Chris Vatalaro is an immensely creative drummer and percussionist, originally from upstate New York, US, and now is based in London, UK. A multi-instrumentalist, Vatalaro has been playing in ‘Antibalas’ since 2003. Known for his amalgamation of orthodox and experimental approaches, he originally started studying music in nursery school and throughout his life has had a great deal of formal training.
Artist Category: Alt Folk
Ruth Garbus
Ruth Garbus (she or they pronouns, b. 1981) is a musician living in Brattleboro, VT. Primarily a songwriter and vocalist, Ruth has released numerous solo albums, EP’s, and singles. She is also a member of the groups Earth Flower and Gloyd.
Folk Collective: May Fair
Come and experience the vibrant atmosphere of Harvard Square at May Fair, where the sounds of The Folk Collective will fill the air with their incredible talent. With their unique blend of folk music, they are sure to uplift your spirits and create a memorable experience.
More details coming soon!
Lee Zangari
“Lee Zangari is a dulcimer player, guitarist, singer, and songwriter based in the Boston area. Their work has been described by WBUR as “detailed and surreal, the mundane rendered profound by surprising juxtapositions.
Jim Infantino
Jim Infantino grew up in the Manhattan of the 70s and 80s where he met Dave Van Ronk at the Speakeasy Open Mic. He studied Philosophy in Philadelphia and decided to move to Boston to become a busker. After playing the local coffeehouses and touring with Ellis Paul, Jon Svetkey, & Brian Doser under the name End Construction Productions, as well as two separate tours with Chris Chander and Dar Williams, he formed a band called Jim’s Big Ego. He has 7 albums with his band and 3 solo recordings. His songs have been featured repeatedly on the Doctor Demento Show, and All Things Considered on NPR. In 2012, after years of touring with his band, Jim got the inspiration for a story too large to fit into song and began writing his debut novel, The Wakeful Wanderer’s Guide. He is currently working on a third book in the trilogy. In February 2023, Jim flew to Iceland to record with producer Kurt Uenala on an electronic/acoustic/ambient album called Utopia Revisited, released this June. He is working on a new album with the band due out 2024. Jim lives in Boston, where he reads to his daughters, meditates, and drinks a fair bit of coffee.
Fredy Clue
Fredy Clue’s music digs deep into people’s hearts and helps them make room for healing and love. After ten years of experience performing on stage, Fredy Clue appears with their own music arranged for Palaver Strings. Fredy meets the audience with their Nyckelharpa and voice, instruments and beats. Together they lift Swedish folk music into a queer world of poetry and emotions. Together with the team of the small and legendary Kakafon Records from Sweden, Fredy released their debut EP on June 2, 2023.
https://fredyclue.com/home
Miles Hewitt
Miles Hewitt is a songwriter and poet residing in Brooklyn, NY. His debut record, Heartfall, drew critical raves, including from The Boston Globe, who named it one of the 50 Best Albums of 2022 and wrote: “A simply brilliant debut . . . by turns intimate and epic, lush with strings and delicate fingerpicked guitar, languid psychedelia and dreamy pedal-steel painted soundscapes.” Heresiarch proclaimed that “Hewitt is truly in league with the likes of Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen” and named Heartfall their favorite album of 2022.
Audrey Pearl
Audrey Pearl is a singer/songwriter who was born in Burlington, Vermont and grew up at the foot of the Green Mountains, with sap on her hands and pine needles underfoot. The natural landscapes of the northeast were foundational to her sense of imagination and creativity and remain an essential source of her inspiration to this day. She writes songs that feel like running through those forests, catching glimpses of memories and daydreams like filtered light through the canopy.
Some of her earliest musical influences were The Beatles and Simon Garfunkel, both of whom weave themselves into her songwriting along with elements of modern indie rock, folk, and pop. Her music could be found on a playlist with artists such as Big Thief, Clairo, Julia Jacklin, and Laura Marling.
Audrey is a firm believer that by looking into someone else’s mind and heart one can often gain valuable insight into their own experiences. When she writes a song, she’s saying to the listener “I’ve felt this way, have you felt it too? If so, let’s carry this feeling together. If not, let me show you so we can better understand and accept one another” Her ultimate goal is for someone to hear her songs and feel validated and less alone in the way they experience the world.
Audrey is a recent graduate of Berklee College of Music where she honed her skills as a writer and performer while majoring in songwriting. She’s released three singles that can be found on streaming platforms and has a new (top secret) project on the way!
Anna Mieke
Anna Mieke’s songwriting and enveloping compositions have asserted her as a vital voice amongst Ireland’s alt-folk genre. The Irish multi-instrumentalist and songwriter based in Wicklow, Ireland, toes the line between folk forms and vivid dreamscapes, drawing on traditional and contemporary motifs. The lyrically ornate and instrumental delicacy of her work, alongside flowing atmospheric arrangements, contributes a challenging, emphatic and new voice to alt-folk.
The release of the Wicklow-based artist’s critically acclaimed debut album, Idle Mind from 2019, garnered Anna Mieke a nomination in the ‘Best Emerging Act’ category at the RTÉ Folk Awards. Early 2022 saw her headline tours across Spain, UK, Ireland and further afield, with a week-long residency in New York (May 2022), collaborating with NYC-based musicians and composers.
Early 2023 took her and her band back to North America for a 16-date headline tour, including shows in NYC, LA and San Francisco, followed by support tours with Florist and Iron and Wine across Europe and the US. Across her career, she has shared stages with Iron and Wine, Anais Mitchell, Lankum, Florist, This Is The Kit, with an upcoming support tour opening for Wilco in Ireland, September 2023.
Anna Mieke’s second album, Theatre, which she recorded + co-produced with Nick Rayner and features contributions from long-standing bandmates Ryan Hargadon (Kojaque) and Matthew Jacobson (UMBRA), as well as Rozi Leyden (Rozi Plain), Brían Mac Gloinn (Ye Vagabonds), Lina Andonovska, Alannah Thornburgh and Cora Venus Lunny, was released in November 2022 and received praise from The Guardian, Brooklyn Vegan, MOJO and Uncut, among others. Anna Mieke was chosen as “Best Irish Act” in the Irish Times, while Theatre was nominated for Album of the Year (2022) in Ireland’s ‘Choice Awards’, and Twin nominated for Best Original Track at the RTE Folk Awards 2022.
E.W. Harris
E.W. Harris is an alt-folk songwriter, producer, and artist based in Brooklyn, NY. A self-styled “Folktronicist” and “Dystopian Romantic,” Harris combines sonic textures, powerful vocals, and memorable melodies to create music he calls “folk tunes from an (im)possible future.” Originally from post-industrial Akron, OH, his musical career flourished in the indie/art rock scene of Athens, GA in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. Harris’s reputation grew with his experimental approach to songwriting, recording, and genre. Upon relocating to Brooklyn, NY in 2009, his collaboration with Irish folk singer/songwriter Niall Connolly would lead Harris to focus more heavily on songwriting, to produce Connolly’s first US record, release seven albums of his own, and tour heavily throughout the US and Europe.
Harris’s music is, in a word, eclectic, and his riveting live performances have attracted attention and acclaim. I Am Entertainment Magazine called his first album “uniquely cool and strange … It’s been a while since I’ve heard something so eclectic and interesting.” Bandcamp staff reviewer Alec Spurlock said Harris’s sound “reminds me of a modern-day Neil Young, but the style is more complex in the most beautiful way possible.” The Salisbury Post declared that Harris delivers an electro-pop performance of found sounds and lyricism that combine “to create an experience like no other.”
For the past year, Harris has been working extensively with producers Kia Eshghi (Hanging Moon Records) & Chris Butler (Greedy Dilettante Records), with a laser focus on writing and recording Harris’s songs. The first fruits of this labor, “Bad Ghost,” is scheduled for release on their co-imprint (Hanging Dilettante) July 2021, and future single releases are slated for Fall & Winter 2021. The full album, “Homunculus IV,” is expected by Spring 2022.
