Artist Category: Folk | Page 7

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

Radio Suba

The Palestinian Jazz project, Radio Suba, is a new musical collaboration between composer, singer, and oudist Basel Zayed and a group of acclaimed musicians based in Boston, Massachusetts. Zayed’s previous releases have earned him performances at the Fira Mediterrània music festival in Spain, Beiteddine music festival in Lebanon, Carthage International Festival in Tunisia, The Arab World Institute, Paris, France and many others. Most of the pieces are based on the folk dance style in the Levant region called Dabkeh. Radio Suba is a musical exploration of freedom, dignity, hope, and enduring beauty.

Chris + Joe

Chris + Joe (Chris Langathianos and Joe Wilkins), a Cape Ann-based duo with deep roots in the Greater Boston music scene, are known for their tight harmonies, thoughtful songs, and engaging banter. Joe, a multi-instrumentalist, expert songwriter, and producer, teamed up with vocalist and producer Langathianos in 2013, and they have continued to capture audiences with their easy and melodic, yet diverse, style and approachable sets.

From easy melodic folk to contemporary pop and rock, Chris + Joe bring a new twist to old favorites, mixed with deeply personal, award-winning originals, and a side of self-deprecating audience engagement.

Kat Wallace

Kat Wallace is a Boston-based multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter. Her affinity for original music has her working and recording with a myriad of touring bands, most notably as the fiddle player in Rachel Sumner and Traveling Light. Her debut solo album, Grand Design, set to be released on 1/24/25, captures Wallace’s musings on world’s ending, sailing across the western ocean, and moving on. Her timeless lyrics and virtuosic guitar playing are the foundation of this record and grounded in traditional Celtic and American folk repertoire.

June Isenhart & Jonah Ko

June and Jonah write for the bands Miss Bones and Poster Colors, respectively, and they also play in each other’s bands, non-respectively. Miss Bones makes indie rock with country and folk influences, Poster Colors makes county and folk with indie rock influences. Both of them love big silly bands like Big Thief, the White Stripes, and Gillian Welch.

Nina de Vitry

To listen to Nina de Vitry is to take a deep breath at the end of a hard day. It is her calm self-assurance, combined with a warm heart and empathy towards the pain of living, that gives her music its most magnetic qualities. Weaving together the strands of her stories with a dynamic alto voice and inventive yet memorable melodies, she manages to create a sound that is both soulful and unique. Her songs lounge on the fence between genres: dreamy piano fills shimmer between phrases as staccato drum snaps and bass lay a solid yet lively foundation, punctuated with bright emphatic horns.

Now—with a 6 song EP under her belt, international songwriting acclaim as a two-time finalist in the John Lennon International Songwriting contest, and her debut full length album on the way—it is safe to say that this is only the dawn of Nina de Vitry’s rising star.

Great Aunt

Raw and austere, simple and bold; full of stomping feet and clapping hands, chants and harmonies, whispered words and soulful lament – that’s the music of Great Aunt. Listen, and you’ll hear tales of joy and grief, whiskey and wine, gratitude and purpose-seeking.

Formed in 2016, the duo is a collaboration between songwriter/instrumentalists Megan Bird (mandolin, resonator, acoustic guitar, vocals) and Chelsea Allen (double bass, vocals, percussion), and draws inspiration from the traditions of old time, bluegrass, and gospel music, with loving homage to their diverse backgrounds in punk, jazz, roots, soul, and folk music. The instrumentation and arrangements are bare and bold: using only various combinations of mandolin, guitar, or resonator with double bass and percussion, and the sonorous voices of Bird and Allen in harmony.

The duo has delighted audiences at some of Australia’s finest music and arts festivals, including Woodford Folk Festival, Blue Mountains Music Festival, Yackandandah Folk Festival, Deni Ute Muster, The GAS, Wintermoon, Healesville Music Festival, Fleurieu Folk Festival, and Newport Folk Festival, amongst others. They have shared stages with notable acts including Vika & Linda Bull (AUS), The Weeping Willows (AUS), Sue Ray (AUS), Smith and Jones (AUS), Mary Flower (USA), Paisley Fields (USA), Wiley Gaby (USA), The Belle Miners (CAN), and more.

Great Aunt have recently returned from their first tour of the US, and are currently busy in their studio, producing and recording their debut full-length album, ‘It’s All Downhill From Here’ – due for release in 2023.

Tall Travis

We’re Tall Travis, an indie folk band based in Burlington, Vermont. Active since January 2021, we have self-recorded and released 2 full length albums and an EP, garnering over 28,000 streams on Spotify. We have performed at DIY venues, bars, festivals, and private functions in Vermont and New England, where our energetic stage presence has impressed fans and newcomers alike.

Influenced by bluegrass and folk-punk, our stylistically diverse acoustic music combines ukulele, guitar, bass, washboard, trumpet, and fiddle with strong lyricism and abundant vocal harmonies. Our work has been compared to The Decemberists, Trampled by Turtles, and Mischief Brew, and was described by the Vermont Cynic as having “vibrant and descriptive lyrics” that are “thought provoking and skillful” with impressive execution, and by the Cornell Daily Sun as “crunchy and energetic” while remaining “astonishingly authentic.”

Nora Meier

Nora Meier is a diehard music fan, a frequent moviegoer, a daughter of two English majors, an Oregonian at heart, a verbal processor, a big reader, extremely stubborn, and always writing. She was raised on her dad’s curated mixtapes and epic vinyl collection, which cultivated her deep love for the format of The Album and an obsession with Bruce Springsteen.

Her very own debut album, Outfield, was released in October of 2024. It was born during a full moon / lunar eclipse on a farm in Connecticut with the help of some of her favorite musicians. Eleven songs were tracked in seven days, interspersed by basketball scrimmages, deli trips and walks around a big field. The album was produced and mixed by Charles Dahlke (The Brazen Youth) and mastered by Andrew Goldring.

Nora lives in Boston, Massachusetts.

The Kossoy Sisters

Audiences may recognize the voices of the Kossoy Sisters, identical twins, from their version of “I’ll Fly Away” in the Coen Brothers’ movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? They performed at the first Newport Folk Festival and sang in the original production of Woody Guthrie’s Bound for Glory. Irene and Ellen began harmonizing at the age of 8 or 9, singing mostly what they heard around the house: songs of the 20’s and music hall songs. In their early teenage years, they immersed themselves in traditional songs and became part of the music scene in Washington Square in Greenwich Village. By the age of 20 they had performed widely in New York. Although they sing mostly southern mountain songs, they have also adopted other traditional and contemporary songs (including humorous compositions by Irene), accompanying themselves on guitar and banjo.

In addition to Newport, the Kossoy Sisters performed for several years at the Fox Hollow Folk Festival, did a concert tour with Frank Hamilton in California in 1981, and sang at the University of Chicago Folk Festival, New York Pinewoods Camp, and Focal Point in St. Louis in the 1980’s. After the 1997 reissue on CD of Bowling Green by Tradition/Rykodisc, the Kossoy Sisters resumed performing with concerts in Boston and Washington DC, among others.

The Kossoy Sisters’ album Hop On Pretty Girls includes a mix of traditional southern mountain songs and originals–including work by Irene and Ellen, Woody Guthrie and the Carter Family. Pete Sutherland, a fine instrumentalist and singer, is the artistic producer of the CD and accompanies the Kossoy Sisters on most of the songs. Two popular Boston area musicians, Lorraine and Bennett Hammond, lend their voices and instruments on two of the CD’s songs, in addition to contributions by a variety of Vermont-based instrumentalists.