In the heart of Lincoln, Nebraska, The Wildwoods emerge as a folk/Americana trio, a musical tapestry woven by the husband-and-wife duo, Noah (guitar) and Chloe Gose (violin), accompanied by the bassist Andrew Vaggalis. Their story is a symphony of exploration and connection, a journey that has taken them from the Midwest to international stages, carving out a unique place in the folk landscape. Their presence has graced stages alongside artists such as Mighty Poplar, Sierra Ferrell, Aiofe O’ Donovan, Melissa Carper, Jamie Wyatt and Joe Nichols at concerts and festivals like Summerfest, FreshGrass and the Oyster Ridge Music Festival.
The Wildwoods have become a force in the folk scene, boasting accolades like being finalists at the FreshGrass Music Festival Band competition and Gems on VHS “Gems in the Rough” competition in 2023. Their songwriting prowess is underscored by semi-final placements in the International Songwriting competition, with tracks like “Untitled” and “Way of Train.” Recognized consistently at the Omaha Arts and Entertainment Awards, they were crowned “Best Band” by the Lincoln Journal Star’s Lincoln Choice Awards in 2022.
Their sonic journey unfolds through albums like the debut “Sweet Nostalgia” (2017), followed by “Birdie & Goose” (2017), “Across A Midwest Sky” (2019), and their latest masterpiece, “Foxfield Saint John” (2023). The band’s evolution is evident in each track, a testament to their commitment to pushing musical boundaries.
United by a passion for folk/Americana, the trio’s influences range from Watchhouse and Nickel Creek, to Gillian Welch & David Rawlings. Their music, though comfortably under the folk/Americana umbrella, weaves intricate chord structures and emotional textures that defy genre boundaries. Together, their harmonies resonate with artful sincerity, drawing inspiration from nature, their shared experiences of growing up in Nebraska, and life on the road.
Nigel Wearne saunters after dark in the music of the night, blending blues, jazz and Americana-noir. Hailing from Gunditjmara country in the deep south of Australia, Wearne is a guitarist and multi-instrumentalist with diverse influences such as Nick Cave, Tom Waits and Rickie Lee Jones.
Nigel has played some of the world’s most prestigious music festivals, including Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, MerleFest, Philadelphia Folk Festival, Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion, Adelaide Guitar Festival (Australia) and the Cambridge Folk Festival (UK).
His sophomore album, ‘Black Crow’ garnered wide critical acclaim including a 4-STAR review in Rolling Stone, a nomination for Best Country Album at the Music Victoria Awards and it debuted at #1 on Australia’s AMRAP Charts. His latest offering, ‘The Reckoning’ received back-to-back nominations for Best Blues Work at the 2023 & 2024 Music Victoria Awards, a 4-STAR review in The Weekend Australian and had two songs selected as finalists (top #10) in the International Songwriting Competition.
A deep thinker and truth seeker with a penchant for all things peculiar, he sings of human frailty, grace and the cosmos; songwriting that cuts to the bone. “Tailor made for fans of Tom Waits… with fire and brimstone lyrics that recall Nick Cave” – Rhythms Magazine. “Poignant and mysterious” – Maverick Magazine UK. “Vocal swagger of Van Morrison and dark spirituality and intelligence of Nick Cave” 4 STARS – The Weekend Australian.
Birthed in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, Palmyra explores the fusion of traditional folk string instruments, lush harmony, and earnest songwriting. The trio, now based in Richmond, captures the collective spirit of three Virginia natives: Teddy Chipouras, Mānoa Bell, and Sasha Landon. Often described as a distant cousin to The Avett Brothers and The Wood Brothers, Palmyra nods toward Appalachian and Midwestern Americana, with intricate arrangements that create the illusion of a full, larger-than-three ensemble.
The breakout folk trio has worked diligently to cement themselves as an unmistakable force in the Americana music landscape at large. Their forward momentum is propelled by their craftsmanship and dedication to an intimate performance experience; at the heart of the Palmyra is the evident love and regard that the three musicians share for each other and their craft.
Palmyra has directly supported Watchhouse, Mipso, and Illiterate Light, and has won honors and recognition from institutions including the historic Newport Folk Festival, American Songwriter, The Boston Globe, Under The Radar Magazine, Americanafest, and Floydfest.
Matt Lorenz’s vision, manifest in The Suitcase Junket, developed in the tension between the grand and the solitary. Grand in its imagery, sound, and staging. Solitary in its thrift and self-reliance. What instruments he requires, Lorenz builds from scratch and salvage. What parts five players would perform, he performs alone. The spectacle of his one-man set bears constant comparison to legends of showmanship, brilliance, madness, and invention.
While audiences are captivated by his solitary form and the show itself, Lorenz, who homesteads in rural Western Massachusetts, is most serious about the songs. He has been building a catalog, writing a world into existence. Solitary on stage and on the road, his mind is crowded with characters, narratives, voices, imagery, sounds as wide and varied as mountain throat singers and roadhouse juke boxes, plus newsreels of the planet’s destruction and salvage. With this 2020 release, The End is New, Lorenz’s grand vision for the song overrides the how of it.
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On some other plane out there in the great big multiverse, Kelly Willis could well be the biggest Nashville country music star of the last 35 years. But things panned out rather differently for her here on this Earth. The Oklahoma-born Army brat was barely into her early 20s and still cutting her teeth fronting a spunky rockabilly band in Austin when a “check-this-kid-out” tip from Texas songwriter Nanci Griffith landed her on the radar of producer Tony Brown, who promptly signed her to MCA Records. But it wasn’t until she left Nashville for Texas that she took off. Liberated from the Nashville playbook and emboldened by a jolting shot of nothing-left-to-lose, she set about making her next record in Austin her way. The end result, 1999’s aptly-titled What I Deserve, changed everything. What I Deserve may not have made Kelly a household name on the order of Shania, Faith, or Reba, but it clinched her standing as a bona fide darling of the national (and international) alt-country scene. Writers from No Depression to Rolling Stone cheered her “comeback,” and fans in her adopted hometown voted it “Album of the Year” in the Austin Music Awards.
The six albums Willis has made since What I Deserve have only burnished her reputation as Austin’s reigning queen of Americana. Three of those albums, including 2019’s Beautiful Lie, were duo records made with her now ex-husband, fellow singer-songwriter Bruce Robison — who also produced Willis’ last solo album, 2018’s “richly satisfying” (NPR) Back Being Blue. The couple (who in addition to recording and touring together for years also raised four children together) announced their separation in early 2022, marking both the end of an era and the beginning of yet another “big sea change” for Willis.
Wayne was a renaissance man. Curiousity and good hand-eye coordination are a deadly combination. He was an electrician, a locksmith, a mechanic, a coal miner, a guitarist, and a singer, but the roles that took the highest priority in his life were husband, father, brother, and son. He approached life with a laughable optimism and proved over time he was right. He made sure to be my earliest memory and I have consulted him, wherever he is, with every major decision in my life. Over the years, I’ve met many strangers who knew him. Their tall tale is the same as those I’ve heard before. He was a legendary man with more soul than his body could hold.
Graham was the first one of his brothers to own a car. He was able to buy it because he started working when he was very young. When his younger brother graduated from high school, he drove him to college. He left his car with him and headed home to pine creek.
He married my grandmother and bought a small shack on Pine Creek. They moved in in February, a logging trail covered in snow, to a shack with quarter inch slits between the slats.
He slowly bought that mountain, acre by acre, building more rooms on his house for his growing family. He was the neighborhood farmer, old regular Baptist, democrat, World War II vet, coal miner, romance novel patron, Kentucky Wildcats fan. His image flashes in my periphery at least once a day, reminding me his constant refrain when he and Mamaw kept me in my early years, “This boy is gonna make me president.”
With fourteen albums to his credit, there’s no denying Dave Gunning’s impressive body of work. Fortunately, he’s just getting started…
The Nova Scotian folk musician has shared the stage with legends like Ron Hynes, Rita MacNeil, Stuart McLean, and Stompin’ Tom Connors, and has been recognized in his own right as a master of his craft, both as an award-winning singer-songwriter and a captivating performer.
Known for his abilities as a gracious storyteller, Gunning’s knack for connecting with audiences precedes the skills and experience he’s earned on the road—It is, for him, very much a way of life. Gunning shares the same sort of relationship with music as an eagle does with the sky. From a very young age, music has been Gunning’s way of interpreting the world around him, the lens through which he sees it, and the medium by which he engages with his community.
Mark and Maggie have been existing in an uninterrupted musical collaboration since the day they met eight years ago in 2014. As they were perfecting the finer points of Mark’s American Classical violin duos, it got so good that they decided to get married. The next stage of their musical journey turned into a larger family collaboration for which they each took home a Grammy for playing bluegrass in the O’Connor Band. Now, they have turned yet another musical corner. With a year-and-a-half of isolation from touring during the world-wide pandemic, they dedicated their days and nights towards further musical growth together. The couple workshopped new songs during seventy weekly online concerts from home; Mondays with Mark and Maggie. A group of dedicated viewers watched as they made their musical experiments, some fans tuning in for all of them. What came out of this exploration is an Americana album project of mostly original vocal songs they sing together, other popular songs reimagined, and all of them supported by a small universe of acoustic instruments they’ve brushed up on in the time off the road. The album reveals the pair’s most sincere and deeply personal work yet.
Originally teaming up to perform a Doc Watson Tribute show for Signature Sounds, the trio was and remains a natural collaboration. Their approach to music and performance is humble, direct and expressive. If you can imagine hiking in a landscape of contemporary Americana and roots music, you could easily see these “ramblers” roaming between well-known and inspirational voices like Doc Watson, Nanci Griffith, Levon Helm, Muddy Waters or John Prine. Combining fiddle, guitars, mandolin, dobro, and bass, this streamlined trio brings multi-instrumental abilities to every song. The final ingredient, however, is the combination of soulful singing with great songs. On that front, the Deep River Ramblers will take you on a journey that will last long after the show is over.
One way or another, Sarah Borges connects with casual mastery. Whether it is with the comrades she has collaborated with over nearly 20 sparkling years of music making, or the vivid portraits of peoples lives, and occasionally her own, she has sketched in scores of emotionally resonant songs. But most of all, Borges has built a loyal following by connecting, through her own charismatic, down to earth spirit, with her audience, whether they are longtime fans from back when she broke through with her terrific Silver City debut in 2004, or newcomers just now joining the party with her brand new 2022 album, Together Alone, her eighth. Sarah is a fearless writer and performer, says producer Eric Roscoe Ambel, and she is a very good musician. As anyone familiar with her songs and performances knows, genuinely soulful music that connects with us, and connects us to each other, can simultaneously steal, and heal, hearts. This connection is what has kept Sarah touring and making music for many years, and what keeps us coming back to see her do it.
