Fully Human is the solo project of Liv (from Oh Pep!). It is an invitation for the audience to collaborate, to send stories that Liv turns into song. Generally, Liv is on tour with Oh Pep! or writing music for various projects. At the moment she is living in NYC writing music for a play. She has toured the world and performed at Glastonbury, SXSW and on NPR’s Tiny Desk.
Artist Category: Pop
Sean Trischka
Sean Trischka brings a reverence for the old with his visions of the new. With his finger on so many pulses of so much music, and a brain entrenched in history and tradition, all of Sean’s influences shine through in his songs and playing while still funneling a poignant, coherent and razor sharp vision of his sound. Hard-funk drumming sensibilities mash with the sensitive poet mash with the folksy songwriter to create a bed of introspective, soulful and groovy music. Playing drums and vocals when with a band, guitar and vocals when solo, his music stabs like a knife and softens like a cloud. Sean Trischka is rock-hard.
Nano Raies
Music has always been a deep-rooted passion that I never dared to touch upon until the war in Syria taught me that life is worth living. My passion for music became the most precious and empowering aspect of my life. I still remember how I always spent my time dreaming of singing while commuting by bus between Aleppo, where I studied architecture, and Homs my hometown.
Homs is a small town where various kinds of boundaries are placed on female potential and creativity. Growing up there, I wasn’t allowed to think of music as a future career. The influence of family, society and culture forced me to take music as a hobby, and as such, I was forced into choosing a different path. When the war broke out, I witnessed my family lose everything, and friends and people dying. At that moment I understood that my dream of having a career in music was the only thing worth living for and the only thing that no one could take away from me, and achieving it became my first priority.
I fought my way and made it to Berklee College of Music, the first step in my dream. I want to be an example for those who have been through war and strife to believe that nothing is impossible.
Julia Weldon
On the verge of starting her next album, Brooklyn indie-folk-pop artist Julia Weldon instead found herself awaking from a coma after a gender affirming surgery.
One year later after a fortunate recovery and songs to tell the story, the self-taught, nationally recognized musician went across the pond to England to record her new material with Drew Morgan (producer of Perfume Genius). As a follow-up to her critically acclaimed album, Light Is A Ghost, Weldon describes her new work as a contemplation of polarities: heartbreak and new love, connection and loss, life and death. Weldon’s music has been featured in Billboard, NYLON, The Village Voice, BuzzFeed, Bitch Magazine, Autostraddle, AfterEllen, SheWired, The Advocate, Deli Magazine, and The Washington Post.
Anne Heaton
Singer-songwriter and classically trained pianist Anne Heaton has amassed awards and praise from critics, fellow artists and fans with her songs that are by turns “tender, barbed and spiritual” (Washington Post). She’s been featured on the New York Times Music Popcast who called her music “absolutely gorgeous.” She has also played on NPR, at the Sundance Film Festival and for Lilith Fair in Boston (2010). Known for the infectious energy of her live performances — “a natural performer [with] a rich, soaring voice” (Seattle Times) —Heaton has played over 1,000 headlining shows nationwide. She has shared the stage with artists such as Sarah McLachlan and jazz drummer Max Roach. Other artists she has opened for/toured with include Jewel, Melissa Ferrick, Paula Cole, Martin Sexton, Chris Trapper, Jonatha Brooke, Susan Werner, Dar Williams, Richard Shindell, Jill Sobule and Julia Sweeney of Saturday Night Live.
Heaton studied Great Books at the University of Notre Dame, writing her senior thesis on Debussy’s piano works. She later enriched her musical experience by studying composition and jazz vocals at The City College of New York. Always a big fan of Peter Gabriel, the Indigo Girls and Tori Amos, she became fascinated by early American spirituals while living in New York City and sang in a Harlem gospel choir directed by John Motley.
Heaton has played over 1,000 headlining shows nationwide. In addition to writing and producing her own albums, Heaton produces records for other songwriters. She also regularly writes custom songs including ones she recently wrote as part of a research project and caregiving program for oncology nurses at the University of Texas-Austin called Songs for the Soul.
Anne often performs with guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Frank Marotta, Jr. and they have played over 1,000 headlining shows together nationwide. Anne and Frank currently live in Milwaukee where they enjoy coffee, Lake Michigan and being parents to two freethinking daughters. Anne is excited to return to the Club Passim stage with old songs and new songs for an upcoming record she’ll record later this year!
Korby Lenker
Korby Lenker is a sneaky-good songwriter. And singer. And multi-instrumentalist.
An abbreviated list of Lenker’s achievements so far includes: a significant amount of airplay on the legendary Seattle indie rock station KEXP; a BBC 2 interview with Bob Harris, which is only about the highest honor a rootsy singer-songwriter touring the U.K. can get; opening slots for acts ranging from Willie Nelson to Ray LaMontagne, Nickel Creek, Keith Urban, Susan Tedeschi and Tristan Prettyman; a successful run with one of the hottest young West Coast bluegrass bands of the aughts; and wins in the Merlefest folk songwriting contest as well as the Kerrville Folk Festival’s elite New Folk songwriting competition.
Lenker returned to the Pacific Northwest inspired by his Appalachian adventures and fully immersed himself in the region’s bluegrass scene, forming a band called The Barbed Wire Cutters that proved to be an immediate hit in those parts. And he found ways to apply his pop-honed sensibilities to that tradition.
All this time, Lenker was also making solo albums, and that became his primary focus with the folk-leaning Bellingham, which went over wonderfully in the U.K. and landed him on Bob Harris’s BBC Radio 4 show. After a move to Seattle, he got the urge to plug in again, hooked up with Candlebox drummer Scott Mercado and made a nimble modern rock record called King of Hearts that got lots of spins on KEXP and a 4 star review in UK mainstay MOJO magazine.
Toward the end of the last decade, Lenker followed his muse down to his present home of Nashville where he’s not only continued to hone his own unique artistic voice, but launched a stripped-down series of performance videos dubbed Wigby, spotlighting kindred musical spirits he’s found.
The Sea The Sea
THE SEA THE SEA (Chuck E. Costa and Mira Costa) is an Upstate New York based indie folk-pop duo featuring what Bob Boilen (NPR’s All Songs Considered) calls “excellent harmonies” & Huffington Post calls, “Two of the loveliest male-female voices you might ever hear this or any other year.” The group’s 2020 release, Stumbling Home, dubbed “otherworldly” by Rolling Stone marks the duo’s third full-length album, and the duo’s first primary recording / engineering credits on one of their albums, as well as that of co-producers—teaming up with recent Grammy and Tony award winner Todd Sickafoose (Hadestown, Anais Mitchell, Ani DiFranco, Andrew Bird).
Previous releases from The Sea The Sea—Love We Are We Love (2014), In the Altogether (2016 / EP), and From The Light (2018)—have been praised by outlets including NPR, American Songwriter, and No Depression, and the animated video for their song “Waiting” sparked viral interest from Buzzfeed and Pitchfork, as well as inclusion at the international TED 2015 conference. The band has garnered features across all music platforms including Apple Music “Best of the Week” and “A-List Singer/Songwriter,” gathering 20+ million streams on Spotify to-date. Live performance broadcast appearances of The Sea The Sea include Mountain Stage, whose host Larry Groce calls them “ready to take their place among the best young male/female duos now performing,” Audiotree, and Paste Music / Daytrotter—recently describing the band as “defined by their infallible vocal harmonies and their unconventional song arrangements. The Sea The Sea is a pop band only in their melodic infectiousness—otherwise they are at their best when subverting conventions.”
Ali Sperry
Ali Sperry is a Nashville-based independent artist. Her songs are undeniably rooted in folk music, simple and true, but she pushes the boundaries, toying with tones of modern indie-pop, rock, and old-school soul. She evokes stories of love – hearts broken and healing; the wistful burn of aspiration; and the universal quest for connection to self and others.
Ali was raised in Iowa to two musician parents who encouraged her to sing and create music from the time she could speak. Her childhood soundtrack was steeped in the music of the 60s and 70s: Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel, James Taylor. After attending Syracuse University and briefly moving to Chicago, Ali was recruited by an all-girl band in Nashville, TN called Sweetwater Rose.
Four years later in 2012, immersed in the growing alternative music scene in Nashville, she released her first solo record, Storybook, produced by Kyle Ryan and backed by a rotating tribe of musicians – friends, lovers, and roommates – who came to be known as The Family Vacation. In October 2014, she released her most recent project, an EP entitled Comes and Goes – produced by Scott Hardin, Jamie Dick and Ali, and mixed in Memphis, TN at Ardent Studios on a console well-used by Stax Records.
Royal Wood
Singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Royal Wood has established himself as a true musical talent. Since being proclaimed “Songwriter of the Year” by iTunes, Wood has continued to evolve and hone his musical craft – maintaining an unmistakable identity while uncovering and reinventing his sound.
Wood has two albums that have debuted in the Top 30, multiple JUNO nominations, 2-time Canadian Folk Music Award-nominee, and a #1 added song at Hot AC radio. His songs have been heard on high profile sync placements like Grey’s Anatomy, and Private Practice.
Greatly admired, Royal Wood’s records have been released worldwide with successful tours in North America and Europe – selling out dates along the way. 2016 marked the released of his enigmatic new record GHOST LIGHT. Birthed in Los Angeles and Toronto, with Bill Lefler and Royal at the production helm. GHOST LIGHT has given a new meaning to Wood’s career, where creativity and performance will continue to shine and cultivate his trajectory – no matter where it leads. Royal is currently working on his up-coming album with British songwriter and producer, Jamie Scott (One Direction, Nelly Furtado, Olly Murs).The result is an album that exudes raw emotion and emanates a feel of the songwriters of the sixties and seventies, a journey Royal began with the writing of his last album.
Noble Dust
Noble Dust creates dynamic, lyrically-driven folk pop, blending ethereal vocal harmonies with intricate horn and string melodies. Since the release of their debut album ‘And The Tide Rises’ in 2018 funded by Club Passim’s Iguana Grant, they have shared stages big and small across the country (a sold-out Club Passim, Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, City Winery Boston MainStage, The Grey Eagle, The Royal Room, Folk Alliance International). They released their second LP ‘A Picture for a Frame’ recorded at Dimension Sound Studios with producer Dan Cardinal (Darlingside, The Ballroom Thieves) in August 2023 to critical acclaim from NPR and Bandcamp among others. The group is a 2023 New England Music Award Nominee for Americana Band of the Year, 2023 Falcon Ridge Grassy Hill Emerging Artist and received Club Passim’s inaugural Gecko Award for creative narrative works in 2023.
