New York City based musician Gibson Malone has been performing live music for over ten years and is currently in the process of releasing his debut studio EP. Coming from Harlem, he was a regular performer at The Shrine and Silvana, as well as having played at the world famous Iridium, Bitter End, and other known venues. He’s a guitarist, singer and frontman for his band. They use a soulful blend of blues and rock music, as well as elements of jazz.
Artist Category: Blues
Nicholas Edward Williams
Host of the popular roots music history podcast American Songcatcher, Nicholas Edward Williams is a multi-instrumentalist and storyteller who is dedicated to “playing it forward” by preserving the songs and styles that have shaped our country: ragtime, Piedmont blues, traditional folk, old time and early country. Williams has spent the last 15 years touring around the US, the UK, Western Europe and Australia, blending the roots music spectrum in his own style. He’s opened for Taj Mahal, The Wood Brothers, Dom Flemons, CAAMP, John Paul White, Town Mountain, John Craigie, Rachel Baiman and Lucy Daucus, and has performed at festival stages on three continents. William’s debut record As I Go Ramblin’ Around made the International Folk Radio DJ Charts in 2019 with the #6 Top Album, #7 Top Song. His critically acclaimed sophomore release Folk Songs For Old Times’ Sake unveiled in November of 2021 and has been heralded by the likes of Grammy-winning musician David Holt who said: “With tasteful guitar arrangements and a voice that draws you right in, Nicholas’ recordings roll along like a mountain stream.”
Charlie Parr
In the music of Charlie Parr, there is a sincere conviction and earnest drive to create. The Minnesota-born guitarist, songwriter, and interpreter of traditional music has released 19 albums over two decades and has been known to perform up to 275 shows a year. Parr is a folk troubadour in the truest sense: taking to the road between shows, writing and rewriting songs as he plays, fueled by a belief that music is eternal and cannot be claimed or adequately explained. The bluesman poet pulls closely from the sights and sounds around him, his lyrical craftsmanship built by his influences. The sounds from his working-class upbringing—including Folkways legends such as Lead Belly and Woody Guthrie—imbue Parr’s music with stylistic echoes of blues and folk icons of decades past. Parr sees himself merely as a continuer of a folk tradition: “I feel like I stand on a lot of big shoulders,” he said in an interview. “I hope that I’ve brought a little bit of myself to the music.”
With a discography simultaneously transcendental in nature and grounded in roots music, Charlie Parr is the humble master of the 21st century folk tradition. Parr started recording in Duluth in 2002, where he lives today. Life in the port town on Lake Superior has a way of bleeding into his work the same way his childhood in Austin, Minnesota does. Parr self-released his debut album, Criminals and Sinners, and did the same for his sophomore album 1922 (2002). With growing popularity abroad, Parr signed with Red House Records in 2015, where he recorded break-out albums Stumpjumper (2015) and Dog (2017). Parr’s music has an overwhelming sense of being present and mindful, and his sound is timeless.
Parr’s mastery of his craft is only more apparent when contextualized within the history of folk tradition of which Parr has dedicated his practice The land and lives around and intersecting with Parr have always influenced him, from the hills and valleys of Hollandale, Minnesota to the Depression-era stories from his father. Parr strives to listen to everything: “I don’t see that I’d ever be capable of creating anything if it weren’t for these inspirations and influences, books and music as well as the weather and random interactions with strangers and animals. So, the well never runs dry as long as my eyes and ears are open,” Parr said in a 2020 interview. Before he was even 10 years old Parr was rummaging through his father’s record collection—sometimes drawing dinosaurs on the vinyl sleeves—and listening to country, folk, and blues legends, many of whom are staples in the Folkways catalog. When Parr sings and plays his resonator or 12-string, you can hear influences like Mance Lipscomb, Charley Patton, Spinder John Koerner, Rev. Gary Davis, and Dock Boggs. This is especially true in his playing, when, after a diagnosis of focal dystonia, Parr turned to greats like Davis, Doc Watson, and Booker White for two-finger picking inspiration. Gifted a 1965 Gibson B-45 12-string by his father, Parr has never had a formal lesson and learned by to listening records and watching musicians he admired.
Parr’s first album with Smithsonian Folkways, Last of Better Days Head (2021), foregrounded his lyrical craftsmanship and sophisticated bluesman confidence, with spare production highlighting Parr’s mastery of guitar and elevating his poetry. Last of Better Days Ahead is a portrait of how Parr saw the world in that moment, reflecting on time and memories that have past while holding an enduring desire to be present. In his 2024 release, Little Sun, Parr weaves together stories celebrating music, community, and communing with nature. Putting forth an ambitious and raw album that exemplifies the best of Parr’s sound: a blend of the blues and folk traditions he continues to carry with him and the steadfast originality of a poet.
The Blue and Gold
The Blue And Gold is a musical collaboration between folk-roots guitarist / banjo player Trish Klein (The Be Good Tanyas, Frazey Ford, Po’ Girl) and award-winning Blues singer Ndidi O which celebrates the legacy and influence of pioneering female blues musicians.
“The Blue And Gold transport you back to the headwaters of the blues” – Tinnitist – SONG PREMIERE – March 31, 2022
“While Klein’s melodic run takes you into the past with the bluesy traditions, Ndidi O’s vocals slide through the soundscape like honey.” The Other Side Review – April 8, 2022
Mercedes Escobar
Fluctuating between unleashed and sweet, Guatemalan singer-songwriter Mercedes Escobar’s raw, guttural vocals dominate any stage. Her voice has been likened to a mix between Linda Ronstadt and Howlin’ Wolf. She’s created a unique genre which blends the rawness of old blues and country vocals and guitar, with the intensity of magical realism lyrics and the sonic traditions of her home culture; All while staying true to her modern values against prejudice in music, race and gender, and highlighting her story-driven songwriting. She calls this “Latin Americana.”
Mercedes has shared the stage with artists such as Gaby Moreno, Rubén Albarrán (Café Tacvba), Malacates Trébol Shop, etc. She is also featured in the soundtrack of acclaimed independent films Temblores (2019) and Cadejo Blanco (2022; the latter also credits her as music supervisor). After graduating Berklee College of Music in May 2024, Mercedes is recording an upcoming bilingual album, which is being co-produced by Grammy-winning producer and artist Gaby Moreno. This show will be an exclusive preview of that album’s work.
Other than her work in music, Mercedes organized the first Pride event in Antigua Guatemala, and was appointed “Ambassador Against Violence Against Women and Girls” by UN-Women Guatemala.
Jerron Paxton
Jerron “Blind Boy” Paxton has earned a reputation for transporting audiences back to the 1920’s and making them wish they could stay there for good. Blind Boy Paxton may be one of the greatest multi-instrumentalists that you have not heard of. Yet. And time is getting short, fast.
Jerron performed to a sold out audience at the Lead Belly Tribute at Carnegie Hall on February 4, 2016 along with Buddy Guy, Eric Burdon, Edgar Winter, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, and other stars. It is no exaggeration to say that Paxton made a huge impression. In the two years since his incredible performance at that star-studded show in one of the world’s great concert houses, Paxton’s own star has been rising fast. He opened for Buddy Guy at B.B. Kings in NYC; for Robert Cray at the Reading PA Blues Festival, and performed at numerous other festivals including: Woodford Folk Festival & Byron Bay Blues Festival in Australia; Calgary Folk Festival in Canada; Jewel City Jam in Huntington WV; Freihofers Jazz Festival in Saratoga Springs FL; Clearwater Festival in Croton-on-The Hudson NY; Fayetteville Roots Festival in Fayetteville AR: Cambridge Folk Festival in the UK., Harvest Time Rhythm & Blues Festival in Ireland; and headlined the 2017 Brooklyn Folk Festival.
Jerron Paxton is a two-time participant in the Keeping The Blues Alive Cruise and is the new Artistic Director of the Port Townsend Acoustic Blues Festival & Workshop at Centrum in Port Townsend, WA.
Paxton was featured on CNN’s Great Big Story and appeared in the multi award winning music documentary AMERICAN EPIC produced by Robert Redford, Jack White & T-Bone Burnett. In October and November 2018 Jerron ‘Blind Boy’ Paxton will be touring the U.S. with the musicians from this groundbreaking AMERICAN EPIC SESSIONS music documentary.
This young musician sings and plays banjo, guitar, piano, fiddle, harmonica, Cajun accordion, and the bones (percussion). Paxton has an eerie ability to transform traditional jazz, blues, folk, and country into the here and now, and make it real. In addition, he mesmerizes audiences with his humor and storytelling. He’s a world-class talent and a uniquely colorful character that has been on the cover of Living Blues Magazine and the Village Voice, and has been interviewed on FOX News. Paxton’s sound is influenced by the likes of Fats Waller and “Blind” Lemon Jefferson. According to Will Friedwald in the Wall Street Journal, Paxton is “virtually the only music-maker of his generation—playing guitar, banjo, piano and violin, among other implements—to fully assimilate the blues idiom of the 1920s and ‘30s.”
Happy Traum
Happy recorded his first solo album, “Relax Your Mind,” in 1975 and embarked on the first of many European tours, bringing him to England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany and Scandinavia, among other countries. He toured in Japan in 2001 and 2016 as a soloist, and in 2006 with Artie Traum.
“American Stranger” was released in 1977 (“An absolute gem…one of the best folk music albums released this year.” – Folk Scene).”Bright Morning Stars” was released in 1980, and “Friends And Neighbors,” recorded “live” in a Woodstock concert, was released in 1983. Shanachie Records released a compilation album, “Buckets Of Songs,” in 1988, and “Bright Morning Stars” was re-released on CD both in the U.S. and in Japan in 2001.
“I Walk The Road Again” (2005) was co-produced by Artie Traum. Among many great reviews, one said: “I Walk the Road Again’ is a breathtaking collection of bittersweet country-folk and blues tunes…. A low-key masterpiece, this album demonstrates that it’s not the pace that matters so much as the road itself. It’s a road we’re glad to see Happy Traum walking so well again.” – Peter Aaron, Kingston Daily Freeman
Happy’s 2015 CD release, “Just For the Love of It,” also received rave reviews, including four stars in Rolling Stone Magazine! It was in the top five in folk radio play for several months, and was on many “Top Ten of 2015” reviewers’ lists.
Happy continues a busy and productive life as a solo artist in clubs, concerts and festivals around the U.S., and collaborates with many musical colleagues: Jim Kweskin, Geoff Muldaur, John Sebastian, Larry Campbell, Cindy Cashdollar, Jay Ungar and Molly Mason and many others – including his son, Adam Traum, a fine singer/songwriter/guitarist in his own right.
Now in his 83rd year, Happy continues to perform, record, conduct guitar workshops and classes, and produce new lessons for Homespun. One of Woodstock, NY’s most revered local musicians, he can often be heard playing for large fundraisers or other community causes, trying to pay back the half-century of friendships and good will that came to him and his family in that creative, progressive community.
Maria Muldaur
Maria Muldaur is best known world-wide for her 1974 mega-hit “Midnight at the Oasis,” which received several Grammy nominations, and enshrined her forever in the hearts of Baby Boomers everywhere; but despite her considerable pop music success, her 55-plus year career could best be described as a long and adventurous odyssey through the various forms of American Roots Music. During the Folk Revival of the early ’60s, she began exploring and singing early Blues, Bluegrass and Appalachian “Old Timey” Music, beginning her recording career in 1963 with the Even Dozen Jug Band and shortly thereafter, joining the very popular Jim Kweskin Jug Band, touring and recording with them throughout the ’60s.
In the 46 years since “Midnight at the Oasis,” Maria has toured extensively worldwide and has recorded 41 solo albums covering all kinds of American Roots Music, including Gospel, R&B, Jazz and Big Band (not to mention several award- winning children’s albums). She has now settled comfortably into her favorite idiom, the Blues. Often joining forces with some of the top names in the business, Maria has recorded and produced on-average an album per year, several of which have been nominated for Grammys and other awards. Her critically acclaimed 2001 Stony Plain Records release, Richland Woman Blues, was nominated for a Grammy and by the Blues Foundation as Best Traditional Blues Album of the Year, as was the follow up to that album, Sweet Lovin’ Ol’ Soul. Her timely 2008 album, Yes We Can!, featured her “Women’s Voices for Peace Choir,” which includes: Bonnie Raitt, Joan, Baez, Jane Fonda, Odetta, Phoebe Snow, Holly Near and others. In 2009 Maria teamed up with John Sebastian, David Grisman, and Dan Hicks. Maria Muldaur & Her Garden of Joy garnered Maria her 5th Grammy Nomination, and was also nominated for Best Traditional Blues Album of the Year by The Blues Foundation. In 2011 Maria released Steady Love, a contemporary electric Blues album that reflects the kind of music she loves to perform live – what she calls “Bluesiana Music” – her own brand of New Orleans-flavored Blues, R&B and “Swamp Funk.”
Steady Love reached #1 on the Living Blues Chart, and garnered her another nomination for Best Traditional Female Blues Artist from the Blues Foundation. In 2012, for her 40th album, Maria produced the critically acclaimed…. First Came Memphis Minnie, a loving tribute to the pioneering Blues woman who inspired and influenced so many female Blues artists who followed in her footsteps, many of whom joined Maria on this special project: Bonnie Raitt, Phoebe Snow, Ruthie Foster, Koko Taylor and Rory Block accompanied by the amazing guitar work of Del Rey, David Bromberg, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Roy Rogers, and others.
In 2013, taking a brief hiatus from her yearly recording schedule, Maria focused on 3 special collaborations, performing worldwide with the 50th Anniversary Kweskin Jug Band Reunion concerts, teaming up with the Campbell Brothers, world-renowned Sacred Steel Gospel artists, for a very special presentation entitled, “Spirit & The Blues”, and touring as Special Guest Artist with Bill Wyman and The Rhythm Kings.
2014 marked 40 years since Maria’s big hit “Midnight at the Oasis” was riding at the top of the charts. To celebrate this landmark, Maria created a multi-media retrospective Way Past Midnight, which chronicles her 50 year journey “to The Oasis and Beyond”. This special presentation features all her hits and fan faves from every stage of her career, as well as fascinating, entertaining, (often humorous!) stories of her personal encounters, friendships, and collaborations with many of the greatest names in music.
In 2018, Maria released her 41st album “DON’T YOU FEEL MY LEG ~ The Naughty Bawdy Blues of Blue Lu Barker”, which was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Traditional Blues category. Recorded in New Orleans with an amazing cast of A-List NOLA musicians, this album finds Maria at her finest, and is true to the spirit and soul of New Orleans and Barker’s funny, coy, and risqué material. This marks her 6th Grammy Nomination! Maria says “it’s an honor to be nominated. I’m so grateful that this music is being recognized & enjoyed again after all these years!’
In Sept. 2019, The Americana Music Association awarded Maria ‘The Lifetime Achievement Americana Trailblazer Award’ for her lifelong work of covering the depth and breadth of American Roots music and for being one of the pioneers who laid the groundwork for what we’ve come to call ‘Americana Music’. Maria Muldaur continues to tour regularly world wide, and is available for festivals, concerts, club dates, workshops and residencies.
Coltt Winter Lepley
Originally from Bedford, PA, Coltt is an Appalachian songwriter, folksinger, published poet and author, and folklorist. He is currently attending Emerson College in Boston, MA as an MFA candidate in their fiction program.
Guy Davis
Guy Davis is a two-time, back-to-back Grammy nominee for Best Traditional Blues, a musician, actor, author, and songwriter. Guy uses a blend of Roots, Blues, Folk, Rock, Rap, Spoken Word, and World Music to comment on, and address the frustrations of social injustice, touching on historical events, and common life struggles. His background in theater is pronounced through the lyrical storytelling of
songs “God’s Gonna Make Things Over” about the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, “Welcome to My World”, and “Got Your Letter In My Pocket”. His storytelling is sometimes painful, deep, and real, an earthy contrast to modern-day commercial music, meant to create thought, underlined by gentle tones from his guitar or banjo fingerpicking.
He recently added Broadway Composer to his CV by writing the incidental music for the recent Tony nominated revival of his father, Ossie Davis’ play, “Purlie Victorious”. Guy won “Keeping The Blues Alive” Award, and was nominated by The Blues Foundation for Best Song of the Year, Best Acoustic Album of the Year, Best Acoustic Artist of the Year, and Best Instrumentalist. In fact, he’s been nominated nearly two dozen times by the Blues Foundation.
Among hundreds of newspaper appearances, he’s also been featured in articles or reviews by New York Times, Village Voice, Boston Globe, Pulse Magazine, Blues Magazine, Acoustic Guitar, Dirty Linen, Songlines, Blues Blast Magazine, Living Blues, Down At the Crossroads, The San Francisco Chronicle, Association For Independent Music (formerly NAIRD), Playboy Magazine, National Public Radio (NPR), “Folk Alley”, and several Sirius channels.
When asked about his experience as a performer, Guy has replied, “There is no tale so tall that I cannot tell it, nor song so sweet that I cannot sing it.”
