Jared Janzen is a performer, teacher, songwriter, and studio musician from Fort Collins, Colorado. His main style emphasis is contemporary finger style guitar with singing, blending traditional genres such as folk, r&b, and rock into one.
Influences include Andy Mckee, Michael Hedges, James Taylor, Ray LaMontagne and much more. He plays in Blue Taboo, and also collaborates with several artists in the Fort Collins and Boston, MA areas. In spring of 2015, he released a solo EP titled “Truth”, and in spring of 2017, he released a single, “Magnets”. His latest single is “Crystal Stones”, released spring of 2019. Jared is currently working on a full length album. His band, Blue Taboo, also recently released their second album, “Oceans Rust/Morning Fog”. Jared has performed at many venues throughout his musical career, has been teaching private guitar and vocal lessons for 6 years, teaches workshops on fingerstyle guitar, and has 7 years of studio experience. Jared is currently attending Berklee College of Music in Boston, and will be graduating this May, 2020.
Andrew is an Evanston based singer-songwriter who has toured nationally, playing folk festivals and sharing the stage with artists such as John Mayer, Matt Nathanson, Marc Cohn, Shawn Colvin, The Weepies, John Gorka, Dar Williams, and Susan Werner. Andrew has 5 albums and numerous compilations to his credit.
Believe in Something is Andrew’s fifth studio album. It was recorded in Chicago with the best musicians Chicago has to offer. Those same great musicians play live with Andrew.
Fabiola Méndez is a Puerto Rican cuatro player, singer, educator, and Emmy-nominated composer that has taken part in a musical movement, crossing over the lines of genres such as folkloric, jazz & Latin. Her musicality and original compositions take the listener on a journey through her identities and culture, while celebrating and exploring the versatility of the cuatro puertorriqueño.
Recognized for being the first student to graduate from Berklee College of Music with the cuatro as principal instrument (2018), Fabiola performs nationally and internationally, and works as a composer for children’s show Alma’s Way (PBS Kids). She has received numerous awards, including the Quincy Jones Award, WBUR’s ARTery 25, the Brother Thomas Fellowship, Whippoorwill Arts Fellowship, ASCAP Lucille and Jack Yellen Award 2022, a Children’s and Family Emmy nomination for Outstanding Interactive Media in 2023, and being selected as the Latin Artist of the Year 2023 by the Boston Music Awards.
Zoe Mulford charms listeners with vivid songwriting and down-to-earth humor. Backing her clear voice with guitar or Appalachian claw-hammer banjo, she has established herself as a contemporary songwriter with a grounding in traditional American, English, and Celtic music. In 2018, Joan Baez covered her song “The President Sang Amazing Grace.” The song was voted 2018 Song of the Year by Folk Alliance International and was published in 2019 as a book with illustrations by animator Jeff Scher.
MIKE AGRANOFF is one of those folk performers that steadfastly defies categorization, and yet amasses stalwart fans from folk aficionados of all categories. He draws his material from sources as diverse as traditional ballads and fiddle tunes, Tin Pan Alley, contemporaries in the Folk World, and his own witty pen.
Although he does perform some original material, he considers himself more an astute singer-songfinder, priding himself in discovering the hidden gems, unknown in the larger folk world. He delivers them with a skilled hand on guitar and English concertina with an almost telepathic transmittal of the essence of the song, and occasionally sly twinkle in the eye in anticipation of some of the most horrible parodies ever perpetrated on an unsuspecting audience. A signature feature of Mike’s performances are his inclusion of some heart-stopping spoken word pieces that rivet the listener to unforgettable stories.
Carolyn Kendrick is a fiddler, singer-songwriter, and guitarist. She also produces and writes music for the award-winning podcast You’re Wrong About (Podcast of the Year, iHeart Radio) and You Are Good. Most of the time she does regular musician things like play gigs, tour the country, hit the open road, and play the fiddle late into starry nights among friends and enemies alike. But when pandemics abound, she locks herself at home and learns to make records all by herself.
Kendrick has performed with many beloved artists, such as Bruce Molsky, Margo Price, Aoife O’Donovan and Darol Anger. She is in the process of recording a fiddle-banjo duo album with Sam Armstrong-Zickefoose of Meadow Mountain.
In her time with her project the Page Turners, she spent years crisscrossing the country playing festivals and winning awards (Newport Folk Festival, Greyfox Bluegrass Festival, Savannah Music Festival; Freshgrass ‘Best Duo’ Award, The Fletcher Bright Award). She lived in Boston before moving to Austin. Now she lives in Nashville—as much as a touring musician is able to live in one place.
Sol y Canto is the award winning Pan-Latin ensemble led by Puerto Rican/Argentine singer and percussionist Rosi Amador and New Mexican guitarist, singer and composer Brian Amador. Featuring Rosi’s crystalline voice and Brian’s lush Spanish guitar and inventive compositions, Sol y Canto is known for making their music accessible to Spanish- and non-Spanish speaking audiences of all ages.
Sol y Canto’s original songs are distinguished by poetic, often quirky lyrics set in a framework of varied musical styles with surprising twists. They can make you dance, laugh, cry and sigh all in one concert. Their arrangements of classic and contemporary Latin tunes are always fresh and original. With Brian’s commanding, intricate guitar playing, Rosi’s rhythmic drive on cajón and bongos, and liberal use of vocal improvisation, the duo often sounds like a much larger ensemble.
Since 1994, Sol y Canto has brought audiences to their feet from the Kennedy Center to the California World Music Festival, Boston’s Symphony Hall, Puerto Rico’s Museo de Arte and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, as well as countless club shows and house concerts. The Boston Globe hails them as “sublime ambassadors of the Pan-Latin tradition”. Music critic Norman Weinstein of the Christian Science Monitor and Boston Phoenix observes:
“Every Sol y Canto album is a demonstration of what the poet Federico García Lorca identified as deep song. Always they evoke the sensual splendor of simply being vitally, vividly alive in a magical and mysterious universe. Brian Amador is a Spanish modernist poet in the guise of a musician…Together, Rosi and Brian Amador create a musical marriage made in heaven.”
Klezmer trio Wandering Laughter is a lively collaboration between cellist Taiward Wider, fiddler Cecilia Vacanti, and accordionist Alex Lacava. Based in the city of Boston, all three attended Berklee College of Music. There, the three of them were active in the American Roots Music Program playing numerous folk traditions including Old Time and Appalachian fiddle, Celtic, Bluegrass, New England fiddle, ragtime, gypsy jazz and of course, Klezmer.
You may hear instrumentals from a dance music tradition or songs from Yiddish theater or folk songs of Russia and Eastern Europe. Wandering Laughter plays music that is by turns heartfelt, soulful and invigorating. With tight harmonies, warm and inviting vocals, and sharp arrangements, they strike a balance between replicating traditional sounds and adding a modern twist. Just a few Yiddish troubadours spreading mazl (luck), freyd (joy), and of course gelekhter (laughter).
Che Apalache is a four-man string band based in Buenos Aires with members from Argentina, Mexico and the United States. The group’s founder is Joe Troop (fiddle), a North Carolinian multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter and composer who moved to Argentina in 2010. While patiently carving out a niche in the local music scene, Joe taught bluegrass and old-time for a living. That’s how he met Pau Barjau (banjo), Franco Martino (guitar) and Martin Bobrik (mandolin), his most dedicated students. They quickly became picking buddies and in 2013 decided to hit the stage.
Che Apalache began as a bluegrass band, but eventually incorporated Latin American styles into their repetoire. Combining instrumental prowess with tight vocal harmonies, they have curated an authentic blend of genres to reflect the nature of their lives, evoking images from Appalachia to the Andes. Their most recent album, Rearrange My Heart, is produced by banjo legend Béla Fleck.
With multiple Canadian Folk Music Awards, as well as Juno and ADISQ nominations, GENTICORUM have earned a reputation as a leading voice in the evolution of Québécois traditional music.
For over twenty years, the trio has earned a place of privilege on world, traditional, folk and Celtic music stages. Known for their unbridled energy, their musicianship and their magnetic stage presence, the trio has won over audiences at such prestigious events as Celtic Connections in Scotland, the Tønder Folk Festival in Denmark, the National Folk Festival in Australia, the Independent Music Festival in Alexandria, Egypt, the Rain Forest Festival in Malaysia, as well as countless venues across North America.
Pascal Gemme (fiddle) and Yann Falquet (guitar), the group’s two founding members, are both recognized individually as major contributors to the trad music scene in Québec. Since 2015, they have been joined by accomplished multi-instrumentalist and composer Nicholas Williams (flute, accordion). Weaving intricate fiddle, flute and accordion lines, gorgeous vocal harmonies, subtle guitar textures and exhilarating foot percussion, the pleasure that these three musicians have creating and playing together is palpable, both in the studio and on the concert stage.
