Avi Salloway is a musician, activist, and educator based in Vermont. He grew up learning music directly from American folk legends, Pete and John Seeger, and from an early age was exposed to the power of music to bring people together. Avi’s performed over 1500 concerts in 25 countries around the world and collaborated with renowned artists including Jack Johnson, The Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Bombino, David Longstreth (Dirty Projectors), The Low Anthem, and Pete Seeger.
Artist Category: Blues
Lloyd Thayer
Lloyd Thayer puts the ‘multi’ in multi-instrumentalist, playing a mind boggling assortment of stringed intsruments including but not limited to: Dobro and Weissenborn lap steel guitars, Turkish Oud, Saz and Cumbus, Indian Chaturangui and Mohan Veena, Ragmakamtar, Ukulele and more. A recovering street performer and determined songwriter, his indoor shows combine a mixture of American folk and blues with elements of Indian, Arabic, Turkish, and Southeast Asian musical ideas, often all in the course of the same song.
Rosie & the Riveters
Rosie & the Riveters’ vintage-inspired folk anthems paint a portrait of a woman’s voice in a man’s world. The Canadian trio’s unmistakable red lipstick and pin curls may be deceiving, but don’t be fooled – this not a throwback band.
Their 2015 breakout record, Good Clean Fun!, brought them sold-out tours, awards, nominations, a performance for British royalty and national airplay in Canada.
Although the band never intended to get political, they found that watching the news these days made it impossible to see the status of women around the world and stay silent. Their latest album, Ms. Behave, is a collection of gritty, sultry songs that feature playfully defiant lyrics and confident talk-back harmonies that empower and challenge.
Blue Light Bandits
Blue Light Bandits (BLB) is an independent groove rock band from Worcester, MA. Their colorful sound is a mixture of pop, rock, and R&B with jazz, blues, and reggae stylings. BLB has 3 lead singers in front, filling each song with rich vocal harmonies.
After receiving the “Best Up & Coming” award at the 2016 Worcester Music Awards, BLB released their first LP in October of 2017. The self-titled LP climbed to #186 on the NACC 200 college radio charts.
Lenny Solomon
Lenny Solomon is one of Cambridge’s best kept secrets. A songwriter/singer, he’s been performing for over 40 years writing hundreds of songs in styles ranging from folk, to country, to blues. Since 2002 he has released four CDs and has won over a dozen songwriting awards. He will now grace the stage at Passim.
Lenny Solomon’s style has been compared to John Prine, Guy Clark, and Jerry Jeff Walker. Solomon began his career in the late 1960s and was the second act booked when the Club 47 reopened as Club Passim. He aslo headlined Passim’s first New Years eve show. A fixture at the long defunct Idler Coffeehouse in Harvard Square, he regularly performed there on Friday nights for over eight years. The Idler was a training ground for such music luminaries as Geoff Bartley, Paul Rishell, Spider John Koerner, and Ric Ocasek. During these years he shared bills with many name performers including Chris Smither, Carolyn Hester, Bonnie Raitt, and Spider John.
From the 1980s through the mid-1990s, Solomon continued to write songs, but rarely performed, instead choosing to raise his family and work in environmental research at Harvard University. From 1978 though 2009 he managed a research program that investigated ozone depletion in the stratosphere and more general aspects of climate change.
In 1997 Solomon began performing again and formed a folk/country band. Performing his original material, Solomon has released four CDs, Not Life Threatening, Armando’s Pie, Maybe Today, and Under My Hat. Songs from these albums have been aired on over 150 radio stations around the country and around the world.
Sarah Kilborne
Sarah Kilborne is a performance artist, author, and activist. Her work has been featured on The Today Show, in the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and more. She’s written books for both children and adults (fiction and non-fiction) and has performed as both a singer and dancer with a variety of people. In 2013 she produced and co-starred in a music video for marriage equality, Yes Sir That’s My Baby, which lead to the creation of The Lavender Blues. In addition to performing, Sarah is currently writing a book about the women featured in the show. She is also founder of the equal rights campaign Kiss for Equality and has written about LGBT issues for Slate, The Huffington Post, The Advocate and more.
Axel Belohoubek (Accompanist) is a professional pianist, multi-keyboardist, composer, and vocalist with more than 35 years in the music industry. Known for his style diversity, meticulous sound design, and exceptional chops, he has worked on projects from tour preproduction for David Bowie and Madonna to original scoring for advertising, corporate industrials, television series, documentaries, and independent film. Originally a classically trained pianist, he also performs with jazz, rock, R&B, EDM, Latin, Irish, and other bands, produces artists in his own recording studio (additionally playing guitar, bass, percussion and more), and teaches privately.
