Meet the Lottie Doddies – A project based out of Seattle featuring Ethan Lawton (Western Centuries, Zoe Muth), Hailey Pexton (Amy Scher & Hailey Pexton, The Hossettes), Forrest Marowitz (Eli West, AJ Lee & Blue Summit), Jesse Fischman (AJ Lee & Blue Summit, Pacific Drive) and Patrick M’Gonigle (Bella White, Lonely Heartstring Band). What started as a group of pals getting together to revel in music and food has turned into a fully formed music project that emphasizes writing and performing original music, and includes more obscure songs from the folk, country, bluegrass repertoire.
Artist Category: Country
Kapali Long
His songwriting and guitar playing are deeply rooted in his experiences, focusing on authentic emotional expression and storytelling and his performances are “Music Church,” delivering truth, power, and the healing of music to lift spirits and provide relief.
Kapali “Leadfoot” Long is a Native Hawaiian, “Hawaiiana-Americana, Country, and Blues,” singer songwriter who is making big waves in the Country Music industry in Nashville where he now resides. His songwriting and guitar playing are deeply rooted in his experiences, focusing on authentic emotional expression and storytelling and his performances are “Music Church,” delivering truth, power, and the healing of music to lift spirits and provide relief.
Kapali is not only a passionate singer/songwriter with a five octave voice, but he is also a highly skilled guitarist, who is known for his slide and lap steel playing. Kapaliʻs Hawaiian roots will take you straight to the origins of “Kika Kila”, or Lap Steel, where Kapali was mentored under master steel guitarist, Alan Akaka. In 2016, Kapali’s guitar playing caught the attention of Gibson Guitars and he has been a signed Gibson artist ever since.
Kapali comes from a family with a long Hawaiian musical history and music was in his life since he could remember. He is the nephew of Hawaiian musical greats Buddy Fo and Mikilani Fo, and his grandparents were well-known musicians and performers also, who raised him with the mindset of music and ʻohana (family) from Waimanalo to Punchbowl, where they played Country, Blues, Bluegrass, and Hawaiian music together.
If you follow Kapali’s musical roots they will lead you to connections with so many musical trailblazers, including; Joseph Kekuku, Jerry Byrd, Hank Sr., Ry Cooder, Chet Atkins, Gabby Pahinui, and many more.
Known for his soulful performances Kapali has opened for Artists like legend Robert Earl Keen, Ron Pope, and Howie Day. Kapali has played guitar with Caroline Liar, Nikki Lane and was slated to be the guitarist for Muddy Waters Son Mojo Morganfield before his untimely passing. He has also played at major venues and festivals from; South By Southwest, Echo Park Rising in Los Angeles, Nikki Lane’s Horseshoe Stage at Stagecoach (1st Native Hawaiian to play Stagecoach), Gibson Garage Fest, WhiskeyJam (Nashville), The Bluebird Cafe (Nashville), 3rd & Lindsley, Grand Ole Echo (The Echo), Lancaster Roots & Blues, The Troubadour, Whiskey Jam & many more.
Lucy London
Lucy London is a singer and touring musician from Petaluma, California, currently based in New Orleans. A folk singer and storyteller at heart, Lucy draws technique from opera training, yodeling, throat singing and beatboxing to give her performances a unique and absurd edge.
She graduated from Northwestern University with a B.A. in Performance Studies from the School of Communication, and while there also studied classical voice and opera at the Bienen School of Music.
Lucy has studied and performed music with international folk ensembles in Delhi, India and Greensboro, North Carolina. She co-composed the Fox and Beggar Theatre Company’s 2025 touring production, Tigre, Tigre!, in which she sang the voice of the principal character, Z. In 2025, Lucy wrote and toured an hour-long musical solo performance, Grasping at Straws, a reflection on her changing relationship to activism amidst the Great Turning.
She released two records in 2025—”Pinto Pals: Yodeling Songbirds”, an album with her yodeling duo, The Pinto Pals, as well as “Sweetheart, I’m Here”, an EP of original music with collaborators Jackie Rae Daniels and Mikey Marget.
Lucy’s work centers around themes of animacy and connection with the more-than-human world. Through her songs, she channels many perspectives distinct from her own, including those of humans and non-humans alike.
Jim Lauderdale
Jim Lauderdale embodies the sound of American roots music for listeners around the world. A 2025 inductee into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, Lauderdale will release his 38th and 39th albums in 2026: Country Super Hits Volume 2 and a bluegrass collection, The Birds Know. His major label debut, 1991’s Planet of Love, opened the door to international touring and established him as an A-list songwriter on Music Row. His songs have been recorded by George Strait, Patty Loveless, George Jones, the Chicks, Old Crow Medicine Show, Lucinda Williams, Charley Crockett, Dave Edmunds, Solomon Burke, and many others. Between 2004 and 2013, Lauderdale wrote and recorded six albums with Grateful Dead songwriter Robert Hunter. His many other collaborators include Buddy Miller, Elvis Costello, Donna the Buffalo, North Mississippi Allstars, Po’ Ramblin’ Boys, and Ralph Stanley. In 2016, Lauderdale received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Americana Music Association; he’s also won two Grammys in the Best Bluegrass Album category.
Cory Branan
Over the last two decades Cory Branan has released five albums to much critical acclaim from NPR, Pitchfork and Rolling Stone among others, who called him, “A country boy with a punk-rock heart.” He has toured extensively, appearing on stages from Letterman and the Ryman to your town’s shittiest punk bar.
“…a career stacked with lonesome country anthems to life on the road, delivered in a voice that’s pleasantly weathered.” – NPR
Branan’s songs have been covered by such artists as Tyler Childers, Frank Turner, and Dashboard Confessional. He has also collaborated with the likes of Jason Isbell, Laura Jane Grace (Against Me!), and Craig Finn (The Hold Steady) who have been included as featured guests on previous records. Branan has even been mentioned in the Lucero song, “Tears Don’t Matter Much” with the lyrics, “Cory Branan’s got an evil streak, and a way with words that’ll bring you to your knees.”
“It’s rad”, says Branan, “to have a new home with nice folks at Blue Èlan who’ve threatened to turn me loose to make my kind of weird American music, and I’m really looking forward to getting into the studio this fall and giving it hell.”
Kelsey Waldon
In the six years since she signed to John Prine’s Oh Boy Records, Kelsey Waldon has earned wide praise for her “self-penned compositions [with] the patina of authenticity” (Rolling Stone). On her new album, Every Ghost, she confronts addiction, grief, generational trauma, and even herself — and comes through it stronger and at peace.
“There’s a lot of hard-earned healing on this record,” Waldon says of the nine-song project, recorded at Southern Grooves studio in Memphis with her band, The Muleskinners. As she sings in the record’s title track and first song, “Ghost of Myself,” she’s put in the work not only to better herself and leave behind bad habits, but also to learn to love her past selves.
Waldon’s fearlessness is among the reasons she landed at Oh Boy Records in 2019, as the independent label’s first new signee in 15 years. It’s attracted fans to her headline tours and her festival sets, and prompted artists including Tyler Childers, Charley Crockett, Robert Earl Keen, Margo Price, and Lucinda Williams to invite her on tour. It helped earn her both the title of “Kentucky Colonel” — an honor recognizing goodwill ambassadors of Kentucky’s culture and traditions — and a spot in the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s annual American Currents exhibit in 2024.
“True outlaw shit is sticking to your guns, and I feel like I’m doing that,” Waldon says. “I’m not saying I’m unbreakable, but I feel almost unbreakable. I’ve already hurt the worst that I could and lived to tell the story. We can be thankful for our ghosts.”
Tamar Korn & Kyle Morgan
Tamar Korn and Kyle Morgan sing a style of close harmony as tight-knit as it is freewheeling. Their repertoire draws on country classics like The Carter Family and Patsy Cline, more modern folk from Leonard Cohen and The Staple Singers, and the original songs of Kyle himself. As expressed by Tamar, “we share an idiomatic palate of country harmonies and such, but we’re always open to musical surprises which arise out of presence, resonance and the connection to our audience.” Their debut LP, Darkening Green, will be out on Jalopy Records on August 15th.
“When Tamar Korn and Kyle Morgan blend their gorgeous voices, something very special, even magical, happens.” – Wide Open Country–
Kissing Other PPL
While on tour together in 2022, Durham based folk duo Viv & Riley, and Nashville-based singer/songwriter Rachel Baiman talked about the recent records that they had enjoyed. Each time one person would bring up a beloved album or song, another would chime in with enthusiastic agreement. With hours in the van to daydream, and hours on stage to enjoy harmonizing together, the three began to scheme about recording some covers together.
In June of 2023, producer Greg Griffith (Amy Ray, Vitapup, The Butchies) invited the newly imagined trio to spend a week in Connecticut at his home and studio. The idea was to explore some cover songs and see what the sound of the project might be, with no expectation of a finished product
As the three began working out an arrangement for Lennon Stella’s “Kissing Other People”, sitting cross legged on the floor in Griffith’s living room, Griffith stealthily placed microphones, as well as a vintage camcorder in the room. What emerged was a completely live take of the song, organic and full of magic. The recording set the tone for what followed, an 8 track album of covers ranging from cult favorites like Magnolia Electric Company, Dr. Dog and Joan Armatrading, to modern but lesser-known writers like Waylon Payne.
With Griffith’s influence, the project explored more analog, indie and grunge sounds than any of the individual artist’s previous work. The recording captures the beautifully uncaged feeling of the collaboration, as Leva switches to playing drums for “Hold on Magnolia”, and Baiman plays a wildly dissonant guitar solo on “Woncha Come On Home”. Every idea was attempted, and every song was captured in real time.
Kissing Other PPL is a project about openness to exploration, collaboration, and creativity above technicality. It finds a trio of accomplished musicians that seeks to unlearn boundaries of perfection and find the best sound for the given song in the given moment.
Level Best
Level Best is a traditional bluegrass band, formed seven year ago. Since then, they have played festivals, clubs, and music halls on both Coasts as well as touring Europe and Ireland multiple times. They have recorded three CDs. Level Best shows feature a rousing mix of country and bluegrass gems.
With exciting solo work on fiddle, dobro, mandolin, and banjo, Level Best has that soulful polish, earned with years of playing bluegrass and country music.
Level Best is Lisa Kay Howard Hughes on mandolin, Wally Hughes on fiddle and Dobro, Ed Lick on banjo, Joe Hannabach on bass, and James Field on guitar. Everyone sings. James’s career in bluegrass began many years ago, when he was a member of the Charles River Valley Boys and played many a night at the legendary Club 47, precursor to Passim. With the good fortune to be part of Level Best, it’s a special honor to return to the Passim stage.
Olivia Ellen Lloyd
Olivia Ellen Lloyd will try anything once. From flight attendant school in Dallas to producing theater in New York City and teaching in Guatemala, Lloyd sought an adventurous life, but struggled to find a greater sense of purpose. That is– until she found her way back to music. Lloyd channels her restless spirit into songs that pay homage to her Appalachian roots while charting fresh territory for a sound that is uniquely her own. Her debut album, Loose Cannon, has been streamed over 1 million times while Olivia has been crossing the country playing shows, winning songwriting contests (like Kerrville in 2023) and generally eating life down to the rind.
Heavily influenced by country, folk, and indie rock, Lloyd’s sound combines the rooted sounds of her traditional Appalachian upbringing with the fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants nature of her current life. She is inspired by the rich sounds of New York City, the peaceful quiet of her small hometown, and everything in between.
