Mark Mandeville & Raianne Richards have contributed their first decade to the legacy of American folk and country music, sharing emotively intelligent lyrics, unmistakable vocal harmonies, and a unique blend of instrumentation with audiences throughout the US and Canada. The songs poetically reflect their personal experience as factory workers, teachers, community organizers and natives of postindustrial mill towns in central Massachusetts. Accompanying themselves on guitar, harmonica, ukulele, penny whistle, electric bass, and most uniquely clarinet, their live performance is often punctuated by humorous commentary.
Road May Rise (released April 2020), their third studio album, was recorded at Signature Sounds Studio by Mark Thayer and mixed/mastered at Black Forest Sound Studio by Kyle Swartzwelder. The title track, written by Mandeville for a play performed at the Factory Theater in Chicago, has been awarded Honorable Mention by the Songwriters’ Association of Washington DC (SAW). Studio musicians include Doug Williamson (piano, guitar, mandolin, upright bass), Peter Hart (pedal steel, guitar) and Zack Ciras (upright bass). All songs have been written by Mark and Raianne, except for the spirited cover of Robin and Linda Williams’ Don’t Let Me Come Home A Stranger.
This album follows three eponymous releases on Nobody’s Favorite Records: Hard Times & Woes (2014); Grain By Grain (2016); Home Routes – Live in Manitoba (2018).
Erin Bonnie was reared and raised in the rural town of Arlee, totin’ her fiddle back ‘n’ forth, up ‘n’ down, and all around the Big Sky State. From festivals to orchestral shows, she would lay it down classic or country, and to this day she still can.
Montana formed her, but Massachusetts is the state that refined her. A graduate of the esteemed Berklee College of Music, Erin Bonnie earned her Professional Diploma in Songwriting and Fiddle in 2014. She’s been livin’ out East in big-city Boston ever since, kickin’ her heels up with sassy country rock ‘n’ roll artist Elisa Smith. In the Spring of 2017, Elisa and Erin hit the road to Music City to record Elisa’s debut EP, Hitch A Ride. The EP was produced by Johnny Duke, a gifted producer and guitar player who has played with Little Big Town, Miranda Lambert, and Chris Stapleton, among others, and was recorded at his studio, Spirit Radio Studio, in East Nashville. The EP features talent from Grammy-winning and platinum-status records.
In addition to giggin’ with her sweet country cohorts, Erin Bonnie recently launched her own 4-piece project, Black Caps, featuring an acoustic/electric mix of all-original music. Rounded out by Adam Berowitz on drums, Andrew Walls on upright bass, Ira Klein on electric guitar, and Erin Bonnie herself on vocals/fiddle/acoustic guitar, their sound is an Americana blend informed by old time, blues, country, bluegrass, and American folk traditions. With an emphasis on dark and stormy material that tells a story, their songs weave through tales of maritime journeys, jilted lovers, murderous rivers, and little girls hunted by wolves. From acoustic to electric, clean to distorted, they’re sure to take you on a journey you won’t soon forget.
Nashville-based artist, songwriter, and producer Maya de Vitry is enjoying some hard-won creative flourishing. “I’m not just making different music now. It feels like I’m breathing in a different atmosphere,” she says, reflecting on her evolution from acclaimed roots-Americana band The Stray Birds to her current solo journey. Produced by Maya de Vitry and mixed by Grammy-award winning engineer Justin Francis (Madison Cunningham), The Only Moment (out July 12, 2024) is de Vitry’s 4th full-length record and is an unabashed blend of indie folk, indie rock, and indie pop, with elements of Americana and alt-country.
Originally from Lancaster, PA, de Vitry’s 2019 debut Adaptations earned accolades from Rolling Stone Country, NPR Music, and No Depression and she has since attracted an organic and devoted following on the strength of her recordings and her live performances. She sings with a magnetic and hard-won sense of purpose that has landed her support tours in North America and Europe for artists like The Wood Brothers, Aoife O’Donovan, John Craigie, and Mighty Poplar. Her songwriting appears on albums by Molly Tuttle, Lindsay Lou, Bronwyn Keith-Hynes, and Steve Poltz, and her versatility as a multi-instrumentalist and harmony singer has enriched numerous Nashville projects. Despite her seemingly vigorous creative pace, the recording process for The Only Moment was unhurried. “It’s like I was making a long-exposure photograph, but with music,” she explains, having left the metaphorical shutter open for nearly three years to allow the songs themselves the opportunity to breathe. “I completely shelved this record for months at a time, on several occasions,” she recalls. “Each time I came back to it, I heard new possibilities. In today’s music industry, there’s pressure to share our process or turn it into ‘content’. But I treasured keeping this record to myself and slow-cooking these songs on the back burner.” The resulting album is a refreshing testament to the generative simmering that underpins periods of reinvention and growth.
With her powerful voice, captivating melodies and finely-crafted lyrics, Susan Cattaneo is one of Boston’s most respected singer-songwriters. Combining vivid storytelling with a modern songwriter’s spin. Susan’s music blends folk, rockand blues with hint of country. She likes to call it, “New England Americana”.
Susan’s latest album, All is Quiet is an acoustic tour de force recorded remotely during the pandemic with acclaimed guitarists Duke Levine and Kevin Barry. The album charted #2 and was a top 25 Album of 2022on the FAI Folk Radio chart.
Susan is also an in demand co-writer, with songs on albums by many of Boston’s favorite musicians, including Dennis Brennan, Mark Erelli and Jenee Halstead.
Susan won the CT Folk Festival andwas nominated for Singer Songwriter of the Year at the 2022 Boston Music Awards. She has been a finalist or winner in the country’s most prestigious songwriting and music contests including being a three-time Kerrville New Folk finalist. Her 2016 double album The Hammer and The Heartcharted #1 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart and yielded a folk radio #1 single and top 10 album.
“Cattaneo’s solo songs have roots that run deep under the earth from Memphis to Nashville to Appalachia (pick a random song from her catalog and odds are it would be an ideal cover for Bonnie Raitt or Carrie Underwood or Steve Earle).”–Jed Gottlieb, The Boston Herald
Ruby Mack (formerly Emma June Band) was founded on the tenets of friendship. Grounded in their New England roots, their name references a sweet and tart apple——radiantly passionate, and fiery red. Ruby Mack encapsulates both the band’s unapologetic existence and simultaneous commitment to vulnerability and softness.
Comprised of Abbie Duquette on the fretless uke bass, Zoe Young on vocals and guitar, Abby Kahler on vocals and fiddle, and Emma Ayres on vocals and guitar, the band is notorious for their humorous banter, theatrical antics, and energized presence. Inspired by Americana traditions, these four songstresses are rough around the edges with their unabashed harmonies, and pictorial lyricism. As a wise woman in Nashville once said to them: “You deserve what you want.” They want this.
Vocals, Guitar / Emma Ayres
Bass, Vocals / Abbie Duquette
Vocals, Guitar / Zoe Young
Fiddle, Vocals / Abby Kahler
Eighteen year- old Quentin Callewaert has only been on the music scene for a few years now, but he is creating a major buzz as one of the most gifted guitarists around. Classically trained, Quentin’s interest in fingerstyle acoustic guitar was inspired by Doc Watson and Merle Travis. He is also a gifted singer with a refreshingly bluesy voice that compliments his blend of Americana, gospel and bluegrass.
Sweat flies and floorboards tremble – Union Duke is a Toronto folk quintet with an explosive live show. Bridging soulful indie rock with bluegrass and country, the group belts out soaring harmonies with three, four and even five voices. The songs are irresistible, the perfect fit for the heatwave of the dance hall or the cool breeze of the park. These five guys have been making a commotion in one way or another since they were kids, and years of making music together have brought them to this: a heartbreak of twang and a bootshake of rock and roll. Union Duke is two fifths city, two fifths country, and one fifth whiskey.
The band works hard, travelling back and forth across the country playing to fans young and old from coast to coast. They’ve played sold out shows where crowds know all the words. They’ve performed at countless festivals including TURF, Mariposa, and Summerfolk, topping the list of must-see acts. Their enthusiasm is infectious, and they leave every audience smiling – maybe the golden days aren’t so distant after all.
Scottish duo The Jellyman’s Daughter lands squarely in the middle of a strange crossroads between bluegrass, post-rock, folk and soul. Mixing their unique vocal harmonies with wild and visceral cello, driving guitar and sweet mandolin, Emily and Graham write their songs together with a focus on doing something new.
The Jellyman’s Daughter have now finished their second album, ‘Dead Reckoning’. The new album takes its title from a navigational term that, when applied to the human spirit, is analogous to navigating our way through life, and how we progress (or otherwise). This theme permeates the 10 songs on the new record in different ways, ranging from the overwhelming sense of bleakness imbued by many world events in recent years to more personal experiences of steering a course through relationships and journeys both physical and emotional. Featuring prominently is banjo player Jamie Francis (of Radio 2 Folk Award nominees Sam Kelly & The Lost Boys) and double bassist Paul Gilbody (KT Tunstall, Adam Holmes & The Embers) while Toby Shaer (Cara Dillon, John McCusker) provides fiddle on two songs. Graham himself wrote the arrangements for the 16-piece string orchestra, while Edinburgh-based composer Luci Holland conducted the ensemble during recording. The album is a marked step forward in maturity, depth and scope while retaining the affinity that is the foundation of the duo’s sound.
No stranger to the east coast music scene, Texas-bred and Cape Cod washashore, Monica Rizzio is emerging as one of the finest singer songwriters that call New England home. For over 10 years she played fiddle and sang with Tripping Lily, a folk acoustic pop band, who toured up and down the east coast. In 2012, Monica left the band to rejuvenate her passion for music and began writing to help cope with the loss of the band and love.
At FreshGrass, the following year, while perusing the vendors Rizzio found a 1956 Martin 0-18 guitar that would change her life and her song. She calls it the “moment I found Jesus again.” Drawing on her East Texas roots, Monica and her Martin, brought back the the little girl who loved to barrel race on her horse Bo, and she found her outlaw country sound deep within the folk world. Her debut album, aptly named, Washashore Cowgirl, is completely autobiographical, often times delivered in a fictional approach, sometimes with humor, and sometimes so strikingly honest you can feel the pain in her voice. The album is a testament to the relationships she has forged with many artists over the years and features Mark Erelli, Sierra Hull, Abbie Gardner & Molly Venter of Red Molly, G. Love, Tim Chaisson, Brittany Haas, and Laney Jones.
Les Sampou is an Americana singer-songwriter, who got her start in the Boston folk scene in the 90’s and moved on to national prominence and acclaim. On the road for 15 years, Sampou has performed at Montreal Jazz Festival, SXSW, Toronto Blues Festival, Kerrville Folk Festival (where she won the New Folk Songwriting Award), Philadelphia Folk Festival, Winnipeg, and Falcon Ridge to name a few. Sampou has conducted workshops at Berklee School of Music and appeared on top syndicated radio programs such as Acoustic Cafe, World Cafe, and NPR. Sampou has released seven albums, five on her own label and two on Rounder Records. Her album, “Fall from Grace”, topped the Gavin Americana Charts nationwide. Her release “Lonesomeville” charted number 2 on the US/European Americana F.A.R. Charts At present, Sampou writes, teaches, and dedicates herself to an on-going venture into the world of Jazz and Americana music as well as writing for Film & TV.
“Sampou’s passionate vocals are simply stunning, now ballsy and rough-edged, then purry and seductive, while the only problem with her original songs is trying to decide which is the least sensational. I strongly suggest you check her out.” 3rd COAST MUSIC, Texas
“Sampou never wavers from a steady tone of genuineness…sharply observant songs.” DOWNBEAT
“Sampou has written all the songs of “Lonesomeville” with Raymond Carver’s hard-edged minimalism and Emily Dickinson’s startling poetic images.” Chris Bergeron/DAILY NEWS STAFF
