With an intercontinental band, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Ryan Lee Crosby blends essences of American folk-blues and North Indian raga into meditative songs of impermanence, compassion and joy. Crosby’s music is a pleasing mix of improvised and composed material, performed on traditional and modern instruments. Through his recordings and performances, Crosby hopes to inspire peace, openness and respect – for tradition, for culture, for each other and for one’s self.
River Music, Crosby’s sixth full-length album, will be available on LP and CD on 10/10/18, co-released by Germany’s CosiRecords Schallplatten and Seattle’s Knick Knack Records. The result of years of study and practice, River Music integrates blues from the hill country of North Mississippi with textures of North Indian Hindustani classical raga music. Crosby performs on electric 12-string guitar and chaturangui (the 22-string Indian slide guitar designed by Pandit Debashish Bhattacharya) and is joined by fretless guitar, tabla, harmonica and calabash (West African percussion). The raga influence is heard through the band’s hypnotic, almost trance-like motifs, and the blues seeps through Crosby’s dynamic vocals and masterful, single-line guitar melodies.
Crosby describes himself as a ‘seeker’ within the music: producer and listener, performer and enthusiast, teacher and student. Crosby’s music-making is an inward process: creativity through meditation, devotion and discipline, but it is also oriented around community-building. As a bandleader, Crosby is guided by the potential of music to connect the internal to the external, the individual to the group, and to bridge seemingly disparate cultures and traditions.
Ryan Lee Crosby has been nominated for two Boston Music Awards and was named “Best Singer/Songwriter” in the 2006 Boston Phoenix/WFNX Radio Music Poll. He composed and performed the film score for the award-winning documentary Racing the Rez (2012, broadcast nationally on PBS). Crosby tours Europe annually and select US regions. He currently lives in Medford, Massachusetts and performs regularly in the greater Boston area.
NPR Music calls Laura Heaberlin and Taylor Smith of Cricket Blue “master storytellers”, and the All Scene Eye says Cricket Blue “sets a new standard for fiction-folk.” In 2019, the duo released their first full-length album, Serotinalia, to widespread praise, and were voted “Best Folk Group” in Vermont’s Seven Daysie Awards. As a response to the interruption of live music in 2020, the duo spearheaded a series of elaborately-arranged covers of songs from the Over the Garden Wall soundtrack, which have since earned a small but enthusiastic international following. Heaberlin’s songwriting has been featured on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and Cricket Blue has been featured as a formal showcase artist at NERFA multiple times. They have played stages and festivals around the United States and Canada and are working on their second full-length album.
Nickel&Rose is an American folk-music duo made up of Upright Bassist Johanna Rose and Guitarist Carl Nichols. They formed in the summer of 2016 and spent their first winter and the following spring traveling Europe, playing dozens of shows in France, Czech Republic, Germany, Romania, Poland, and Ukraine. While in Berlin they recorded their EP, Oh Sweet Love, released in April 2017. Oh Sweet Love, is a sweet-sounding auditory souvenir of Nichols’ and Rose’s four month European journey and a recorded testament to the two-piece’s ability to turn tough times into something vibrant with help from a traveling companion.
Nickel&Rose have influences that span the spectrum of American music. Carl’s background brings elements of West African music and Blues while Johanna brings her experience playing Bluegrass, Folk and Jazz. From loss to heart break to love, Nickel&Rose address the human experience with gentle harmonies and soul stirring cries. With a shared appreciation for traditional music and a desire to break rules, the two have have created a unique sound that embodies Americana’s past and future.
Nick Pirollo – Vocals,
Ryan Porciello- Vocals/Guitar,
Chris Brooks- Vocals/Keyboard/Harmonica,
Vinny Costantino- Guitar,
John Rienzi- Drums/Mandolin,
Sean Rienzi- Bass
Bombastic yet brilliant, these folks from New England exude a genuine musical authenticity and mirth on stages up and down the East Coast. Drawing influences from contemporary urban balladeers, rowdy southern bluegrass, and the sardonic yet wry wit of New England’s localized folk scenes, Pesky J. Nixon (PJN) creates an atmosphere both inviting and challenging for audiences.
Compelling harmonies and narratives rein in disparate instrumentation including- zydeco style accordion, virtuosic mandolin, a variety of tribal percussion, and a myriad of string instrumentation. With rich harmonies and musical versatility PJN brings a unique brand of infectious energy and stage banter to every stage they grace. At times putting on a show that borders on brotherly bickering these boys specialize on bringing the audience into their world, songs, and stories.
The band’s new album “Red Ducks” serves as a serenade to their roots in the Folk scene with unique approaches to covering songs from the bands local friends and some of their musical icons. The record is currently in the top 10 Roots Music Chart earning praise both domestically and internationally.
Released in 2010, the band’s first studio album, Monkey Business & Mislaid Hopes, was consistently listed among the top records in the industry. Darius Rips, from the folk publication Oliver di Place describes the album as “…songs of partings, taken with the best possible grace”. Kerrville New Folk Winner RJ Cowdery says of the band “Sweet Jesus! You guys can play on. Want to hear me some more PJN!”
Americana duo Kate Lee & Forrest O’Connor have earned national recognition as co-lead singers and primary songwriters of the O’Connor Band, a bluegrass group they co-founded along with O’Connor’s father, seven-time CMA Award-winning violinist Mark O’Connor. They wrote the majority of the band’s debut album, Coming Home, which debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Top Bluegrass Albums Chart and won a GRAMMY Award in 2017.
Both independently and as part of the O’Connor Band, Lee and O’Connor have collaborated with Paul Simon, Zac Brown, Kenny Loggins, Clint Black, Bela Fleck, Jerry Douglas, Dan Tyminski, and many others. Their music has accumulated more than half a million streams on Spotify, and they have performed at the Grand Ole Opry, the Ryman Auditorium, and Fenway Park, as well as some of the most prominent festivals and performing arts centers around the country.
Lee and O’Connor were introduced in 2014 by Nashville-based arranger Kris Wilkinson (Tim McGraw, Lady Antebellum, Brandi Carlile), who believed their powerful, expressive vocals and writing sensibilities would align. O’Connor, a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Harvard and former Tennessee State Mandolin Champion, shared a love of ‘60s classic rock, ‘70s folk rock, ‘90s country, bluegrass, and modern pop music with Lee, a Belmont graduate and violinist who frequently backed up stars ranging from John Legend and Kelly Clarkson to Keith Urban and Carrie Underwood at the CMA Awards and CMA Country Christmas shows. They soon began performing together as a duo, and their first EP, The Demonstration, reached #13 on the iTunes Singer-Songwriter chart with no label or promotion campaign. After performing for three years with the O’Connor Band, they’re excited to focus again on their duo project with the help of a backing band featuring two-time national mandolin champion Isaac Eicher, GRAMMY Award-winning bassist (and Doctor of Music) Geoff Saunders, and country vocalist Mallory Eagle.
Happy Again isn’t exactly happy. But the delightfully deadpan new album from roots mainstays Bill and the Belles is full of life, humor, and tongue-in-cheek explorations of love and loss. Out May 21, 2021 on Ditty Boom Records (distribution and promotion by Free Dirt Service Co.), Happy Again marks a new chapter for the group by featuring eleven all-original songs penned by founding member Kris Truelsen.
There’s no dancing around it: this album is about his divorce. But the group has a knack for saying sad things with a bit of an ironic smirk, pairing painful topics with a sense of release and relief. Anyone who’s been to one of their shows can attest that you leave feeling lighter and refreshed. The band often jokes that their setlists appear mournful and angry, but if you don’t listen to the words, you wouldn’t know it. “One of the darkest times of my life turned out to be one of the most creative,” says Truelsen. “I realized, ‘My life is chaos. I need to write about this shit.’” This personal loss turned out to be a creative boon for the band. Many of the songs were cranked out in just a few months, two were even written the night before they were recorded. This raw songcraft, along with the deft production touch of Teddy Thompson, son of Linda and Richard Thompson, who encouraged using only first or second takes, gives Happy Again an emotional punch that deepens with each listen.
Hailing from opposite ends of the Appalachian mountains, Zoe & Cloyd is renowned fiddler and vocalist Natalya Zoe Weinstein and award-winning songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and vocalist John Cloyd Miller. Performing their unique blend of original bluegrass and klezmer music with evocative songwriting and soaring harmonies, they are sure to delight audiences of all ages. Zoe & Cloyd will be joined by master musicians Bennett Sullivan on banjo/guitar and Nate Sabat on bass.
Descending from a lineage of klezmer and jazz musicians, Natalya trained classically in her home state of Massachusetts before moving to Asheville, NC in 2004. John, a twelfth generation North Carolinian and grandson of pioneering bluegrass fiddler, Jim Shumate, is a 1st place winner of the prestigious Chris Austin Songwriting Contest and the Hazel Dickens Songwriting Contest, as well as an Artist Fellowship recipient for songwriting from the NC Arts Council. Long-time fixtures of the Asheville music scene, Zoe & Cloyd appeared in Season 5 of the nationally syndicated PBS show, David Holt’s State of Music in 2021. Their fourth studio album, Rebuild, produced by Jon Weisberger, was released on Organic Records in October 2021.
In their early days, Damn Tall Buildings didn’t rehearse – they busked. Now, whether live or on record, the band still radiates the energy of a ragtag crew of music students playing bluegrass on the street. But anchoring that energy is their instrumental chops, their strong songwriting, and their varied influences that stretch beyond bluegrass, even beyond American roots music altogether.
Whether sharing lead vocals and instrumental solos or blending their voices into loose, joyous harmony, the four members of Damn Tall Buildings (guitarist/lead vocalist Max Capistran, bassist/lead vocalist Sasha Dubyk, fiddler/vocalist Avery Ballotta and banjoist/vocalist Jordan Alleman) blend elements of bluegrass, blues, roots-rock and vintage swing to create a captivating, high-energy sound. Since their busking days, they’ve made three albums: 2014’s Cure-All, 2015’s self-titled, and their forthcoming third album, Don’t Look Down.
The band has also relocated to Brooklyn, NY and toured widely, sharing stages with Sierra Hull and the California Honeydrops and appearing at festivals like Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival, Philadelphia Folk Festival, and Freshgrass Festival, where they took second place in the 2016 band competition. Their lyrics find beauty and glory in the mundane, workaday struggle of everyday life: time keeps passing, you don’t like your job, you drink too much, you laugh with your friends, you search for a home, and you dream about what else might be out there. You carry on. This is what Damn Tall Buildings sings about, what they seek to share with their audience
Monique Byrne and Andy Rogovin perform moving and inspirational songs that are sometimes joyful, sometimes wistful, and oftentimes, poignant, and that reflect a mutual passion for life, family and humanity. Their intimately blended vocal harmonies are mixed with an expressive and unique instrumental style that is best described as “a banjo-guitar romance.” Crowes Pasture’s style of intimate and soulful folk transports and connects listeners through universal experiences in their “skillfully crafted, emotional songwriting” (Chris Eastburn, award-winning composer).
Crowes Pasture has made waves with two EPs and three full-length albums in just six-years time. Their CD, “Slow It Down”, was released in June 2019 at the legendary Club Passim. Since its release, the title track earned Crowes Pasture a #1 song, and the album debuted at #5 on the Folk Alliance International Charts. Since the release of their first album, “Edge of America,” the duo has had eight Top 10 Songs on the Folk Charts, including “Take Back the Red White and Blue” (January 2022), their cover of Mary Gauthier’s “Mercy Now” (June 2019), and the timely and topical song, “Quarantine” (January 2021).
Over the past few years, Crowes Pasture has performed at a number of renowned east coast music venues including Club Passim, Shalin Liu Performance Center, Rockwood Music Hall, The Bull Run, and Circle of Friends Coffeehouse and has been a supporting act for The Small Glories and The Kennedys. The duo has been twice honored with nominations as “Roots Act of the Year” by the New England Music Awards (2019 and 2022) and once as “Americana Artist of the Year” by the Boston Music Awards (2019). They were named finalists for Best Group/Duo in the 2020 International Acoustic Music Awards, and for Best Group/Duo in the 2021 IAMAs, for their song “A Virtue and a Call”. The duo has toured recently throughout Southern Ontario and Quebec, and is currently recording their third full length album with award-winning producer Eric Lichter of Dirt Floor Studios.
