Sonny Landreth and Cindy Cashdollar are making some rare duo appearances in 2022 and 2023. The Louisiana slide guitar wizard’s trademark bottle-neck chops and Cashdollar’s dobro and steel string talents culminate in world renowned showcases of guitar virtuosity.
Revered for his unique slide guitar technique, Sonny Landreth has collaborated with many legendary performers including John Hiatt, Jimmy Buffett, Mark Knopfler and Eric Clapton. Summer of 2013, Sonny was part of the Peter Frampton led Guitar Circus tour, often closing the night playing with Frampton on an extended “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.”
Cindy Cashdollar’s expertise is in great demand on both steel guitar and dobro. She has worked with many leading artists in various genres including Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Rod Stewart and Ryan Adams. With the iconic western swing group Asleep at the Wheel, she garnered 5 Grammy awards and was the first woman to be inducted into the Texas Steel Guitar Hall of Fame in 2011.
Performing a mix of original songs with contemporary and traditional blues and roots music, the show is electric, virtuosic, and tastefully delivered by these two great instrumental masters.
North Carolinian Eric Bachmann’s debut solo album may have been called Short Careers, but his musical career has been anything but. Beginning with his early-’90s indie rock band Archers of Loaf, the one-time Appalachian State University saxophone major moved through several generations to craft a relentlessly independent and uncompromising rock & roll journey. Archers of Loaf would slowly amass a devoted cult following on the strength of albums like All the Nations Airports and White Trash Heroes. Before Archers of Loaf disbanded in the late ’90s, Bachmann would be well into side project Barry Black and on the way to his long-running dark songwriting moniker Crooked Fingers. Throughout the 2000s and 2010s, Bachmann’s output was strong and consistent, both as Crooked Fingers and under his own name.
With their 1993 debut Icky Mettle, Bachmann’s group Archers of Loaf unleashed a collection of white noise, Pavement-style guitar pop, and loopy lyrics that deftly matched the crunch of Chapel Hill’s other underground giants, Superchunk. In 1995, Bachmann began the instrumental side project Barry Black with producer Caleb Southern and released two LPs. The Archers released three more studio albums before disbanding in 1998, capping things off with a posthumous live record called Seconds Before the Accident.
Crooked Fingers, Bachmann’s more stripped-down follow-up project, debuted in 2000 with a self-titled full length that introduced a dark-hued mix of folk, indie, and Americana. Bring on the Snakes, Crooked Fingers’ slightly more optimistic sophomore output, followed a year later. In 2002, Bachmann released Short Careers, his first set of recordings under his own name. The entirely instrumental set marked his first foray into film scoring, providing the soundtrack to the independent film Ball of Wax, the story of an evil baseball player mad with greed. In the summer of 2006, Bachmann released his second proper solo album, the sparse and powerful To the Races. Throughout the rest of that decade, Crooked Fingers would serve as his primary creative vehicle, culminating with 2011’s Breaks in the Armor. A talented multi-instrumentalist, Bachmann joined fellow songwriter Neko Case’s touring band in 2013 while continuing to write new material for himself. In early 2016, he released his third solo effort, a self-titled LP on Merge Records, accompanied by the announcement that he would retire the Crooked Fingers project and shift his focus to a proper solo career. In late 2018 he returned with the sparse and somewhat despairing collection No Recover.
Birthed in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, Palmyra explores the fusion of traditional folk string instruments, lush harmony, and earnest songwriting. The trio, now based in Richmond, captures the collective spirit of three Virginia natives: Teddy Chipouras, Mānoa Bell, and Sasha Landon. Often described as a distant cousin to The Avett Brothers and The Wood Brothers, Palmyra nods toward Appalachian and Midwestern Americana, with intricate arrangements that create the illusion of a full, larger-than-three ensemble.
The breakout folk trio has worked diligently to cement themselves as an unmistakable force in the Americana music landscape at large. Their forward momentum is propelled by their craftsmanship and dedication to an intimate performance experience; at the heart of the Palmyra is the evident love and regard that the three musicians share for each other and their craft.
Palmyra has directly supported Watchhouse, Mipso, and Illiterate Light, and has won honors and recognition from institutions including the historic Newport Folk Festival, American Songwriter, The Boston Globe, Under The Radar Magazine, Americanafest, and Floydfest.
Matt Lorenz’s vision, manifest in The Suitcase Junket, developed in the tension between the grand and the solitary. Grand in its imagery, sound, and staging. Solitary in its thrift and self-reliance. What instruments he requires, Lorenz builds from scratch and salvage. What parts five players would perform, he performs alone. The spectacle of his one-man set bears constant comparison to legends of showmanship, brilliance, madness, and invention.
While audiences are captivated by his solitary form and the show itself, Lorenz, who homesteads in rural Western Massachusetts, is most serious about the songs. He has been building a catalog, writing a world into existence. Solitary on stage and on the road, his mind is crowded with characters, narratives, voices, imagery, sounds as wide and varied as mountain throat singers and roadhouse juke boxes, plus newsreels of the planet’s destruction and salvage. With this 2020 release, The End is New, Lorenz’s grand vision for the song overrides the how of it.
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Charlie in the Question Mark is the solo project of songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Charlie Muench. Hailing originally from Lancaster PA, he cut his teeth touring nationally and internationally with Americana/Folk band The Stray Birds from 2012 to 2018. Since then he has kept a regular calendar as a session musician and side-man in the Philadelphia area. Muench also tours regularly as a bassist with singer-songwriter Joe Pug. Playing mostly supportive roles as a musician throughout his career, his first solo release You Were Dreaming puts Muench front and center for the first time. The songs set a new course for him, seeking to leave behind stagnant and wooden ideas about what it means to be a musician and a creative being. The record is a collection of songs that seeks sweeping emotional honesty and deep-dives into the subconscious. It’s out June 28.
Old Hat is a string band based out of Eliot, Maine. Fusing tight vocal harmonies with a lively rhythm and groove section, Old Hat’s sound draws from bluegrass, old time, folk, and country traditions. The band is comprised of Whitney Roy (Guitar, Vocals), Steve Roy (Mandolin, Fiddle, Vocals), Amanda Kowalski (Bass), and Carolyn Kendrick (Fiddle, Vocals).
Whitney Roy’s lilting vocals provide the backbone of Old Hat’s vocal blend, while her solid rhythm guitar anchors the bands rhythm section.
Steve Roy is one of New England’s premier multi-instrumentalists, and has performed and toured with many of the acoustic world’s top acts.
Amanda Kowalski is one of the more sought-after bass players in the worlds of bluegrass and old time music, and her rhythmic drive and energy on stage are second to none.
Carolyn Kendrick is a California-based singer-songwriter, fiddler, guitarist, and producer. After graduating from Berklee College of Music, Kendrick crisscrossed the country with her former duo project The Page Turners. She has also shared the stage with beloved artists such as Bruce Molsky, Margo Price, Aoife O’Donovan, and Darol Anger, all while playing the festival circuit and winning numerous awards.
Long-time friends and collaborators Emily Mann and Wila Frank, known together as Paper Wings, dream up warm, pastoral folk songs suited to wandering through a forest or field, quiet contemplation, and long winding journeys. Furnished with delicate banjo and spellbinding harmonies so close you often can’t tell their voices apart, Frank & Mann deliver dynamic performances emboldened by the strength of their sincere songwriting. The duo have an uncommon ability to tastefully reference nostalgic sounds of American folk music while maintaining their own compelling style of artful and unpretentious lyricism. The strength and solitude one finds in the wilderness is a theme throughout their writing, and they lovingly transport listeners to open landscapes in which to find comfort and ask the questions which we all have in common.
Both with roots in rural parts of the West Coast, Mann & Frank eventually found their way to Nashville where they recorded their debut album Paper Wings in 2017 and sophomore album Clementine which came out in 2019. In 2020 the duo were on the road opening for Avi Kaplan’s ‘I’ll Get By’ tour. It was soon after this that they shared Marigold, the first pre-released single from the upcoming album which is a delicate and hope-filled ode to new beginnings and second chances. This is the first peek into their upcoming album which explores themes of grounding and rediscovering a sense of innocence.
Sequoia is a folk singer-songwriter based in Richmond, Virginia and raised in New England. Influenced by traditional American music, lyrically inspired. Travis picking, melodic finger-style, and singing in gentle texture. Songs through imagery and storytelling.
Della Mae is a GRAMMY-nominated, all-women string band made up of founder and fiddle player Kimber Ludiker, lead vocalist/guitarist Celia Woodsmith, guitarist Avril Smith, and bassist Vickie Vaughn.
Hailing from across North America, and reared in diverse musical styles, they are one of the most charismatic and engaging roots bands touring today. They have traveled to over 30 countries spreading peace and understanding through music.
Their mission as a band is to showcase top female musicians, and to improve opportunities for women and girls through advocacy, mentorship, programming, and performance.
In early 2020, Della Mae released Headlight – a studio album dedicated to celebrating powerful, trailblazing women. While the pandemic made it impossible to tour that album, the band continued to play together. They returned to touring in Summer 2021 with another new album Family Reunion. In early 2022, they released a video on demand concert called The Stonecroft Sessions. In July 2023, they released a new single “Can’t Let Go.”
Zak Bunce has been playing music his whole life. He has been highly sought after by many Michigan bands and artists alike with his keen intellect and flexibility as a vocalist and an instrumentalist, playing everything from guitar to bass, banjo, ukulele, keys, spoons, trash cans, street signs, whatever he can get his hands on. His credits include fronting for both the rock band Bodega with Denny Richards, Chuck Light of Kung Fu Rodeo, Joe Germano, and Jack Jensen. He was also the lead vocalist and bass player of Detour Bluegrass Recording two Albums and playing all over including Kendallville and The Lincoln Theatre. He has also played with his sister Rachael Davis, The Starlight Six, Steppin’ In It, Seth Bernard and May Erlewine, Josh Davis, Samantha Crawford, Hawks and Owls, Duck Soup, doug henthorn Chris Winkleman of Soul Patch and more. Zak’s spot on and powerful vocals send chills down the spine of audiences of all ages, shapes and sizes.
