a place in their City's rich rock 'n roll history.

Founded by brothers Shannon(vocals/drums/harp) and Spence Koehler(guitar/vocals), who came from the Sierra Nevada foothills near Tollhouse CA, The Stone Foxes started back in the Koehler’s SF State days in the Sunset District of San Francisco. Two weeks before they went on tour in 2011, they decided they needed a keyboard player and they added Elliott Peltzman from Fairfax CA to play for a couple months...but he never left. They needed another drummer who could also play bass and guitar for tour in 2013, so Shannon called his high school friend Brian "The Buffalo" Bakalian...he never left either. Their old friend Vince Dewald came in to jam one day later on that year, and after the Indiana kid started singing, playing his lefty guitar, and his brother's right handed bass upside down, it was a done deal. Finally in 2014, after convincing(basically begging) Vince's old bandmate to move back from his home town of Boston, Ben Andrews came out to play guitar and violin. After their first practice with Ben, the circle was finally complete and they had beers at the Lone Star tavern on Harrison Street to celebrate their new found brotherhood.

The Stone Foxes are an experience to dive into, to get wild with, to sweat with. "The Stone Foxes have an energetic style that's rooted in swampy, foot-stomping rock...ambitious arrangements with diverse moods ranging from acoustic twang to thunderous electric-guitar riffs."
– NPR/WXPN "WORLD CAFE"

Invoking the audience with their commanding stage presence, even jumping down into the crowd if the mood strikes. Their fans know they are in for something action packed and they light a fire in the band, just as the band spreads fire back into them. Guitarists digging in, lead vocals changing between two unique voices with impassioned nuance, and keyboard and organ sounds that fill the space with smoke and burning embers. There are crunchy drum tones, wailing harmonica draws and violin cries that can silence even the most raucous of rooms. But this is not a sit-down-and-watch kind of event. Like Elvis once said about rock n roll, “If you feel it, you can’t help but move to it.” The Stone Foxes' live show brandishes this kind of dynamic passion on stage. It's impossible not to feel it.

With the release of Twelve Spells, the band has chronicled their new beginning.

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.

A Founding member of Hawkwind, Nik Turner gave the group some of it's avant garde edge with this ambitious flute amd saxophone performances, which fit Hawkwind's visionary sound to perfection.
Nik Turner (born Nicholas Turner, 26 August 1940, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England) is a British musician, best known as a founding member of space rock pioneers Hawkwind. Turner plays saxophones, flute, sings and is a composer. While with Hawkwind, Turner was known for his experimental free jazz stylisations and outrageous stage presence, often donning full makeup and Ancient Egypt-inspired costumes.

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.

Punk rock pioneers and provocateurs, the Dead Boys, celebrate the 40th anniversary of their landmark first album Young, Loud and Snotty, with a worldwide tour and a special re-recording of the classic record. Still Snotty: Young, Loud & Snotty at 40! on Nashville-based Plowboy Records is hitting the streets and available online on September 8 with a major US tour kicking off in Dallas, Texas on September 7.

Formed in Cleveland in 1976, the Dead Boys were one of the first American acts to combine the proto-punk fervor of bands like the Stooges and the New York Dolls with a new level of intense energy. 1977 debut LP, Young, Loud and Snotty, was a landmark album in the birth of hardcore punk and produced one of the first great punk anthems, "Sonic Reducer." After one more album, the band split in 1979. They reunited for a few gigs in the 1980s, but following the death of lead vocalist Stiv Bators in 1990, the band members went their separate ways except for two brief reunions in 2004 and 2005. The return of the Dead Boys began with guitarist Cheetah Chrome.

"I've had my solo band for the last ten years, and Dead Boys songs have always been included in my shows and over time the right mix of people came together to pull off and at times enhance the Dead Boys sound. With the 40th anniversary of the Dead Boys on the horizon and a solid band that could interpret and deliver the performance and sound needed to maintain the authenticity of the Dead Boys, I reached out to Johnny Blitz about an anniversary tour and he said yes and we began the journey of what would become Still Snotty: with Jason Kottwitz on guitar, Detroit punk legend Ricky Rat on bass and vocalist Jake Hout from 'zombie' Dead Boys tribute band, the Undead Boys, the Dead Boys 40th anniversary tour started taking shape. I've been singing the Dead Boys songs myself for 20 years because I couldn't find another singer I trusted enough to hand it to," Chrome says. "The first gig with Jake, it was like, 'You got it, man!' I think Stiv would be very proud of our choice."

With the line-up in place, the group brought the house down at a showcase performance at this year's South by Southwest music fest in Austin, Texas. Writing in Paste Magazine, music critic Robert Ham named their set as one of the 10 Best Sets at SXSW 2017. "The group played the entire LP (of Young, Loud and Snotty) with sweat and fire, wiping away all four decades of the past in the process."

Fresh from that success, the urge to capture a new take on the classic album was a natural next step.

"The original album was actually a demo," Chrome says. "None of us had been in a studio before, and we figured we would go back in and do it right, but the label said no. It has stood up, but 40 years later we can do a 'What if?' What would it have sounded like if we could have gone back in? So that's what this is about. It's not better. It's just different."

Produced by Plowboy Records head Shannon Pollard and cut in just three days of sessions in Nashville's historic Creative Workshop Studios, Still Snotty: Young, Loud & Snotty at 40! is an exciting chance to revisit a classic album. Think of it as a "Sonic Expander."

"When Blitz and I are playing it's like we're 20 years old again, of course I feel a lot worse the next morning," Chrome says with a laugh. "It's still just as loud and snotty, we're just old now."

There aren't many bands that have lasted for 50 years, and the list of those still at the top of their creative game is even smaller. High Noon: A 50-Year Retrospective will offer a fascinating look at one of the best. Street date for the set is November 11, 2016.

Over the past half century, NRBQ has proven to be a group of peerless and unique musicians, songwriters and performers, continuing to prove it with each new album and live performance.

Omnivore Recordings will celebrate this legendary band with the release of High Noon: A 50-Year Retrospective consisting of five CDs of classic recordings all carefully remastered along with many rare and previously unissued gems in an attractive package featuring extensive notes and previously unseen photos.

High Noon contains 106 songs and offers a new and fascinating look at a great band, with each disc a unique listening adventure unto itself. The set provides a unique perspective for devoted fans as well as for adventurous newcomers who might only know of NRBQ through other artists' versions of originals like "Me and the Boys," "Ridin' in My Car" and "Christmas Wish" or from hearing their music on TV shows such as The Simpsons, Weeds or Wilfred.

Formed in 1966 in Louisville, Kentucky, NRBQ has always been fueled by a deep, far-reaching love of music ─ from Sun Records to Sun Ra, as founding member Terry Adams told the New York Times in 1969. That abiding and unwavering "music first" philosophy, mixed with joy, spontaneity and a playful, unpretentious virtuosity, has served NRBQ incredibly well over the last 50 years ─ whether at the Fillmore East, the Berlin Jazz Festival, the New York Folk Festival, the Grand Ole Opry or in countless clubs, colleges, concert halls and recording studios; as a quartet or quintet; with or without the Whole Wheat Horns; alone or with rockabilly legend Carl Perkins, country singer Skeeter Davis or wrestling manager Captain Lou Albano. And the band's well-known fans throughout the years are an equally diverse group, including Jimi Hendrix, Bonnie Raitt, the Replacements, Elvis Costello, John Sebastian, and Penn and Teller.

Of High Noon, Adams says, "I'm very happy to have taken part in this project with Omnivore Recordings. We had a lot of fun putting it together and in doing so, we had to go back to the beginning. It has enabled me to come into direct contact with the original intent. Not only that, but I can feel the spirit of every year of the 50. The band started hot and the band keeps getting hotter!

"NRBQ fans are both brilliant and demented. This music has introduced people who are now lifetime friends. There's been romance, marriage and babies. We've seen it all. Just about everything you can think of has been said about NRBQ and it's all true...all of the good, all the bad and all of the in between. I think it might be all evident in this box set. Thanks to all involved. We've got a lot of living to do, don't we?"

Rockford, IL-based Miles Nielsen has spent nearly a decade enthralling audiences with music that draws force from the prime years of Western-influenced rock music and classic '60s soul. Claiming influences as diverse as Otis Redding's classic soul and Jellyfish's cult power pop recordings.

With deep feeling and top-shelf talent, houserocking blues masters The Cash Box Kings play tough, real deal classic Chicago blues with boundless energy. They also deliver raw, passionate Delta blues, jumping proto-rock 'n' roll, and steamrolling "bluesabilly," their original mix of Chicago blues and Memphis rockabilly. As anyone who has ever been to one of the band's raucous performances will testify, The Cash Box Kings know how to throw a party. They're fueled by the powerhouse harmonica work of Madison, Wisconsin-based songwriter Joe Nosek and the huge, gritty vocals of Chicago bluesman Oscar Wilson. Their original songs range from humorous stories of Internet love to harrowing tales of Chicago's violent gun epidemic. Every song they perform--be it a striking original or a scorching Chess, Sun or Vee-Jay cover--explodes with contemporary authority and radiates old-school authenticity. According to Grammy Award-winning blues legend Charlie Musselwhite, "The Cash Box Kings play with real taste and feel. Not only is it good blues but it's a jumping good time, too! I ain't lyin'!"

Joe Nosek founded The Cash Box Kings in Madison, Wisconsin in 2001 and, since 2007, has co-led the band with the charismatic, larger-than-life vocalist Oscar Wilson. Over 20 years apart in age and coming from vastly different backgrounds, the two form an unlikely pair, combining Wilson's indisputably authentic inner city Chicago blues vocals with Nosek's harmonica, songwriting and singing talents. The music they create is brilliantly displayed on The Cash Box Kings' Alligator Records debut, Royal Mint. According to Wilson, "The Cash Box Kings is a throwback to the golden age of blues with some kickin' fresh young blood. Joe is my best friend in the music world--the band is a marriage made in heaven for both of us." "Oscar is godfather to my oldest son," says Nosek. "We have each other's backs. We're family."

Royal Mint features 13 hard-hitting songs, including six impressive originals. From the wry, politically-charged Build That Wall to the chilling Blues For Chi-Raq to the funny and too true If You Got A Jealous Woman Facebook Ain't Your Friend to the timeless versions of songs by Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Junior Wells, Clifton Chenier, Amos Milburn and Jimmy Reed, Royal Mint shuffles, jumps and gets down and dirty, fueled by the band's unmatched musicianship. According Nosek, "Royal Mint is our strongest album. The band is at its absolute best."

Nosek refers to the group of top-notch traditional players who comprise The Cash Box Kings as "a blues collective." Live and on record, members of the "collective" appear in different combinations for different performances, creating an anything-can-happen experience. In addition to co-leaders Nosek and Wilson, the full ensemble includes world-class guitarists Joel Paterson and Billy Flynn, drummers Kenny "Beedy Eyes" Smith and Mark Haines, bassist Brad Ber with newest member Lee Kanehira (replacing their longtime pianist, the late Barrelhouse Chuck) rounding out the band.

In their first six years, The Cash Box Kings won a large and loyal audience across the Midwest. Wilson joined the band in 2007, bringing with him an instantly commanding stage presence and an authoritative vocal style that gives fire-breathing power to the music. A self-taught musician and singer with an encyclopedic knowledge of almost every blues song known to man, Wilson--standing 6'1" and weighing over 300 pounds--is a natural-born entertainer and a perfect foil for Nosek and the band. Born in 1953 on Chicago's 43rd Street (aka Muddy Waters Drive), Wilson grew up in the company of many famous blues artists. Junior Wells, Elmore James, Big Smokey Smothers and close family friend David "Honeyboy" Edwards were all regulars at weekly Friday night fish fries/jam sessions at the Wilson home. Throughout his adulthood, Wilson held regular jobs but was always welcome sitting in with Chicago blues mainstays Melvin Taylor and Johnny B. Moore. His vocal inspirations range from Muddy Waters, B.B. King and Albert King to Jimmy Reed, Jimmy Rogers and Little Walter but he mostly sings like Oscar Wilson. Award-winning harmonica giant and vocalist Rick Estrin (leader of Rick Estrin & The Nightcats) says, "That guy can really sing."

A self-described blues fanatic, Nosek, born in Wisconsin in 1974 and raised in Chicago, spent his youth soaking up as much blues music as he could hear, both live and on record. In his teens, he began sneaking into blues clubs to watch Junior Wells, James Cotton, Otis Rush, Jimmy Rogers, Sunnyland Slim and others. Nosek recalls, "Seeing those guys work made a huge impression on me and propelled me into wanting to learn how to play the blues." He took up harmonica, quickly cultivating his own aggressive, fluid style.

After moving to Madison in the early 1990s, he began sitting in with artists such as Clyde Stubblefield and Luther Allison. Finding like-minded musicians hell-bent on playing raw, rough-edged, hard-charging blues, Nosek formed The Cash Box Kings. They released their first album, Live! At The King Club, in 2003, instantly earning praise from critics and fans, and gaining a reputation as one of the hottest live bands on the circuit.

The Cash Box Kings have earned devoted fans in both Chicago and Madison, the two cities where band members live. They regularly headline Chicago venues like Buddy Guy's Legends and Rosa's Lounge, and have played major festivals across the U.S. and Europe. They've blown away audiences at the Chicago Blues Festival, the Tampa Bay Blues Festival, the Doheny Blues Festival, the Mississippi Valley Blues Festival, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, the Cincinnati Blues Festival, the Cambridge Folk Festival (UK), the Moulin Blues Festival (Netherlands), the Lucerne Blues Festival (Switzerland), the Baltic Blues Festival (Germany) and the Edmonton Blues Festival (Canada). They have also performed in Belgium, France, Spain and Uruguay.

With eight previous releases to their credit and hundreds of live performances under their belts, The Cash Box Kings have won widespread acclaim throughout the blues world. Their 2013 release Black Toppin' won the 2013 Blues Blast Music Award for Traditional Blues Album of the Year. It was also nominated for a 2014 Blues Music Award in the same category. Their last release, Holding Court, was nominated for two 2016 Blues Music Awards (Best Traditional Album and Album of the Year) and the band was also nominated for the Band of the Year Award. They've been featured on NPR Music as well as in the pages of No Depression, The Chicago Tribune, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Living Blues, Vintage Guitar, Blues Blast and many other publications. Living Blues said, "This accomplished band of musicians captures the vibe of traditional blues and flawlessly spins it in innovative ways."

According to Alligator president Bruce Iglauer, The Cash Box Kings are a natural addition to the label. "I love this band because they combine the classic Chicago blues style with contemporary lyrics, true blues vocals and terrific musicianship. Oscar Wilson's voice is a soulful roar like Muddy Waters' and Joe Nosek plays powerhouse harmonica in the James Cotton tradition. Billy Flynn and Joel Paterson are world-class blues guitarists. The whole band can deliver jumping party shuffles or down-in-the-alley gritty blues. Their fresh songs bring wry humor to subjects like current politics, the pitfalls of social networking and life on the tough streets of Chicago."

Nosek agrees, saying, "We're very happy about finding a new home with Bruce Iglauer and the good folks at Alligator Records. As blues musicians who grew up in Chicago, becoming a part of the Alligator roster is a great honor for us. It's the label that has released some of our all-time favorite blues records."

With blasting harmonica, soul-deep vocals, original songs and sizzling guitars, The Cash Box Kings boast an array of talent to satisfy blues lovers of every shape and size. On Royal Mint they make old blues new as they continue to create new blues classics, with, according to Elmore magazine, "just the right amount of juke joint grit." Living Blues says The Cash Box Kings are "straight from the golden era of the blues," boasting "an impressive line-up of A-list players. Joe Nosek feels Little Walter and Slim Harpo in the essence of his soul. Singer Oscar Wilson could be right out of [Chicago's famed] Checkerboard Lounge in its glory days. The Cash Box Kings are a dancing and listening pleasure."

Originally from New York, now dividing his time between Buenos Aires, Argentina and New York's Hudson Valley, Richard Shindell is a writer whose songs paint pictures, tell stories, juxtapose ideas and images, inhabit characters, vividly evoking entire worlds along the way andexpanding our sense of just what it is a song may be. From his first record, Sparrow'sPoint (1992) to his current release, Careless(September 2016), Shindell has explored the possibilities offered by this most elastic and variable of cultural confections: the song.

The path that led him to songwriting was both circuitous and direct. Taking up the guitar at the age of eight, he listened but imagined that composing a song was out of the question.

After college and a nine month stint in a Zen Buddhist community in Upstate New York, he headed to Europe with his guitar, finding something not approaching a livelihood performing in the Paris Metro, where he discovered "I loved the acoustics in those tunnels, but only when they were empty."

Upon running out of money he entered Union Theological Seminary, where the celestial acoustics of the chapel inspired his first "keeper" composition: On a Sea of Fleur de Lis. Ostensibly a paean to the Virgin Mary, the song marked his rupture from the church and the beginning of his creative life. Its underlying themes - immanence and transcendence, human love and divine love, the particular and the general - have continued to resonate through subsequent work, right up to the present. In many ways, his new album Careless,represents a further exploration of those ideas.

Joining the songwriter scene in New York City led to a deal withShanachie Records for Shindell's first three albums: SparrowsPoint(1992),BlueDivide (1994), and ReunionHill(1997). The latter, produced by multi-instrumentalist Larry Campbell, won the AFIM (NAIRD) award for "Best Contemporary Folk Album" in 1998. Its title track was covered by Joan Baez on her 1997 release, Gone From Danger. In 1998, Shindell joined forces with his friends Dar Williams and Lucy Kaplansky to make CryCryCry (Razor and Tie), a collection of covers. The group toured in support of this highly acclaimed album, leaving audiences spellbound by their gorgeous three-part harmonies.

By then Shindell was beginning to stretch out as a harmony singer, guitarist and performer. In 1999, Shindell released a live band album, Courier (Signature Sounds) that remains a fan favorite. The year 2000 brought the release of a new collection of originals, SomewhereNear Paterson (Signature Sounds), produced by Campbell. That year also saw a major life-change: with his Argentine wife and their two small children, Shindell moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Taking a few years to get acclimated and learn the language, in 2004 he followed up with Vuelta (Koch Records), joining with Argentine band Puente Celeste. The decade's next release was a collection of covers, SouthofDelia (2007), Shindell's first foray into production. More than simply a cover record, the song-selections and performances of SouthofDelia were that of an expatriate looking back at the country and culture he moved away from. His next collection of original songs, NotFarNow, was released by Signature Sounds in 2009. For 13 Songs You May or May Not Have Heard Before, which The Telegraph (UK) called "a stunningly good record", Shindell revisited some of his earlier material, giving fresh interpretations to old favourites.

In 2015 he joined forces again with Lucy Kaplansky to record another collection of covers, TomorrowYou're Going (Signature Sounds), also produced by Larry Campbell. Consisting mostly of love songs, or love lost songs, it provided Shindell and Kaplansky an occasion to revel in their distinctive, two-part harmony with the backing of a top-notch band (Byron Isaacs, Dennis McDermott, Bill Payne, and Campbell) - all thanks to the participation of a committed community of fans who financed the project via the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter. The campaign more than doubled its funding goal in less than 48 hours.

Shindell continues to tour nationally in the United States, with the occasional forays into Canada, the UK, and Europe. Although known primarily as songwriter, Shindell takes a more holistic view of his career. Producer, writer, singer, guitarist, interpreter: it all adds up to a life in music.

Bob Schneider has reigned as a de facto king of the Austin music scene for a couple of decades now, and while no one stays on top forever, the man shows no signs of decay in quality or creativity. Schneider is the city's genius chameleon, mixing pop, hip-hop, folk and biting humor with essential melodies and bloody brilliant lyrics. His joys and heartbreaks, laid bare in song, help us understand our own.

Schneider has been a recording artist for 25 years, putting out his first record ("Party Till You're Dead") in 1991 as frontman for Joe Rockhead, a funk-rock combo in the vein of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. That band was followed by his best-known group, Ugly Americans, which toured with the Dave Matthews Band and Big Head Todd and the Monsters. Ugly Americans was a kind of alt-rock supergroup, with former members of Cracker, Poi Dog Pondering and Mojo Nixon's band.

Schneider also fronted a full-on funk ensemble that played around Austin in the late 1990s called The Scabs, at the same time he was establishing himself as a solo artist. His first solo project, "Songs Sung and Played on Guitar at the Same Time," came out in 1998, and he's gone on to record an almost inconceivably diverse and eclectic array of songs since then, with his work making it onto the soundtracks of seven major motion pictures (and one indie film).

All told, Schneider has been the singer and main songwriter on nearly 30 studio albums, and he has been named Musician of the Year six times at the Austin Music Awards. Considering the renowned strength of the music scene in Austin, that's saying something. His artistry coupled with his movie-star looks and boyish charm makes it a wonder he's not a household name around the rest of the country the way he is in Austin.

His prodigious musical output is a result of a songwriting challenge group he started 16 years ago while touring. At first, the challenge was to write one song a day, and the people doing the writing were on the tour bus with him. They'd come up with a title each morning and at the end of the day play the songs they came up with for each other.

The pace of the songwriting challenge has eased up substantially since its beginnings, going to one song a week, but the scope of the participation in the group has widened to include a lot of widely known musicians.

"We've had lots of famous folks in the game from time to time, but they usually don't last very long," Schneider says. "The exception would be Jason Mraz, who has been in the game on and off for six or seven years and is one of the most consistent songwriters in the group. Very talented and will always turn a song in. At the end of the day, though, I really only have the group as a motivation to get me to write a song each week. Otherwise, a month might go by without writing anything and that would be a shame."

The past few years, Schneider has grouped the songs he's written in a year under an album title, just to kind of keep track of when they were written. Titles for recent years have included "Here's the Deal," "The Ever Increasing Need to Succeed," "Into the Great Unknown" and "Mental Problems." This year's theme (and the name of his current concert tour) is "The Practical Guide to Everything."

Schneider has a fantastic website where fans can listen to all of the songs from the three five- song "King Kong Suite" EPs he released last year, with humorous commentary from Schneider himself between songs. The website also has the 10 videos he created for "King Kong" songs using public-domain found footage, including the menacing "Black Mountain" video that culls scenes from Francis Ford Coppola's directorial debut.

The website also offers a chance to stream his regular Monday evening shows at Austin's Saxon Pub. "The Saxon Pub shows are unique in the fact that I play a lot of material there that I don't play anywhere else," Schneider explains. "New stuff that I wrote that week or in the last few weeks. Really old material that we haven't played in a while. I hardly play any of the stuff that you'll hear on the road, which is a mix of the best of everything. The best new material alongside the best of my last 20 years of writing songs."

...He has an almost Dylanesque reputation for keeping things fresh, with shows so different from one another that for years he [has] recorded every show and...[sold] copies for people to purchase right after the show.

"I play a lot of cities twice a year, and I like the fact that a lot of my fans will come see me play every time I come to town, knowing that I'll be playing material they've never seen me perform and might not ever perform again," Schneider says. "I don't have any of the banter planned either, so that stuff is usually unique to that night as well. It keeps things fresh for me and allows me to play crowd favorites that I've been playing for years, but still makes the whole thing feel new overall for me and hopefully for the audience."

JC Brooks makes soul-infused, genre-bending music that is energetic and kinetically charged. The grab-the- listener-at- all-costs mashup manifesto has been captured to a T on the band's new joint, The Neon Jungle, which is set for an April 7, 2017 release via Rock Ridge Music. Their soul mashup version of Wilco's "I'm Trying to Break Your Heart" was a nationwide jam released by Bloodshot Records as JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound, but with the new album The Neon Jungle, they have dropped "the Uptown Sound" but continue as one powerful live band. Brooks himself describes The Neon Jungle as an album-length depiction of "one crazy, incredible night out." JC Brooks has made a career out of delivering the goods, from club stages to the biggest festivals in US and Europe. The live version of the The Neon Jungle will be flowing from a stage near you.

The Right Now's pop-meets-soul sound is more than a vehicle for Stefanie Berecz's captivating voice. The celebration of thoughtful, catchy songwriting and intricate arrangements evokes a subtle sophistication in the tradition of Quincy Jones' 70s and 80s masterpieces. Since 2009 the band has toured much of the United States and released two acclaimed albums, racking up placements in television, national commercials, and the multi-million-selling video game Watch Dogs.

The Right Now's Chicago roots permeate their music and performances: breezy horn lines sit atop soul grooves old and new, all while Berecz elevates one audience after another with her "classic yet contemporary voice" (Philadelphia Inquirer). College radio stations from Asheville to Seattle put 2012's Gets Over You on the CMJ charts, and critics nationwide have championed TRN as "the real deal" (Pittsburgh City Paper). The seven-piece band landed an official Record Store Day release in 2012--all 750 copies sold out immediately--and collaborated with New York label Deep&Disco on a remix project. The Right Now has opened for Fitz & The Tantrums, George Clinton & Parliament/Funkadelic, Bettye LaVette, Lee Fields, and many others along the way.

The newest album Starlight examines a complicated world through the eyes of the fighter, the lover, the philosopher, the addict, the mother. It covers musical ground as diverse as the city that spawned TRN: dance beat elation, synth-pop grandeur, intimate ballads, and gritty soul. Buoyed by fuzzed-out guitars and a menacing drum beat, Berecz relates a tale of corruption and innocence lost in "Everything is Broken:"

No one ever told him
No one ever showed him
Underneath the gold trim
Everything was broken

Both on Starlight and in their acclaimed live shows, Berecz and The Right Now confront the darkness of modern times head on, utilizing their music as a beacon to navigate to safer ground. The band tours behind Starlight in 2017.

Lost + Found is an apt title for Hugh Masterson's first solo effort, set for a June 2, 2017 release on Rock Ridge Music. The six songs cover a heartfelt journey through surviving loss and life changes while gaining self-awareness through experience. His self-deprecating way of viewing himself is endearing, and his songs are deeply personal. "I use songwriting as therapy," he says. "I think other people will relate to these songs. Finding happiness daily is not an easy thing."

Recorded at Key Club Recording Co. in Benton Harbor, Michigan, the album was co-produced by Masterson and Bill Skibbe, best known as engineer for The Black Keys, Dead Weather, The Kills, and many others. The duo succeeded in bringing Masterson's own unique perspective to the Americana music he makes, his sound boasting a Midwestern bounce and jangle coupled with Nashville wail and grit. It's easy, it's familiar, it's twangy-goodness, pedal-steel Southern rock; it's a dusty ride down a road winding through rural Wisconsin or backwoods Tennessee.

Growing up in Butternut, Wisconsin, Masterson lived a very rural life in a tiny town: population (as of 2013) is 372. "There were no businesses, really, besides the gas station, a bakery, bars and taverns," Masterson explains. "The bar was the meeting place. The parents would take the kids there so people could socialize and listen to whatever music was playing on the jukebox." Their dad's ultimate favorite was The Band, which was a constant in the Masterson household, along with the Beach Boys, Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones, along with John Hiatt and Lucinda Williams.

The first single, the title track "Lost + Found," tells the story of Masterson getting mugged one night in Milwaukee. He was hit in the head with a tire iron and his jaw was broken in two places. I got beat up just walking around town/Hold my head up high still on the ground/ Don't know why I came here/Don't know what I'm fighting for. Masterson explains: "It's about when you feel like you're not sure why things happen to you. You're not sure how to navigate life the best way that you possibly can, because you're not seeing the signs that you need yet."

Several years after the mugging, and following the death of his mother, Masterson made the move from Milwaukee to Nashville. Unbeknownst to him, this move would end up being the catalyst for the breakup of his band, Hugh Bob and the Hustle, who were starting to enjoy both industry and fan attention. Masterson was set on leaving Wisconsin while the rest of his band decided to stay put. "I had planned on moving to make a better opportunity for all of us," Masterson says. "I just assumed everyone else was going to come with me... that was the plan. Then I got here and no one else showed up. Life changed."

Masterson took quickly to the East Nashville music community, befriending a number of artists with whom he's toured recently, such as The Lone Bellow, Margo Price, Nikki Lane, Anderson East and several others. Additionally, he's drawn attention from the Americana Music Association, CMT, KCRW's "Morning Becomes Eclectic," Rolling Stone, World Café, and South by Southwest.

Even though he always felt music calling, Masterson is also a skilled woodworker, which is his creative and rewarding day job. "I've always liked working with my hands," he explains. "Growing up where I did, if something broke, you fixed it. You figured it out somehow. I feel really calm when I have stuff to do with my hands."

Masterson plans to hang up his woodworking tools long enough to hit the road to bring his intensely personal songs to a live audience later in the year. "Playing solo, I feel a responsibility to be captivating and keep people's attention. I'm just trying to be entertaining, to have a decent message people can relate to, and to play good music." With Lost + Found, Masterson is poised to achieve his goal of helping other people by sharing his own experiences. "I hope people can find something in these songs they can relate to, whether it be fun times or hardships."

Americana/folk rock band The Contenders follow up their 2014 release 'Meet The Contenders' with their first full length studio album 'Laughing with the Reckless' on Rock Ridge Music on November 3, 2017.

Lady luck had introduced singer songwriter Jay Nash and singer and drummer Josh Day in Los Angeles over a decade ago when they bonded over a shared love of The Band, roots music and a sacred admiration for the great American songbook. As their paths continued to cross over the years, collaboration, they concluded, would be inevitable.

Together as The Contenders, the pair make the sort of music found in the intricate and varied tapestry that is real Americana - full of grit, with a steady heartbeat and a hint of honky-tonk -- writing songs that speak of wanderers and highways, lovers and losers, good times and missed chances, all of it with a ferocity born of hard work and honed skill.

Country Weekly have said "The duo's sound paints a picture of open stretches of road as well as lazy days at home -- sonic comfort food constructed on a bed of groove and storytelling."

The Contenders start a 10-date tour of Europe in October before heading back to the States in November for a nine-show run in support of the album release with stops in Boston, Philadelphia, Washington DC, New York, Minneapolis, Chicago, Spring Lake (MI), Columbus and Nashville.

The Contenders' raucous foundation of rhythm and harmony is finding unmistakable resonance with audiences. 'Laughing with the Reckless' is very much about the perseverance of hope in dark times along with the powerful connection of music, old friends and loved ones, all delivered with a wry and wistful narrative.

So, sit back, pour yourself a glass of something good and meet The Contenders.

NYC trio Consider the Source defy easy description. If intergalactic beings of pure energy, after initiation into an order of whirling dervishes, built some kind of pan-dimensional booty-shaking engine, powered by psychedelics and abstract math, it'd probably just sound like a CTS tribute band. Drawing from progressive rock, fusion and jazz, with alien sounds soaked in Indian and Middle Eastern styles, CTS blends disparate parts into a striking, utterly original whole. Dubbed "Sci-Fi Middle Eastern Fusion", the band's music strikes a rare balance between cerebral and emotional, intellectual and primal. A relentless touring schedule has won the band a fervent following from California to Israel, with fans ranging from jam-band hippies and jazz cats to corpse-painted headbangers and prog geeks.

Formed in 2004, Consider the Source features Gabriel Marin on fretless double-neck guitar, bassist John Ferrara, and drummer/percussionist Jeff Mann. Called "the guiding light for his generation of six-stringers", Marin channels the mystical fury of McLaughlin and Coltrane into wailing melodies, kaleidoscopic soundscapes and boneshaking riffs. With a background in classical musics both Eurpoean and Indian, and an instinct for avant-jazz and destructive metal, Marin's hypnotic fusion of styles is ever unpredictable. Ferrara's propulsive, percussive attack, equally suited to simple grooves and impossible chords, can ground the music or launch it into space. His madcap gumbo of slap bass, Indian rhythms, earthy minimalism and complex tapping constantly pushes into strange new worlds, whilst still dropping thick booty-clap beats. Underneath them lies Mann's rolling thunder; dense rhythmic architecture built from pure swagger and bounce. Half double-bass prog-metal, half crackle-pop Buddy Rich swing, with African and Balkan swirls, Mann's muscular, freewheeling polyrhythms are the engine fuel for Consider's multiversal mischief. Even when not improvising, Consider's music is always a conversation, a roiling stew of dynamic interplay. Each member of Consider the Source alternately leads and follows, spars and assists; in any single song, alliances are made and broken, bargains struck and divorces finalized.

Touring from coast to coast, as well as Europe and the Middle East, has not only earned the band thousands of fans, but has allowed them to perform with a wide variety of well-known artists, including Victor Wooten, Wayne Krantz, King Crimson Projekt, Kris Myers (Umphrey's McGee), Wyclef Jean, Andy Statman, Matt Darriau (Paradox Trio), Oteil Burbridge, Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, Dumpstaphunk, Keller Williams, George Porter, Jr., Jeff Sipe, Panzerballet (Germany), Eatliz (Israel), Freak Kitchen (Sweden), Morglbl (France), and many others. They have performed at numerous festivals and events, including Burning Man, Gathering of the Vibes, the NYC Fretless Guitar Festival, Catskill Chill, Sun Seekers Ball (Canada), Aura Music & Arts Festival (Florida), Jazz Fest (New Orleans), Head For The Hills Festival & SXSW (Texas), Rootwire (Ohio), and the NYC Gypsy Festival. The band's latest release, "World War Trio (Parts 2 & 3)" (2016) is available at considerthesourcemusic.bandcamp.com.

Although The Steepwater Band got their start as devotees of delta blues, they have since been expanding on their influences taking on everything from psychedelia to Americana, and of course, rock and roll music. Formed in Chicago in 1998, the band's signature sound is at once a nod to earlier rock n' blues combined with a raw and gutsy musical approach. Founding band members Jeff Massey (vocals & guitar), Tod Bowers (bass) and Joe Winters (drums) have a synergy that comes from years of playing together. In early 2012 the long-time trio have been joined by Eric Saylors (guitar & bk vocal), from Indianapolis, IN. Mr. Saylors brings an added depth to the TSB LIVE sound, where the foundation laid by Bowers & Winters leaves the space for the guitars to soar and vocals to shine. Massey always performs with a passion that can belie his virtuosity, while being true to the song at hand.

The band's infectious energy is equally evident in their live performances, as critics and fans hail their shows as forceful and intoxicating. It is their humble devotion to music, and a commitment to achieving their musical goals without compromising the integrity of their musical vision that make The Steepwater Band such a refreshing find. In 2010, the band released the highly lauded live record entitled "Live at the Double Door" which contained tracks from their previous two LPs, "Revelation Sunday (2006)" and "Grace and Melody (2008)."

The Steepwater Band has maintained a grueling schedule throughout the last 10 years, averaging about 125 shows per year. They have toured and shared the stage with acts such as Gov't Mule, Buddy Guy, Wilco, Taj Mahal, Marc Ford, ZZ Top, T-Model Ford, North Mississippi All Stars, Leon Russell, Drive-By Truckers, Robert Randolph & the Family Band, Cheap Trick, Bad Company and Heart. In 2005, the band made its European debut, performing at the Azkena Rock Festival in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain. In the following years, the band has returned to the United Kingdom and Europe for multiple club and festival tours, increasing their loyal overseas fan-base.

THEM VIBES BLEED ROCK N' ROLL.

Formed in East Nashville's underground rock scene in 2013, the band quickly shook the foundations of Music City with their blitzkrieg live show and soulful songwriting. Influenced by the rhythmic sway of The Faces and T-Rex and infected with the raw energy of the Rolling Stones and the Black Crowes, Them Vibes have injected new life into the anemic arm of what currently passes for mainstream rock n' roll.

Co-founded by singer-songwriters Brother Love and Alex Haddad, Them Vibes released their debut record, Shine On, independently and began hitting the Nashville and Austin scenes as a five-piece band playing coveted gigs at the High Watt, The Basement, The Mercy Lounge, The Continental Club, the Blue Bird Café, to name a few. Their wild, high- voltage revival of a live show was brought to festival crowds at Austin's SXSW; they were the headliner atThe Tomato Music And Arts Fest; opened for the Flaming Lips at the Sound Harvest festival; and, in front of thousands of onlookers, they have opened for such classic artists as Lynyrd Skynyrd and Molly Hatchet.

Them Vibes' sophomore release was the heavy hitting EP TV. Grammy award-winning producer and engineer Richard Dodd (Tom Petty, George Harrison, Counting Crows, The Civil Wars, Kings of Leon and Wilco) took the helm as producer. The result was a five song cliff dive of psychedelic, hard driving, slinky grooving, swamp-howling rock n roll.

The single "Mammas Gotta Secret" took radio by storm, with national radio play on over twenty stations nationwide. Network television began to taken notice, as well. Both album's respective cuts garnered placements on ABC's Nashville, NBC's Grimm, Fox's Cooper Barrett, and CMT's Redneck Island and Dude Perfect, and the Netflix Original series The Ranch. Their biggest commercial success was led by their raucous song Crying Shame, which was chosen by T-Mobile to lead their spring campaign.

Off the heals of their strides stateside the band turned their attention across the pond embarking on a month long European tour. Playing sold out shows in Germany, France, Belgium, Slovakia, and Spain, gaining critical acclaim, radio play and most importantly throngs of new fans.

When they returned to the U.S the band went right to work writing and recording their new album Electric Fever. Larry Florman (Brother Love), Alex Haddad, lead guitar player Kyle Lewis, and the prodigious, up and coming Nashville producer Bobby Holland wanted to make the most ambitious rock n roll record to come out in the last decade. With the help of the rhythmic fury of drummer Sarah Tomek and bassist Judd Fuller, Them Vibes did just that. Recording everything full band and live at Addiction Studios in Nashville, Electric Fever is a kaleidoscope of sound and sonic ecstasy. The twelve side LP is colored in Muscle Shoals soul, hip shaking beat break funk, southern rock harmony guitars, tribal heavy rhythms injected with rock n roll ferocity, broke down acoustic delight, and all and above driven by harmony and groove full speed ahead.

The self titled single Electric Fever has already been leaked to the number one independent radio station in the United States, Nashville's WRLT Lightning100, and in its inception has caught quite a buzz. The single, due to popular demand, has been officially released on iTunes and every major music streaming platform, and the album Electric Fever is due out late spring. The band will be hitting the US interstate in support of their new record.

The R&B Cadets played their first gig shortly after New Year's in 1980 and their last in the summer of 1986. In that time they got a lot of folks out on the dance floor, playing a distinctive mix of of deep soul cuts from Paul Cebar's massive record collection and some sparkling originals, written by John Sieger, often in tandem with Michael Feldman, a friend and now longtime host of Public Radio's Whad'ya Know?

Splitting lead duties with Sieger and Cebar was the lovely chanteuse, Robin Pluer. Owner of one the lovelier voice heard in the midwest, Ms. Pluer was a dollop of sweetness at the top of the band's deep range. Rounding out the lineup was Mike Sieger, John's brother and vocal doppelganger, who played bass. Original drummer Cy Costabile, was later replaced by Bobby Schneider and the saxophonist Juli Wood was replaced by keyboard/sax man Bob Jennings.

In it's prime, the band had a large following in Milwaukee, where they were pretty much the house band at the late, lamented Century Hall. They travelled well too, with fans in the Twin Cities, Chicago, Madison and even New York where they played legendary clubs like CBGB's, The Knitting Factory and The Lone Star. Their only record, Top Happy, came out in 198-. It featured a song produced by Nick Lowe, a fan who had stumbled across them after playing a show in Milwaukee. The record got great reviews and could have been the start of even bigger things, but like many bands, people were pulling, and being pulled, in different directions.

The positive result of their breakup was two, then three very vital and entertaining acts. There was Semi-Twang, which concentrated on John's songs and did a record, Salty Tears for Warner Brothers that gathered more love than sales. John later moved to nashville and had many of his songs recorded by artist like Dwight Yoakam, Flaco Jimenez and The Bodeans.

Paul and Robin continued with the beefed up and ever-popular Milwaukeeans, releasing a record in the 1990s on Shenachie that got radio play around the country. That lineup stayed around until Robin bid adieu. Tired of touring and now married, she headed to New York for a while, before returning. She has carved out a special niche between soul, swing, standards and the French chanson that she loves, and is still performing today.

In 2009 Semi-Twang reunited and have released two CDs, both of which garnered raves. Paul has continued non-stop, his latest was out last year with his most recent moniker, Tomorrow Sound. The three headed beast has been in rehearsal, tightening up songs old and new. The crowd at their first reunion gig in many years was up and dancing at the first down beat, you probably will be too.

Anthony Gomes, #1 Billboard Blues Artist, is a triple threat force as a guitarist, vocalist and songwriter. Blues Revue Magazine recently declared that, "Gomes' formidable guitar chops and authentic singing place him in the forefront of modern blues." This, along with his high-energy shows and dynamic stage presence, make him one of the top draws on the Rock/Blues circuit today. Gomes has headlined concerts in 17 countries and has had the honor of sharing the stage with B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Robert Plant, Joe Bonamassa, Heart, Jonny Lang and Kenny Wayne Shepherd.

Word of Gomes' electrifying performances has reached Eric Clapton, Morgan Freeman, John Goodman, Toby Keith, Jonny Lang, Ron White and Vince Vaughn who have all attended Gomes' concerts. After experiencing Gomes live, John Goodman referred to him as "a pure soul brother" and comedian Ron White declared his official endorsement of Anthony Gomes. Perhaps the greatest complement was offered by Morgan Freeman who jokingly professed that Anthony was, "not bad for a white boy."

In addition to performing, Gomes is an award winning blues history scholar, earning the University of Toronto's C.P. Stacey Award for the highest overall academic grade point average by a history major. Anthony completed his master's degree thesis on the racial and cultural evolution of blues music, graduating with high distinction.

Believing that music can inspire the human spirit, Anthony founded the Music Is The Medicine Foundation in 2010. This non-profit organization is dedicated to changing the lives of others through the healing power of music. Through private donations and winning sizable grants from State Farm Insurance and CVS Pharmacy, the foundation has funded songwriting scholarships, offered music education programs, and donated musical instruments to those in need.

Born in Toronto, Canada to a Portuguese father and a French-Canadian mother, Gomes began playing guitar in his early teens and was drawn to the blues sounds of B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix.

He relocated to Chicago in the late '90s to learn from the blues masters. During his brief stint as a sideman for Magic Slim and the Teardrops, Gomes put together his own group and won the first annual Buddy Guy's Legends "Best Unsigned Blues Band" competition in 1998. Later that year, Gomes released his debut CD, Blues in Technicolor, which introduced him as a guitar-slinger loaded with impressive firepower.

On 2002's Unity, he accomplished the album's title with a heavy mix of styles leading Bandit Blues Radio to name it one of the "Top 30 Essential Blues CDs" of all time. Gomes was elevated to the top of the blues field just one year later when BluesWax Magazine named him "Artist of the Year," an award he would claim for several years in a row due to his endless commitment and touring. Music Is the Medicine (2006) peaked at number four on the Billboard Top Blues Albums chart, only to be outdone by LIVE (2008) debuting at number one. In 2012, Gomes received critical acclaim for his release of Up 2 Zero. The album was named the "Best Blues CD of 2012" by A1 Blues.com and the Blues Underground Network voted the album "Best Blues Rock CD of 2012." The accolades continued in 2013 with the release of Gomes' gusty acoustic album ...Before The Beginning. Blues 411 honored the release with the "Jimi Award" for best Blues/Rock CD of 2013 and it continues to make many "Best Albums of the Year" lists.

Gomes shows no signs of slowing down. 2015 will see the release of Electric Field Holler, a guitar driven blues infused rock 'n' roll album that showcases Gomes' blistering six string work and whiskey soaked voice. "I feel like this will be our pinnacle year in terms of creativity and artistic achievement," says Gomes, "it's time to turn it up."

Once Vinnie Moore picked up his first guitar (a Kay) at the age of 12, he became, as he describes it, a "guitar freak." His earliest influences included - among others - Jeff Beck, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, and Queen.

Vinnie took lessons with a private instructor and at 14, he joined his first band, jamming on cover tunes with drums, bass, 2 guitars and vocals. After a few years of playing with different bands, Vinnie decided it was time to make the jump from covering songs to creating his own music. He quit the band, got a 4-track tape recorder, and began experimenting by recording his ideas and building them into songs. It was evident that he had found his calling; this was the start of his journey as a songwriter.
After many hours of creating tunes with his 4 track, Vinnie sent a demo to Guitar Player magazine, and came to national attention via its "Spotlight" column, written by Shrapnel Records exec Mike Varney. This led to Vinnie's first professional work in the music business which was writing and playing the music for a national Pepsi TV commercial. In 1987, Shrapnel released Vinnie's breakout album, Mind's Eye. Vinnie was quickly heralded "best new talent" in Guitar Player, Guitar, and Guitar World magazines, and Mind's Eye sold more than 100,000 copies.

In 1988, Squawk/Polygram released Vinnie's second effort (and major label debut) Time Odyssey, which solidified his reputation as a musical innovator. His third release was Meltdown, in 1991 (on Relativity/Epic Records); the song Meltdown received national radio airplay on both album-oriented rock (AOR) and hard rock formats. In 1996, Mayhem Records released Out of Nowhere, with Brian Tichy (Billy Idol) on drums and Dorian Heartsong (Powerman 5000) on bass.

On The Maze (in 1999), Vinnie was joined by former MSG drummer Shane Gaalaas, bassist Dave LaRue (The Dregs and The Steve Morse Band) and renowned master musician Tony MacAlpine on keyboards. The Maze was stunning, rooted in the progressive neo-classical style that had already generated legions of loyal fans. Vinnie also displayed a new-found maturity in his songwriting; now, many of his diverse and exotic musical influences, including Latin, Jazz, and the Blues, began finding their way into his signature sound.

Other albums followed: Live (in 2000), with Shane Gaalaas (drums), Barry Sparks on bass, and Wayne Findlay on keyboards, and Defying Gravity in 2001 with Dave LaRue (bass), Steve Smith on drums, and David Rosenthal on Keyboards.

As a performer, Vinnie Moore's resume is impressive. A member of Alice Cooper's band, he toured the U.S. on the Operation Rock'N'Roll tour, and also performed on Alice's album Hey Stoopid. Vinnie's own band has toured extensively as a headliner and also was chosen as opening act for legendary rockers Rush on the Northeast leg of their Roll The Bones Tour. Vinnie also toured Japan as a member of the T.M. Stevens' band, which included Bernie Worrell (Parliament Funkadelic) on keyboards, Wil Calhoun (Living Color) on drums, and Al Pitrelli (Megadeth) on guitar.

Vinnie has done hundreds of guitar clinics all over the world including such places as, Japan, Scandanavia, Italy, Poland, Mexico, Canada, New Zealand, England, Germany and Australia.

In 2003, Vinnie joined the legendary group UFO (Phil Mogg, vocals; Pete Way, bass; Jason Bonham, drums; Paul Raymond, keyboards). Their first effort together as a band was the SPV Records release You Are Here (in 2004); Vinnie was a major songwriting contributor on this record. The band followed You Are Here with a worldwide tour which spanned from March 2004 to August 2005. A LIVE DVD from this tour was released in Nov 2005. Titled UFO Showtime, this two-DVD set also includes bonus footage of the band. The band's second studio effort called The Monkey Puzzle came out in 2006 and marked the return of original UFO drummer Andy Parker. The boys toured Europe and Russia and the USA in April and May 2008. The third UFO studio record with Vinnie in the band is called The Visitor and was released in June 2009 on SPV Records. The band has toured the UK, Europe, and USA, and will continue in Europe in the spring of 2010!
Vinnie's latest CD To The Core (2009 Mascot Records) was released in May 2009 and has received critical acclaim worldwide.

Over many years, Vinnie's 4-track recorder has grown into a home studio, where he's recorded his last two solo CDs, and parts of the UFO CD. Vinnie's home studio is the place where he writes new music.

As well as songwriting and playing, Vinnie is dedicated to teaching. He's conducted guitar clinics around the world, and has released two instructional videos on the HotLicks® label (see the Music page for more information). Vinnie joins his fans at clinics worldwide for, Engl Amplification, and Dean Guitars.

On doing clinics: "I like talking to the fans firsthand and learning from them. It's insightful to hear what they like about what I'm doing, and what they think about the guitar genre...and the whole music scene in general. I definitely feed off of their energy. It's cool to be part of a global guitar community, and it's an honor to know that I can sometimes inspire others to get excited by music and guitar. It always amazes me to me to hear that I have touched someone else by doing something that I love doing so much. I consider it a gift to be playing guitar and writing songs, and feel like one of the luckiest cats in the world to have fans."

On songwriting and musical influences: "I hope to keep growing and learning as a songwriter and as a player, and to explore different musical directions, kind of following the inspiration wherever it leads. I don't plan ahead musically, which keeps things interesting for me. I want to continue following my muse into areas that inspire and excite me. I am basically a rock guy...but love many different styles of music, and am often inspired by - and learn from - all of them. Music is so vast, and there are so many things to pick up from all the different styles. I've kind of always been like this, drawing on different musical influences, partly because I like lots of different things and partly... because I get bored easily! Exploring different directions is fun, and it keeps me excited as both a writer and a player."

On having his own studio: "I love having a studio environment in the house so I can turn my ideas into songs. It's really like my own little space in the universe and I love being there and being creative."

On songwriting: "In other parts of the house, I mostly sit around and play, and I always keep a Walkman cassette player close by, because you never know when an idea for a song is going to pop out. Musical ideas usually happen when you least expect them. I don't consciously try to write; my ideas just come from playing. I record stuff; I never write it down."

On playing: "I have pretty much always considered myself a melody and feel guy. Regardless of which style of music I am playing, the essence of what it is all about for me is definitely the melody and expressing myself emotionally. I love creating melodies that are memorable and can be sung, and if I can make a listener feel emotion when they hear my stuff, it is the highest reward I could ever get."

Gus G. has spent the past decade quietly affirming his place as one of metal's reigning guitar virtuosos. He has recorded more than a dozen studio albums, performed around the world as a member of acts ranging from Arch Enemy and Dream Evil to his own band Firewind, and has been Ozzy Osbourne's guitarist since being personally handpicked by the heavy metal legend in August 2009. Now, with the release of his first-ever solo album 'I Am The Fire' on Century Media Records, the fleet-fingered Greek fret-shredder will embark on the next chapter of his history-shaping career.

"People have been asking me for a solo record for years now, but I didn't want to do an album that sounded like something people have heard from me before," says Gus G. of his solo debut, an album that blends the metal histrionics that fans have come to know and love with a passion for classic hard rock and metal's vintage roots. "Apart from a few instrumentals, this album isn't traditional heavy metal or power metal, it's got more of a classic rock vibe. It's stuff that wouldn't fit on a Firewind record, and I didn't want to push that band in this direction. I consider myself a songwriter as well as a guitar player, and this album allowed me to experiment and explore that different side of me."

That doesn't mean that guitar solos are in short supply -- quite the contrary, they're plentiful throughout the 12 tracks that comprise 'I Am The Fire'. Also plentiful is the roster of friends that help bring Gus G.'s vision to fruition. The aforementioned instrumentals "Vengeance" and "Terrified" feature guest bassists Dave Ellefson [Megadeth] and Billy Sheehan [David Lee Roth, Mr. Big], while the rest of the album features either Gus or Marty O'Brien [Tommy Lee, We Are The Fallen] holding down the bottom end alongside main drummer Jeff Friedl [A Perfect Circle, Puscifer, Devo] and Daniel Erlandsson [Arch Enemy], who guests on the two instrumental tracks.

"The main difference in this recording and album experience is that there was no band, nobody to check with or please and nobody to consult with, it was just me doing whatever I wanted and playing with a lot of my favorite musicians, friends and people I admired," says Gus, who also produced the record and recorded all the keyboards on the album. "When you've been in bands forever, it's liberating to be able to do whatever you want without worrying about living up to the standards of a back catalog. It's a fresh start, and in a lot of ways it's more relaxing -- it's like starting from scratch."

Vocal guests include Devour The Day singer Blake Allison ("I Am The Fire"), Steel Panther's Michael Starr ("Redemption"), Eyes Set To Kill's Alexia Rodriguez ("Long Way Down"), former Journey frontman and current Trans-Siberian Orchesta vocalist Jeff Scott Soto ("Summer Days"), Evergrey frontman Tom S. Englund ("Dreamkeeper"), Adler frontman Jacob Bunton ("Just Can't Let Go") and Yngwie Malmsteen/Therion alum and current Candlemass singer Mats Levén ("My Will Be Done", "Blame It On Me", "Eyes Wide Open" and "End Of The Line") -- and the results are as varied as the names suggest.

"The inspiration for the album started when Mats filled in on a Firewind tour -- I've always liked him and wanted to work with him since he did Yngwie's 'Facing The Animal' album, and I also had other songs that I heard different types of vocals on when I wrote them, like Jeff's voice on 'Summer Days'," Gus explains of the vocals. "Jay Ruston mixed the album, and he also really played a key role in this project -- I wanted to work with him because he made the album by The Winery Dogs sound so big and warm and not digital, so he was one of the first people I played the songs for and he really played an important role in helping pick the perfect people to bring out the details and colors in every song."

'I Am The Fire' was mixed by Jay Ruston [Anthrax, Stone Sour, Steel Panther], produced by Gus G., and recorded between Los Angeles and Gus' home country of Greece through the latter half of 2013. In a career highlighted by a Grammy nomination for his performance on Ozzy Osbourne's 'Scream' album in 2010 and accolades including Guitar Player Magazine's Best Metal Guitarist, the Dimebag Darrell Shredder award at the Metal Hammer UK Golden Gods Awards, and Metal Hammer Greece Best Guitarist on four separate occasions, 'I Am The Fire' serves as a whole new benchmark for Gus G.

"I already have an established band, so there's no pressure on me as a solo artist," he explains. "This is a whole different journey and a brand new adventure..."

Guttermouth is a punk rock band formed in Huntington Beach, CA. Guttermouth has released nine full-length studio albums and two live albums and have toured extensively, including performances on the Vans Warped Tour. The band is infamous for their outrageous lyrics and behavior, which are deliberately explicit, offensive and intended to shock, though usually in a humorous and sarcastic manner. This behavior has sometimes resulted in high-profile problems for the band, such as being banned from performing in Canada for eighteen months and leaving the 2004 Warped Tour amidst controversy over their political views and attitudes towards other performers. In a time where bands take "breaks" in order to have reunion tours along with all types of marketing gimmicks, Guttermouth continues to tour much of the year with no plans on stopping and has proven to be one of the hardest working punk bands still together. For 2014, the band is currently working on a Full Length Studio release, and has recorded several shows to put out a Live Vinyl release in the near future as well.

It's been over 14 years since Vic, Tommy, & E-Ball started The Koffin Kats in their parent's basements and played for beer in local Detroit bars. A psychobilly/punk band with influences ranging from The Damned to The Stray Cats, The Koffin Kats have covered a lot of ground. Nine albums later, a few member changes, and over 2,000 live shows from international tours... the founding lineup returned in 2016.
Six years after his departure, Tommy Koffin returned to playing guitar with The Koffin Kats. With Vic Victor on lead vocals and upright bass, and E Ball Walls on drums. The trio has released a new album called "Party Time In The End Times." They will be touring North America and Europe throughout 2017.

You can keep up with Koffin Kats on all of the social media outlets. The band likes to keep it "old school" and suggests you check out their website [here] for all official information on news and tours.

The Atom Age find their inspiration from the dust covered collections of unhinged 60's Punk and R&B, whose crazed energy was once misconceived as a better fit for your trashcan than for your turntable. While taking many of their cues from these primitive pilgrims of punk, The Atom Age still strive to lay down their own modernized sound.

Coming together in 2009 in Oakland, CA The Atom Age immediately hit the road. Touring heavily enabled the band to develop their powerful live show and unique style. After making some noise in the Bay Area's scene Asian Man Records offered to release the band's second full length in 2012. During a break from touring early in 2014, the members felt it was time to radically refine and hone their sound in preparation for their third full length. A year of writing and recording commenced with the inclusion of a sixth member on 60's Combo Organ.

The new full length "Hot Shame" blends the Rock 'N' Roll swagger of Link Wray with the angular punk of Fugazi and Hot Snakes. A haunting tenor saxophone and transistor organ combo provide an added layer of tone ranging from The Stooges' Funhouse at their darkest, to The Famous Flames at their most energetic. Co Producer Blag Dahlia from legendary garage punkers The Dwarves lent his greasy ears and formidable Rock 'N' Roll knowledge to the band while they tracked the record themselves at their studio; District Recording.

Being raised in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains and stemming from three chord punk rock provides for a unique twist on traditional instruments. With their first album "Empty Flask, Empty Heart", the songs are described as an "aggressive yet melodic collection" ranging from fast and punchy tales of rambling and love, to dark and soulful songs birthed from whiskey and regret.

"Their live set is performed as impeccably as their studio set, and you really can feel how much energy, love, and emotion is poured not only into their writing, but into their performance."

An unsung guitar hero from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he grew up just a few miles from the Waukesha birthplace of the late, great guitarist-inventor Les Paul, Greg Koch has established himself within six-string circles as a masterful technician, accomplished clinician (for Fender) and general bad-ass guit-picker. No less than guitar virtuoso Steve Vai noted Koch's six-string prowess and promptly signed signed him to his Favored Nations label in 2001. Tom Wheeler from Guitar Player magazine hailed him as "fiendishly talented" while other critics have called him everything from "a twisted guitar genius" to "the best kept secret in the guitar firmament."

On From The Attic, his 12th release overall as a leader and third for Germany's ZYX/Peppercake label, the veteran guitar virtuoso joins bassist Tom Good and drummer Del Bennett for an eclectic, hard-hitting program full of incendiary licks and audacious fretboard tricks. Recorded remarkably quickly ("We did the ten tracks in roughly 11 hours," Koch explains) in the attic of guitarist-engineer Chris Hanson's Victorian home on Milwaukee's East Side, these rockin', bluesy originals are imbued with Koch's trademark searing licks and typically clever lyrics. From the blistering, Magic Sam-inspired boogie "Leg Up Foot Out" to the urgent blues inflected "Nova Scotia Cold," from the elegant fingerstyle instrumental ballad "Sleep Tight" to the wild chicken-picking romp "Picked On," Koch and his crew wail with uncanny tightness and authority. "Trouble" is a growling funk-blues number written about Koch's first encounter with his wife-to-be ("Her middle name was trouble, her last name is mine") while "Agree To Disagree" addresses the guitarist's ongoing conflict with the staunch point's of view of loved ones. "Here We Go Again" is a rich, r&b flavored ballad featuring some lyrical, legato guitar work by Koch and the aggressively funky "Happy Versus Right" recalls classic Red Hot Chili Peppers slamming down a thick groove. Koch flaunts some wicked wahwah-inflected slide guitar licks on the mellow "Twice the Man" and they close out the collection with the anthemic, classic rock jam "You'll Rock and Like It," which sounds like an encounter between Jeff Beck and AC/DC."

"The whole gist of this record is kind of where I started from in my career," says Koch of From The Attic. "It's basically tunes with cool guitar things. And I fi nd that if you can have nice little blasts within the confi nes of a short tune, it's much more digestible." And though Koch may be consciously trying to simplify his six-string onslaught on this trio recording, his natural fretboard fusillades ultimately come to the fore. In its 2001 feature story, Guitar Player magazine described Koch's inherently pyrotechnic approach this way: "An impossible stream of riffs jumps off of Koch's fretboard like clowns spilling out of a VW bug -- and when you're convinced that there can be no more, out pops another one."

Born in Milwaukee in 1966, Koch got his earliest musical infl uences from his older brother and later became infatuated with Jimi Hendrix, who remains a profound infl uence to this day. After studying jazz guitar for four years at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, Koch won 1st Prize in the 1989 Bluesbreaker Guitar Showdown judged by legendary bluesman Buddy Guy. Shortly after, he formed Greg Koch and the Tone Controls, which became one of the more popular acts of the region. The band went on to win fi ve Wisconsin Area Music Awards for Blues Artist of the Year ('93, '95 through '98), and Koch personally took in seven WAMA awards as Guitarist of the Year ('92, '94 through '99).

Koch soon found himself as a clinician for Fender, the world's largest and most prestigious guitar and amplifi er manufacturer. Bringing together world-class chops and a humorous ability to articulate sounds and techniques with a genuine devotion to all things guitar, Koch has developed an exceptionally effective approach to conducting guitar clinics. Greg's relationship with music publishing giant, the Hal Leonard Corporation, has also resulted in a string of top-selling guitar method books, including "Guitar Clues: Operation Pentatonic," "Lead Licks," "Rhythm Riffs" and Koch's popular Hal Leonard instructional DVDs -- two on the style of Stevie Ray Vaughan (approved by Jimmie Vaughan), one on Lynyrd Skynyrd, another celebrating revered blues stylists like Albert King, Albert Collins, Elmore James and Guitar Slim and one on his own twisted take on guitar called "Guitar Gristle" -- have revolutionized video guitar instruction with a combination of humor, effective instruction and inspiring musical performances into a package that can only be described as "edu-tainment."

In his self-penned liner notes to his 2001 recording, The Grip, Koch described his guitaristic approach as "Chet Hendrix meeting the Kings (BB, Albert and Freddie) at the first annual Zeppelin-Holdsworth Coffee Guzzlers Hoedown." He would subsequently showcase his over-the-top chops and wicked sense of humor on 2003's Radio Free Gristle, 2004's 13 x 12, 2005's 4 Days In the South and 2007's Live on WMSE, which showcases his fiery fretboard work in the company of bassist Roscoe Beck (longtime sideman to guitarists Robben Ford and Eric Johnson), drummer Tom Brechtlein (a former member of Ford's Blueline band and a frequent collaborator with Chick Corea) and the charismatic Austin-based soul singer Malford Milligan (formerly the frontman for Storyville and Double Trouble). Last year's Nation Sack had Koch teaming with Milligan and his current rhythm tandem of Good and Bennett for a collection of Koch originals (including some co-penned with Milligan) along with a cover of John Lennon's "Jealous Guy."

Koch continues to channel all the right people on his most recent collection of blues, funk and R&B, including Jimi Hendrix, Albert King, Albert Collins, Jeff Beck and Roy Buchanan with touches of Stevie Ray Vaughan, Danny Gatton and Richie Blackmore thrown in for good measure. And he fi lters all those killer infl uences through his own slightly bent prism that is tinted with grunge, gristle and good clean fun.

Throughout the history of Chicago blues, the intensely competitive local club scene has served as a proving ground for the musicians, where only the best rise to the top. Iconic blues artists from Muddy Waters to Howlin' Wolf to Koko Taylor to Hound Dog Taylor to Luther Allison all paid their dues in the Chicago blues bars before leaving their mark on the world. The same holds true today, as newcomers look to legends like Buddy Guy, Eddy Clearwater and Lil' Ed Williams for inspiration in taking their music from Chicago to fans across the globe. Now, Chicago-born and raised blues guitarist /vocalist/ songwriter Toronzo Cannon is ready to write his own story as he emerges as one of the city's most popular and innovative blues musicians.

Cannon's unofficial launch from local hero to national star took place on June 13, 2015 at the world renowned Chicago Blues Festival, where he performed as a festival headliner for the massive crowd. After announcing that he had just signed with Alligator Records, he delivered a riveting set, instantly earning tens of thousands of new fans. Original songs filled with razor-sharp solos rained from the stage, as Cannon melded the deepest Chicago blues with contemporary lyrics and soul-tinged vocals. The Chicago Tribune lauded his performance, saying, "Festival headliner Toronzo Cannon's extroverted, compelling guitar style and forceful singing won over a new audience."

His upcoming Alligator CD "The Chicago Way, set for release on February 26, 2016, was recorded in Chicago and produced by Cannon and Alligator president Bruce Iglauer. The album is filled with Cannon's original songs -- from searing blues anthems to swinging shuffles to soulful ballads to blistering rockers -- which tell timeless stories of common experiences in uncommon ways. "I've never worked harder," Cannon says. "I challenged myself at every step, writing each song to connect with someone in my audience at any given show. I try to write songs that will be both up-to-the-minute and timeless."

With his Alligator Records debut, Cannon knows more and more people will be hearing his message: The future of Chicago blues is in good hands. According to Cannon, "To be from Chicago and be signed to Alligator is unreal. To be part of Alligator's history...I'm at a loss for words."

According to Iglauer, "I've watched Toronzo grow as a singer, player and songwriter over the last ten years. He's now become a major blues talent, using the Chicago blues tradition as a launching pad to create his own unique, contemporary, vision. His music comes right from the heart of the city."

Cannon was born in Chicago on February 14, 1968, and grew up in the shadows of Theresa's Lounge, one of the city's most famous South Side blues clubs (and a place where Iglauer was a regular patron). As a child, Cannon would stand on the sidewalk outside the door, soaking up the live blues pouring out while trying to sneak a glance inside at larger-than-life bluesmen like Junior Wells or Buddy Guy. He also heard plenty of blues growing up in his grandfather's home, and listened to soul, R&B and contemporary rock on the radio.

Cannon bought his first guitar at age 22, and his natural talent enabled him to quickly master the instrument. Although his first focus was reggae, he found himself increasingly drawn to the blues. "It was dormant in me. But when I started playing the blues, I found my voice and the blues came pouring out." He absorbed sounds, styles and licks from Buddy Guy, Albert Collins, Hound Dog Taylor, B.B. King, Albert King, Freddie King, Al Green, Jimi Hendrix, J.B. Hutto, Lil' Ed and others. Although influenced by many, Cannon's biting, singing, guitar sound is all his own. As a songwriter, he writes about shared experiences with a keen eye for detail. "Blues is truth-telling music," he says, "and I want my audience to relate to my stories." As a singer, his impassioned vocals add muscle and personality to his already potent songs.

From 1996 through 2002, Cannon played as a sideman for Tommy McCracken, Wayne Baker Brooks, L.V. Banks and Joanna Connor. But he was determined to prove himself. In 2001, while continuing to work as a hired-gun guitarist, he formed his own band, The Cannonball Express. By 2003, he was working exclusively as a band leader. Cannon's first three albums -- 2007's My Woman (self-released), 2011's Leaving Mood (Delmark) and 2013's John The Conqueror Root (Delmark) -- document his rise from promising up-and-comer to star-in-the-making.

Toronzo Cannon has become one of Chicago's most recognized and most popular bluesmen through the sheer force of his music, his soul, his songs, his live charisma, and maybe most impressively, his passion for what he is doing. He's played the Chicago Blues Festival on nine separate occasions, either as a sideman, a special guest or, most recently, as a main stage headliner. When he's home, Cannon drives a Chicago Transit Authority bus by day and performs by night. Using every vacation day and day off and working four 10-hour shifts a week, Cannon arranges his schedule to gig out of town as much as possible. He's performed in a number of U.S. and European cities and continues to build his audience one roof-raising show at a time. It isn't easy, but, like all of the Chicago greats who have come before him, blues is his calling. "I am proud to be part of a movement," he says, anxious to hit the road and bring his music to new fans in new places. "I'm proud to be standing on the shoulders of every great Chicago blues musician who came before me."

Before Mötley Crüe, before RATT, even before there was a Metallica, Y&T was slogging away in sweaty rock clubs around America. When the band formed in the early 1970s, little did they know they would set the standard for hard rock bands that trailed. Many of the biggest acts of the ’80s became popular opening for headliners Y&T—and cut their teeth on the band, as evidenced by the Y&T mentions in tell-all books by acts such as Metallica and Mötley Crüe.

Born in Oakland, California, Y&T is one of the San Francisco Bay Area’s own innovators of the hard rock sound. Whether performing to a festival crowd of fifty-thousand or in an intimate nightclub, Y&T’s high-energy set and passionate performances still captivate legions of fans around the globe, proving Y&T’s music timeless.

Originally formed as Yesterday and Today, the initial powerhouse quartet—featuring Dave Meniketti (lead guitar/lead vocals), Phil Kennemore (bass), Leonard Haze (drums), and Joey Alves (rhythm guitar)—tore through the ’70s and ’80s with their own brand of hard rock. After two ’70s albums on London Records, they shortened their name to Y&T and released eight albums on A&M in the ’80s. Two more albums with Geffen Records marked an era of change with Jimmy DeGrasso (Alice Cooper, Suicidal Tendencies, Megadeth) on drums and Stef Burns (Alice Cooper, Berlin, Huey Lewis) on guitar.

With a discography of 18 albums, three greatest hits collections, plus a boxed set, Y&T has sold over four million albums since their 1974 inception. The band’s most recent single I’m Coming Home has climbed to roughly 1.5 million views on YouTube. Y&T received extensive airplay with hits such as Forever, Rescue Me, Mean Streak, Don’t Stop Runnin’, and Summertime Girls—which played in heavy rotation on MTV. Y&T songs have been featured in a multitude of movies and television shows, including Real Genius, Out of Bounds, Baywatch, and Hunter. After five top 100 albums, songs that tipped into the 40s, two Bammie Awards, and many international television appearances, Y&T’s hits are still played on VH1 Classic and classic rock radio stations worldwide.

With Kennemore’s untimely passing from lung cancer, the band carries on the legacy that is Y&T. Y&T continues to tour the world, featuring Dave Meniketti (guitar/lead vocals), John Nymann (guitar/vocals), Aaron Leigh (bass/vocals), and Mike Vanderhule (drums/vocals), playing songs from Facemelter as well as all the hits and fan favorites. Prepare to have your face melted.

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