Rees met Guy for the first time at a recording session in Nashville, where Guy lent his vocal talents to a track on Shad’s debut album. Guy’s kindness led to many more people paying attention to the album than would have otherwise, and to pay it forward, Shad has been the organizer of this and other shows in the Northeast to benefit the Foundation. Over the course of a prolific 40+ year career, 32 releases and 17 solo albums, Shad has crafted music that is both poignant and profound. He is dedicated to crafting short story songs that cross genre lines to serve the spirit of each tale he weaves and engage his audiences in deep and meaningful ways. Shad’s latest release Porcelain Angel has spent the last few months near the top of the Folk charts being and has lauded for its “grace and elegance” (Americana UK), “all-knowing tonality” (Americana Highways), and for “pushing the boundaries of musical storytelling” (The Rogovoy Report).
Artist Category: Folk
Buddy Mondlock
Buddy Mondlock met Guy Clark on top of a hill at the Kerrville Folk Festival in 1986. It was a moment that changed his life. Guy liked the song he heard and started passing around tapes of the young Chicago songwriter’s songs to people he knew in Nashville. When Guy Clark gives you a tape, you listen. Soon Buddy was headed south to a publishing deal and a manager. Since then his songs have been recorded by Nancy Griffith, Joan Baez, David Wilcox, Janis Ian, Peter, Paul & Mary, Garth Brooks and a host of other artists. In 2001 he co-wrote and recorded a trio album with Art Garfunkel and Maia Sharp called “Everything Waits To Be Noticed.” Guy Clark’s album “The Dark” is bookended with songs Clark and Mondlock wrote together – “Mud” and the title song, “The Dark,” which was their first co-write.
Adam Monaco
“Adam Monaco lives what he writes and writes what he lives, allowing him to deeply connect with those he plays for and alongside of.” – Trevor Gordon Hall
These words will ring true for anyone who has experienced folk/Americana artist Adam Monaco’s thoughtful songwriting and poignant presence firsthand. Adam’s music is lush, colorful, melodic, and takes deep root in the complex, beautiful stories that connect humanity. His lyrics resonate like a conversation with an old friend: personal, profound, engaged, and thought-provoking. His authentic performances showcase his ability to evoke the full range and complexity of human emotions; in one musical moment, he can bring audiences to tears, then lift them back up with witty banter and a relatable anecdote.
Meghan Cary
Meghan delivers award-winning original songs with powerful vocals and unshakable stage presence. Hailed a “storytelling troubadour” by Billboard Magazine, Cary inspires connection and community with music that’s earned comparisons to Melissa Etheridge and Brandi Carlile. Her anthem “Sing Louder” and 2025 single “Raise Your Voice” rally audiences to hope and action. A favorite at festivals like Falcon Ridge and Philadelphia Folk Fest, she’s shared stages with Joan Osborne, Chris Smither, and more. Whether performing, teaching, or speaking, Cary empowers others to embrace their stories with humor and heart. “If you can get to a Meghan Cary show—run, don’t walk.”
Arthur Terembula
Arthur Terembula is a passionate student of the country blues and ragtime guitar. A time traveler that transports you into the sounds of juke joints and city streets in the 1920’s and 1930’s. He reimagines songs from those times, rewriting and interpreting the sounds of Charley Patton, Skip James, Robert Johnson, Blind Blake, Son House, and other various country blues figures. You can find Arthur with his ear close to a speaker and guitar in hand, humming and whittling away at the fretboard.
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–
Jenna Moynihan & Màiri Chaimbeul
Jenna, from Lakewood, NY, and Màiri, from the Isle of Skye, combine to make contemporary music rooted in the melodies of Scotland and Appalachia. The pair met in 2012 whilst studying at Berklee College of Music and are a product of the thriving and rich Boston music community, and have since toured in US, Scotland, and France. Jenna and Màiri have both been heavily steeped in tradition, but their music breathes new life into old tunes and merges their wide-ranging influences into a sound that is at once grounded and adventurous. To hear Jenna & Màiri is to bear witness to conversation, connection, and expression between two of the most exciting voices in traditional music today. Their debut album, One Two was released in April 2017, and has been a widely-celebrated first release for the duo.
Jenna Moynihan is widely regarded as one of the best of the best in the new generation of acoustic musicians. Versatile and inventive, her fiddling style draws strongly from the Scottish tradition, but is not bound by it. Folk Radio UK said of her playing, “…from the first time you hear Moynihan, it is clear that her playing is resonating straight from the depths of her soul.” Jenna graduated Berklee College of Music with honors and was a recipient of both the Fletcher Bright Award & The American Roots Award – given annually to an outstanding student in the String Department. She’s performed around the world in The U.K., Sweden, Norway, France, Denmark, Italy, Belgium, Finland & Canada. And has performed and collaborated with Darol Anger & The Furies, The Milk Carton Kids, Hamish Napier, Old Blind Dogs, Laura Cortese & The Dance Cards, Apiary, Phil Cunningham, A Celtic Sojourn, and as a soloist at Symphony Hall with the Boston Pops. In 2015 Jenna released her debut solo album, Woven.
Màiri Chaimbeul is a Boston-based harp player and composer. Described by Folk Radio UK as “astonishing”, she is known for her versatile sound, which combines a deep-rooted sense of Gaelic tradition with a distinctive improvising voice and honed classical technique. Mairi has toured throughout the UK, Europe and North America; was twice-nominated for the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award and finalist in the BBC Young Traditional & Jazz Musician of the Year; and graduated from Berklee College of Music with highest honours and the prestigious American Roots Award. Màiri can currently be heard regularly with new prog-trad group Aerialists, the Jacob Matheus Group, and also appears with legendary violinist Darol Anger & The Furies. Recent highlights include performances & teaching at the III Encuentro Internacional Maestros del Arpa in Bogota, Colombia, and a feature in Series 2 of Julie Fowlis and Muireann NicAmhlaoibh’s BBC Alba/TG4 television show, Port.
Andrew Sue Wing
Andrew started playing music at just two years old with a ukulele given to him by a family friend. He got his first guitar a year later and began trying to play the rhythms and melodies he heard on the radio in the car or around the house. After starting guitar lessons with Danielle Miraglia at five, he was captivated by classic rock and blues with “Rockin’ Robin” and “For What It’s Worth” being among his first songs. Once he developed a strong base in the blues, Andrew started to explore jazz. His technical ability on guitar progressed rapidly with fast bebop lines and complex repertoire as he developed his listening capabilities, learning tunes on the fly after hearing them just once. Jazz guitar greats like Wes Montgomery and Grant Green had a profound impact on his style, inspiring him to explore the instrument further and develop different techniques like chord melody and octaves.
While Andrew developed his guitar style, he also started to pick up arrangement, taking old standards and reinterpreting them in his own way. He found that while jazz melodies and harmonies were interesting, many tunes lacked a strong groove. In eighth grade Andrew watched a documentary on the recording studios of Muscle Shoals and the artists that they made famous. Inspired by soul singers like Aretha Franklin and Wilson Pickett, he began imitating driving grooves and learning to sing. Taking his jazz knowledge, groove sense, bluesy guitar playing, and deep voice, he started to form a unique musical style.
Andrew made his debut in the Boston music scene at Club Passim’s open mic series. He’s since performed at The Burren, Mayfair 2022, Belmont and Arlington Porchfest, Club Passim, the Post Underground, and other venues around Boston.
Laura Cortese
Laura Cortese might best be described as a sonic magpie: a curious and resourceful adventurer traversing great distances, collecting melodies and rhythms that glitter like jewels in the sun. Driven by the gravitational pull of human connection, her tendency towards exploration and collaboration have led her into countless niches, each providing its own unique feather with which to decorate her distinct and ever-evolving sound. But all of these explorations have one thing in common: the power of strings. This may seem limiting to some. To her, it is anything but. “Strings are at the core of what I do,” she says. “Genre is secondary to that palate.”
After over 5 years of living abroad, Laura has a new solo show based on original American folk songs. When Laura is alone on the stage, the audience becomes her band, stamping and clapping like a kick and snare drum, sometimes singing along sweetly and occasionally reminiscent of an enthusiastic gang vocal. She can be found performing internationally, exploring, and exalting in her passion for American roots music.
Laura Cortese has built a career weaving together a musical tapestry as diverse as it is masterful, highlighted with experiences like playing the Newport Folk Festival with Pete Seeger in 2009, standing onstage at the iconic Carnegie Hall in New York with Band of Horses in 2009, and a stint touring alongside Uncle Earl in 2007. She has recorded with artists ranging from Aoife O’Donovan and Brittany Haas to Tao Rodriguez Seeger and Session Americana, and has released 7 albums under her own name–All in Always (2016), Into the Dark (2013), Simple Heart (2012), Two Amps 1 Microphone (2011), Acoustic Project (2010), Blow the Candle Out (2007), Even the Lost Creek (2006), and Hush (2004). She has toured across the globe, acting as an ambassador of American music on behalf of the US State Department by performing and teaching in India, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Bangladesh, Estonia, Greece, Ukraine, and Montenegro. Now, she holds space and builds community for musicians in Belgium as the co-founder of the monthly Bright Lights Session in Ghent. As always, her vision is as expansive as her background. “We’re working to basically write a new folk tradition,” she says. Were it anyone else, you’d think it impossible. But with Laura Cortese at the helm? It just might come true.
Alex Radus
Alex Radus is known as a “versatile crooner” (UMC Nashville) and “master guitarist” (Courier News), but his songwriting takes center stage. Known affectionately for his unique brand of “genre whiplash”, Alex pairs whimsical and poignant storytelling with an eclectic mix of Americana, swing, blues, folk and more.
During his early career, Alex was awarded a youth scholarship to the Augusta Heritage Center, where some of the nation’s best finger-pickers helped influence his unique finger style and respect for traditional music.
He’s opened for Richie Havens, Jeffrey Gains and Darrell Scott and performed with John Gorka as a member of the Razzy Dazzy Spasm Band. Most recently, he was selected as a 2024 Falcon Ridge Folk Fest Emerging Artist and voted a “Most Wanted” artist to return to the Main Stage in 2025. Alex hails from Pennsylvania’s artistically rich Lehigh and Delaware River valley region where he lives with his wife and two daughters.
“Alex Radus is a remarkable artist. He is an excellent guitarist, songwriter and singer. He moves across multiple genres with effortless virtuosity. Whether playing solo or with an ensemble, Alex is surely worth going out of your way to hear.” – John Gorka
