Andy Wazz & The No Names are a high energy funky group set out to make you groove so hard you lose your shoes! They play an original brand of rockin’ funk/R&B proven scientifically to make you move your body.
Artist Category: Rock
Hush Club
Boston’s Hush Club are pioneers of Milky Way music––their new album, Fingerprints & Stains, has a lush sonic majesty as vast as the galaxy and a melodic beauty as sweet as the candy bar. The album’s meticulously crafted tracks take you on a sensory journey far from home as only potent music can, spiraling past stars and moons, reveling in interstellar tranquility, and traversing asteroid belts.
Hush Club is made up of Chris Haley (guitar, vocals), Liz Kantor (keys, vocals), and Alasdair MacKenzie (drums, bass, vocals), who found each other in college and then isolated together during the COVID-19 pandemic. With Fingerprints & Stains, they take listeners beyond peaks and valleys to examine the nuances of our shared human experience: making sense of heartbreak and pain, questioning the path you’ve chosen, repeating mistakes you thought you had outgrown, and trying to tell your real self apart from disguises.
Whether you let Fingerprints & Stains wash over you like a sonic tsunami or take it in one song at a time, this is a distinctive musical project, with depth and dimensionality that beckon for your exploration.
EG Vines
Having burst onto Nashville’s bustling Americana scene with his debut EP in 2018, E.G. Vines is preparing for the release of his first full-length album as a solo artist. Produced by Jordan Lehning (Kacey Musgraves, Robert Ellis, Rayland Baxter), Family Business is a deep dive into Vines’ broad-ranging roots rock sound paired with lyrics that relate themselves to the human condition. As its title suggests, at its core lies a focus on what makes us, as a collective society, family. With lead single “The Salesman” already in rotation at regional taste-maker Lightning 100, Vines is poised to break out on a national scale.
Meg Toohey
Meg Toohey is a versatile musician, songwriter, and producer with a knack for crafting unforgettable hooks. Over the years, she has caught the attention of Grammy-winning artists and some of the most respected songwriters in the industry, including Sara Bareilles, Lori McKenna, Josh Ritter, and Anaïs Mitchell.
Known for her skills as a guitarist, Meg has earned both national and international acclaim, particularly through her work with the indie folk duo The Weepies. In 2018, her contribution to Geometría del Rayo, the album by Spain’s legendary Manolo García, earned her a Latin Grammy.
A key player on Broadway and West End productions, Meg helped orchestrate Waitress The Musical and the 2023 West End premiere of Wild About You.
Her extensive career includes performing, recording, and producing for a wide range of iconic artists such as Sara Bareilles, Gavin Creel, Cyndi Lauper, The Go-Go’s, Linda Perry, Jason Mraz, Duncan Sheik, Cynthia Erivo, Adrienne Warren, Patti LuPone, Lea Salonga, and many more.
In addition to her collaborative efforts, Meg has written music for popular TV series, including Pretty Little Liars, Vampire Diaries, Grey’s Anatomy, Parenthood, Private Practice, Army Wives, Gossip Girl, as well as shows on HBO, PBS, Nickelodeon, and Apple.
Currently, Meg is in the process of producing her 11th studio album, set for release in 2025, further solidifying her place as a dynamic force in the music industry.
Spotted Tiger
Spotted Tiger formed around the songwriting of Laurence Scudder & Erik White. Drawing on shared musical influences the band has shaped a unique sound from the ground up. Join them for an evening full of new material & arrangements exploring the inner workings of their songs. This show will be different than any other Spotted Tiger show thus far.
Russ Gershon
Russ Gershon is a saxophonist, composer, arranger, educator and record company founder. He has been based in the Boston area since the late 1970’s.
His work with the Either/Orchestra, the ten piece jazz/Latin/Ethiopian band he founded in 1986 has earned him a Grammy nomination, endless critical accolades, and performances around the world. The E/O has released ten albums and a DVD, with two new records slated for release in the near future.
Gershon and the E/O have collaborated with the greats of Ethiopian music, including Mahmoud Ahmed, Teshome Mitiku, and Mulatu Astatke, who recorded Russ’ composition “Azmari” with his own band. The E/O’s 2004 concert in Addis Ababa was released as a double CD on the Ethiopiques from France, the only album by a non-Ethiopian group included in this prestigious series.
As well as playing regularly with his trio, Gershon also music directs, plays and sings in Lookie Lookie, an eight piece band devoted to the revival of 1960’s Latin Bugalu music. He does regular work as a studio player and arranger for rock, pop, commercial and jazz recordings. In recent years he has been a leader, arranger or player in projects devoted to David Bowie’s “Blackstar,” Steely Dan, Frank Zappa, Marvin Gaye and Rickie Lee Jones. He has performed with Cab Calloway, the Four Tops, Medeski Martin & Wood, the Boston Pops and others.
Gershon has taught music history at Lasell College and instruments and band in Brookline and Nahant Massachusetts schools. He has also served as a visiting clinician or artist-in-residence at Harvard, New England Conservatory, Berklee, Tufts and numerous other colleges across the US.
As founder of Accurate Records, Gershon has helped bring over 100 albums to the marketplace, for artists as diverse as Medeski Martin & Wood, Morphine, the Alloy Orchestra and the Ghost Train Orchestra. Accurate released Josh Roseman’s “New Constellations” in the US market.
Will Evans
Will Evans has spent the last decade as the primary songwriter, drummer, and front man for the Roots Rock outfit Barefoot Truth. The band released four full-length albums and has surpassed over 20 million plays on Spotify.
With BFT on an extended hiatus, Will has opened a new chapter in his musical journey. In 2018, Will joined his good friend Trevor Hall as a member of his touring band. Together they have performed to passionate crowds across North America and Europe.
On Election Day in November 2018, Will released his third full-length solo album “RISE”. His deepest and most personal album to date, songs contain topics of humanity, compassion, and a reflection of the current political times. In a time when many are looking for words of inspiration and reassurance, the singer-songwriter is once again speaking from his heart, advocating his own brand of socially-conscious messages of love and inclusion. A lifelong surfer and environmentalist, his songs also speak to the importance of connecting with and protecting the earth. The album features guest appearances by Trevor Hall, Mihali of Twiddle, and more.
In his live performances, Will uses his impressive looping skills to combine his drumming background with his highly energized and entertaining acoustic style. Displaying his technical mastery of looping on the stage, crowds always get to their feet and he always reaches their hearts.
Will has shared the stage with many top artists including Crosby and Nash, Grace Potter, Bruce Hornsby, Rusted Root, Trevor Hall, Nahko, Xavier Rudd, Donavon Frankenreiter, Railroad Earth and members of Dispatch.
The Alternate Routes
The Alternate Routes are the band that helped us to remember “we are how we treat each other, and nothing more.” Now they’re back with a new single, “Safe Haven”—a love song that uses real life as its backdrop.
“Nothing More” propelled the band into new ears and new heights, having been featured prominently in the 2014 Winter Olympics, on NCIS, and in a partnership with TOMS shoes. It was followed up with “Somewhere in America,” a poignant and personal conversation about gun violence that earned the band a 2016 Independent Music Award and a visit to the White House.
“Safe Haven” continues the socially-conscious, no-hold-barred examination on modern living that the band has increasingly embraced. It reflects an evolution and maturity that results from sticking together and trying new things, musically and lyrically, for over a decade.
“Safe Haven” was self-produced by guitarist Eric Donnelly, drummer and engineer Kurt Leon, and singer Tim Warren, a sonic departure from previous efforts that highlights the use of the recording studio itself as an instrument. It was mixed by fellow Bridgeport, Connecticut native Peter Katis (The National, Interpol, The Swell Season).
The Alternate Routes first burst onto the scene in 2005 with their breakthrough album Good and Reckless and True. They released several albums on Vanguard Records and on their own, toured extensively, and relentlessly refined their craft. They have collaborated with such seemingly disparate artists as singer-songwriter Patti Griffin, director Lisa Cholodenko (The Kids Are All Right), and guitarist Carl Broemel of My Morning Jacket. They’ve performed on “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson,” “Late Night with Conan O’Brien,” and have been repeat guests on NPR’s “Mountain Stage.”
The core lineup of the Alternate Routes includes:
TIM WARREN (VOCALS)
ERIC DONNELLY (GUITAR)
KURT LEON (DRUMS)
IAN TAIT (BASS)
TARYN CHORY (VOCALS)
American Ink
Willy Porter
Some folks are lucky to find what they love to do at an early age and quietly settle in for the long haul expanding and developing their work over the arc of a lifetime. Willy Porter is one of those artists. He has followed his own path to explore the sacred language that music truly is. 30 years after his solo recording debut, he continues to reach further into his guitar & pen while stretching the form of what his own music can be.
Willy Porter continues on a musical and personal odyssey spanning over two decades, 13 albums, and multiple continents. His journey has been defined by an inquisitive love for humanity and the language that describes what we all hold to be true. Porter’s songs weave a universal perspective about the questions, struggles, and triumphs of human existence. His live shows are guitar-driven grit, soul, silence and muscle– at times electrifying, dynamic, and unique in the way that Porter’s voice blends and fuses with his fret work.
