Musicians, songwriters, and husband and wife, Rachael and Luke Price are bringing back the feel-good vibes of classic Americana. On Love, DEAN’s self-titled debut, they’ve handcrafted a musical mosaic from vintage soul, Motown, old-time music, gospel, folk and neo-soul. The self-titled album is themed around love and community, and coming of age milestones. It’s vibrant, it’s personal, and it’s for everyone.
Artist Category: Americana
Kelsey Waldon
In the six years since she signed to John Prine’s Oh Boy Records, Kelsey Waldon has earned wide praise for her “self-penned compositions [with] the patina of authenticity” (Rolling Stone). On her new album, Every Ghost, she confronts addiction, grief, generational trauma, and even herself — and comes through it stronger and at peace.
“There’s a lot of hard-earned healing on this record,” Waldon says of the nine-song project, recorded at Southern Grooves studio in Memphis with her band, The Muleskinners. As she sings in the record’s title track and first song, “Ghost of Myself,” she’s put in the work not only to better herself and leave behind bad habits, but also to learn to love her past selves.
Waldon’s fearlessness is among the reasons she landed at Oh Boy Records in 2019, as the independent label’s first new signee in 15 years. It’s attracted fans to her headline tours and her festival sets, and prompted artists including Tyler Childers, Charley Crockett, Robert Earl Keen, Margo Price, and Lucinda Williams to invite her on tour. It helped earn her both the title of “Kentucky Colonel” — an honor recognizing goodwill ambassadors of Kentucky’s culture and traditions — and a spot in the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s annual American Currents exhibit in 2024.
“True outlaw shit is sticking to your guns, and I feel like I’m doing that,” Waldon says. “I’m not saying I’m unbreakable, but I feel almost unbreakable. I’ve already hurt the worst that I could and lived to tell the story. We can be thankful for our ghosts.”
Shannon McNally
Grammy nominee Shannon McNally’s live music career began on the jam band circuit of the 1990s with bands like Derek Trucks and Railroad Earth. Since then, her catalog has grown to span the whole of the Americana music spectrum, both writing original songs as well as interpreting the songs of others. She brings a soul-stirring musicality to her craft. Her honest and, at times, elegant voice immediately grabs one by the heartstrings. Not to mention as it turns out, she is also an exceptional electric guitar player.
McNally has fourteen albums to her name and a string of single self-releases on her personal label, Queen Maeve Records. Her latest album, “Live At Dee’s,” is a career retrospective song list captured over four nights in September of 2022 with a revolving band of Nashville musicians. Showcasing McNally’s wonderful storytelling and sense of wry humor, the 18-song disc captures her at her most relaxed in her natural habitat of neighborhood Honky Tonk.
For those who have followed McNally’s twenty-plus-year career, the thing that sticks with listeners the most about her is the timeless effortlessness she brings to all she does. With an impressive catalog and extensive list of collaborators with whom she has written, recorded, and toured; McNally continues to turn out great music across wide-flung ends of the spectrum, defying genre-fication. At home on any stage, from Lincoln Center to the juke joints of Mississippi—she always brings the house down.
Max Gomez
Singer/Songwriter Max Gomez grew up in Taos, New Mexico, where he fell under the influence of country blues early on and developed a songwriting style that was uniquely his. As a budding performer, Max apprenticed in the rarefied musical micro-climate of northern New Mexico, where troubadours like Michael Martin Murphey and Ray Wylie Hubbard helped foster a Western folk sound both cosmic and country.
He received critical acclaim upon the release of his debut album Rule The World (2013, New West Records); and his subsequent EP, Me and Joe (2017, Brigadoon Records), contained a freshly minted classic, “Make It Me.”
He has shared billing on hundreds of stages with stalwarts of the genre like James McMurtry, Buddy Miller, John Hiatt, Patty Griffin, Tommy James & The Shondells, Jeff Beck, and Johnny Depp. Judging by the company he keeps, Gomez is poised to emerge as a prominent voice of Americana’s next generation. The forthcoming album, Memory Mountain, is set to be released in August 2025.
Cary Morin
Internationally acclaimed as a mesmerizing live performer, Cary Morin’s soul-stirring voice and jaw-dropping fingerstyle guitar playing have captivated audiences for decades.
Dial into Morin’s career catalog and discover a musical chameleon whose sonic landscapes fuse together the best of American roots music: blues, folk, soul, bluegrass and the timeless and distinctive sounds of the countryside, from the Western Plains and Rocky Mountains to the rolling Appalachian Piedmont and the rhythmic melting pot of the deep South.
“Cary is a unique and brilliant player, songwriter and singer. I have huge respect for his style and technique,” says legendary multi-instrumentalist and songwriter David Bromberg. “If you haven’t heard him yet, you should. Try to remember that it’s only one guitar.”
Morin feels at home on the road. His music has reached millions as he’s traveled the world with prestigious performances at the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, Paris Jazz Festival, Vancouver Olympics, Copenhagen Blues Festival, Folk Alliance International and has been featured on international television and radio programs hosted by the BBC and NPR. He stays in touch via his ever-growing social media followers, and streaming sites.
These travels have given him the honor of sharing stages as a collaborator or supporting act for musical luminaries such as Taj Mahal, Los Lobos, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, Joan Osborne, David Bromberg, Arlo Guthrie, Tony Trischka, Guy Davis, David Wilcox, and Phil Cook, to name a few.
Morin’s musical talents and creative contributions have garnered a multitude of awards and accolades: two-time winner of the Indigenous Music Award for Best Blues CD (2019 and 2017); Telluride Blues and Brews Blues Champion (2019); Independent Music Award for Best Blues CD (2018); Native Arts and Cultures Fellowship (2018); and, First Peoples Fund Artist in Business Leadership fellowship (2017). He received an honorable mention in the 2018 International Songwriting Competition as well as other awards and nominations.
Morin has also achieved international recognition as a collaborator, dancer and musical theater composer. His song, “Ole Midlife Crisis,” written and performed with the Pura Fé Trio, reached #17 on France’s iTunes blues charts in 2011. With the Red Willow Dancers, he performed in Japan as a special guest of the world-renowned Kodo Drummers. Back home in Northern Colorado, he co-authored the play, “Turtle Island,” a critically-acclaimed 50-cast-member production that sold out for two consecutive years. Morin’s musical journey began in the late 1970s and burgeoned in the late 1990s when he founded The Atoll, a rock-reggae-blues band that toured the United States for over 20 years.
Born in Billings, Montana, he hails from a rich cultural heritage as a Crow tribal member with Assiniboine Sioux and Black ancestry. The son of an air force officer, he spent the formative years of his youth in Great Falls, picking through guitar standards at neighborhood gatherings.
Morin currently maintains a busy performance schedule as a solo artist, with his vocal partner Celeste, and with his band Cary Morin & Ghost Dog, a high-energy roots rock band. He also collaborates with renowned Indigenous artist, Pura Fé. When not captivating audiences across the US and Europe, he finds solace and inspiration in Northern Colorado, which he proudly calls home.
Katie Lynne Sharbaugh
Katie is a singer-songwriter based in Nashville, Tennessee. A recent Berklee College of Music graduate, her music fuses singer-songwriter pop with jazz and R&B. Katie began her journey in music at her summer home in Ireland where she learned to play Irish traditional fiddle tunes by ear.
In the ten+ years following, she trained classically in both violin and viola and learned to self-accompany on piano. Her classical career consisted of participation in various orchestras and chamber groups including the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra, Pennsylvania Music Educator Association Orchestras, and Nelly Berman School of Music chamber groups and orchestras. Katie uses many elements of traditional strings music in her original songs, featuring viola themes and solos as vocal counterparts.
In the summer of 2021, Katie released her debut EP, “Little Blue Beetle Volume 1” on all streaming platforms. Volume 2 of the project was released in winter of 2022 and features her latest single, “Amelia,” which documents the highs and lows of life following the COVID-19 shutdown. Katie’s music combines the nostalgia of 70s soul with modern storytelling, often even referencing stylistic features of American musical theater. Some of Katie’s artistic influences include Stevie Wonder, Fiona Apple, Sara Bareilles, King Princess, Olivia Rodrigo, and Daniel Caesar.
Dwight & Nicole
Genre defying DWIGHT + NICOLE can trace their musical roots through blues, R&B, and soul with a little roots rock, alternative, and Americana sprinkled in. DWIGHT + NICOLE have been Nominated for 10 Boston Music Awards, 10 New England Music Awards, and 11 Daisie awards, winning multiple “Band of the Year”, “Vocalist of the Year”, “Best Blues/R&B Band”, “Female Vocalist of the Year”, “Blues Act of the Year” and “Video of the Year”.
Ritcher and Nelson met in Boston, Massachusetts fresh out of college. Cutting their teeth on the local club circuit, they each fronted popular area bands, and discovered a shared obsession of soul & blues greats like the Staples Singers, Albert King, and Etta James. They began singing together and developed a close friendship that grew over time culminating in the formation of Dwight & Nicole. They started out as a duo with Dwight on electric guitar and Nicole on tambourine, stomping their feet for the beat and singing in harmony. After a move to Burlington VT, they met powerhouse drummer Ezra Oklan (Nicole Atkins, Elle King) and the group quickly formed a trio with Nelson picking up the bass. Now they also feature keyboard wizard Leon Campos.
With numerous releases under their belts, their most recent “The Jaguar, The Raven, and The Snake” just received the deluxe treatment in August of 2024, with the addition of the single, “Saying Goodbye.” Produced by acclaimed producer Joel Hamilton and recorded at his Studio G in Brooklyn and Ocean Sound in Giske, Norway throughout 2022. Album tracks feature the band with guests the Daptone Horns and Arkai Strings, amongst others.
“Dwight & Nicole are my favorite new band!” – MAVIS STAPLES
Zoe Lloyd
Zoe Lloyd is a singer-songwriter based in Los Angeles. Her debut album Blue Letters (January 2023) walks the line between indie rock, folk, and country. Born and raised in Massachusetts, she and her band are working on new album at Woolly Mammoth Sound in Waltham, MA. Blending elements of modern indie folk artists like Adrianne Lenker with her old favorites such as Steve Earle, Lucinda Williams, Townes Van Zandt & others, Zoe Lloyd writes old songs with a new voice.
Celia Woodsmith
Celia Woodsmith is a GRAMMY Nominated performer, vocalist, percussionist, and songwriter. With a style that can be described as “one of a kind: gritty, muscular, folksy and intimate sometimes all at once” (Bluegrass Situation) she has been a fixture of the New England Roots Music scene since 2005.
For the last 12 years, Woodsmith has predominantly performed with the Americana string band, Della Mae. In 2014 Della Mae was nominated for a Best Bluegrass Album GRAMMY for their record “This World Oft Can Be”. Their 2020 album “Headlight” has been described as “…powerful writing, soaring vocals, and moving musical unity — challenge us, energize us, and touch us as they light the way. This is an album on which you can feel the emotions of the group in each song as they evoke anger, sadness, hopelessness, and joy”. (No Depression)
The all-female Della Mae has performed in 20 countries with the US Department of State’s cultural diplomacy program “American Music Abroad”. Woodsmith spoke about her experiences with travel and music at TEDx Piscataqua River in Portsmouth, NH in a talk called “A Soft Drink and a Song in the Hills of Pakistan”.
In 2016 Woodsmith took a hiatus from touring to write, listen, and reflect about her years on the road. During that time she bicycled 2,000 miles from Geneva, Switzerland to Vlorë, Albania. Post hiatus, she released her solo record “Cast Iron Shoes”. The all original album combines raw, roots-rock with heart-searing songs like “Sicily” which paint a solemn picture of the global refugee crisis. When not on the road with Della Mae, Woodsmith performs with roots-rock band Say Darling and has released two albums of original music with them.
She currently lives in Kittery, ME with her husband and dog. Amidst touring full-time with Della Mae, she teaches songwriting, singing, stage craft and guitar.
Nicole Atkins
For two decades, Nicole Atkins has created her own brand of spectral American rock & roll. She’s an old-school torch singer for the modern world, funneling her award-winning songwriting chops and genre-spanning influences — including psychedelic rock, Muscle Shoals soul, the pop grandeur of Roy Orbison, and the dark drama of Nick Cave — into six albums that have earned a global audience.
Regularly featured on year-end “best of” lists by Rolling Stone, NPR, and The New York Times, Atkins has collaborated with artists from across the musical spectrum, including Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, David Byrne, Chris Isaak, Spoon, Elvis Costello, and most recently supported Stevie Nicks on her 2024 US Tour. The title track of her major-label debut album won The ASCAP Foundation Sammy Kahn Award, and her songs have appeared in prime-time TV shows, Netflix and Max, national ad campaigns for American Express, and on the Billboard charts, with tracks like “Domino” becoming Top 40 AAA hits. A road warrior who has performed everywhere from Carnegie Hall to Late Night With David Letterman to Later… with Jules Holland, Atkins is also a professional illustrator and painter whose work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal and No Depression.
