Jacob Jolliff grew up just south of Portland, OR. He was awarded a full scholarship to The Berklee College of Music in Boston in 2007. Shortly after graduating from Berklee, he won the National Mandolin Championship. In 2014, he joined the progressive bluegrass group, Yonder Mountain String Band. He toured with YMSB until the end of 2019, releasing two albums with them. Now in 2023, the mandolinist’s main focus is The Jacob Jolliff Band. This ensemble is a group of virtuosic pickers that play Jacob’s original instrumentals, as well as showcase his singing. They tour nationally in the US and have also travelled to Scotland and Australia to perform. The group has released two albums, “Instrumentals Vol. 1” in 2018 and “The Jacob Jolliff Band” in 2022.
Artist Category: Roots
Red Tail Ring
Laurel Premo and Michael Beauchamp of Red Tail Ring create lush, intricate arrangements of original folk music and traditional ballads with banjo, fiddle, guitar, and close harmonies. “The very best of the 21st century’s minimalist and highly original folk music . . . a peerless duo.” – American Roots UK.
The Michigan-based band is fresh off their fourth full-length studio release, Fall Away Blues. Featuring new songwriting fused with old-time and country blues themes, the album tackles topical subjects such as gun violence and environmentalism as well as age-old questions of place and love. Red Tail Ring “doesn’t just pay homage to vintage folk and roots music: The Kalamazoo duo breathes new life into it, channeling the power and charm of seminal material into its own original songs.” – John Sinkevics, LocalSpins.com
Since 2009, Red Tail Ring has performed their brand of acoustic roots all over the United States, traveled over seas to play in the UK, Denmark, Germany, Finland, and Sweden, and has also appeared at some of the most notable festivals and venues that the US has to offer, such as The Ark, Club Passim, Caffe Lena, the Indiana Fiddlers Gathering, Wheatland Music Festival, and Hiawatha Traditional Music Festival.
Tarbox Ramblers
Taking listeners to a place where Appalachian music, backwoods blues and rock ‘n’ roll meet in powerful, ever-changing combinations, The Tarbox Ramblers channel the ghosts of Charlie Patton, Bo Diddley and the torch singers of countless long-gone dives and roadhouses. They’re a four-man wrecking crew whose caveman rhythms, hillbilly violin and charismatic barbwire guitar led The Washington Post to call them “a force of nature.”
When they’re not busy tearing down the house the Ramblers can be a surprisingly lyrical band, playing more than a few lushly atmospheric songs. With nuanced lyrics and spiraling instrumental improvisations they’re among The Ramblers’ best work. They also testify to bandleader Michael Tarbox’s growing strength as a writer. His songs reflect a love of not just blues and country but the work of lyricists like Johnny Mercer, whose iconic “One For My Baby (and One More for the Road) ” is a song Tarbox will tell you he wishes he’d written.
Listen to The Tarbox Ramblers and you’ll hear musicians with an abiding sense of all that’s dangerous, dark and fun in American music. Guided by the spirit of Billie Holiday, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Geeshie Wiley and Dock Boggs, to name a few, their work values authentic emotion above all. The band’s rough-hewn sound is the perfect vehicle for getting their message across.
The Tarbox Ramblers are: Michael Tarbox, guitar and vocals; Adam Mujica, drums; Jim Haggerty, bass; Daniel Kellar, violin.
OSOG
OSOG – Rebellious Acoustic Americana.
OSOG is an exotic musical collective from Tel-Aviv.
These Middle Eastern anti-heroes are taking the classic old-time and country sounds, injecting them with heavy doses of head-banging energy and attitude, while keeping the music authentic and true to the core.
This large outfit brings together punk rockers, metal-heads, jazz and classical players, and each show is a celebration of creativity and love for music. So far, OSOG has released 3 independent studio albums and toured North America and Eastern Europe.
In 2017 the band was invited as official showcasing artists to the Folk Alliance International convention and were praised by many as the best, most groundbreaking show of the festival. OSOG finished their triumphant American trip in a studio in North Carolina, where they recorded a new album, their first recorded on American soil, set to be released later this year.
Kerri Powers
It isn’t surprising, that Powers landed the #1 spot on the Roots Music Report’s “Top 50 Folk Albums of 2014” with zero publicity. She has charted on the Folk Music Radio charts as well as staying on the RMR charts for over 12 weeks with new single “When it Rains.” Over the years Powers has appeared at numerous prestigious venues and musical gatherings including The Boston Folk Festival, The Philadelphia Folk Festival, Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, and Telluride Bluegrass Festival. She has toured throughout The United States as well as overseas, making appearances in The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, and The U.K. Her song Diamond Day was featured in the motion picture Chuck, and other tracks have made their way into the television series Rescue Me and Justified.
With ‘Love is Why,’ Powers’ latest self-penned full-length album, the New England-based artist explores the universal emotion of love and its huge influence on our decisions. In particular, she examines love in the context of holding on or letting go through human loss and grieving. The album’s original songs were written during the pandemic and after Powers lost her father, whom she calls “my best friend.”
Love is Why was recorded at Dagotown Recorders in Boston. Produced by drummer Marco Giovino (Robert Plant, Tom Jones, Norah Jones) and engineered by Sam Margolis.
The album includes musical luminaries Bo Ramsey, Luther Dickinson, Kelvin Holly, Doug Lancio, John Putnam, Regina and Anne McCrary, Brother Paul Brown, Marty Ballou, Charles Giordano, Asa Brosius, and singer-songwriter Paul Thorn on duet vocals during a transcendent cover of Gregg Allman’s “Please Call Home.”
When you catch Kerri Powers on stage, you will immediately feel the realness and rawness of her artistry. She delivers art at its purest, a musical canvas painted with all the soulful colors and emotion that will pull you into her songs and message of love.
Dom Flemons
GRAMMY Award Winner, Two-Time EMMY Nominee, 2020 U.S. Artists Fellow
Dom Flemons is originally from Phoenix, Arizona and currently lives in the Chicago area with his family. He has branded the moniker The American Songster® since his repertoire of music covers over 100 years of early American popular music. Flemons is a songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, actor, slam poet, music scholar, historian, and record collector. He is considered an expert player on the banjo, guitar, harmonica, jug, percussion, quills, fife and rhythm bones. Flemons was selected for the prestigious 2020 United States Artists Fellowship Award for the Traditional Arts category which was generously supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
In 2020, Dom Flemons re-issued his album titled Prospect Hill: “The American Songster Omnibus on Omnivore Recordings. The two CD album features three parts: the original Prospect Hill album, the 2015 EP What Got Over, and The Drum Major Instinct which includes twelve previously unissued instrumental tracks. His original song “I Can’t Do It Anymore” was released on a limited edition wax cylinder recording. Recently, he released a cover of the Elmore James classic “Shake Your Money Maker”, recorded at Sun Studio in Memphis, alongside Rev. Peyton’s Big Damn Band and featured guest, legendary guitarist Steve Cropper. He played his six-string banjo (Big Head Joe), Quills, and Bones on Tyler Childers groundbreaking album Long Violent History and played jug alongside Brandford Marsalis on the soundtrack to Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom on Netflix.
Flemons currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Steve Martin Banjo Prize, Music Maker Relief Foundation and is a Governor on the Board of Directors for the Washington, D.C Chapter of the Recording Academy.
Hubby Jenkins
Hubby Jenkins is a talented multi-instrumentalist who endeavors to share his love and knowledge of old-time American music. Born and raised in Brooklyn he delved into his southern roots, following the thread of African American history that wove itself through America’s traditional music forms. As an integral member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops and later Rhiannon Giddens band, Hubby has performed at festivals and venues around the world, earning himself both Grammy and Americana award nominations. Today he spreads his knowledge and love of old-time American music through his dynamic solo performances and engaging workshops.
The Honey Dewdrops
Laura Wortman and Kagey Parrish are celebrating their 9th year of touring full time as The Honey Dewdrops, having played stages and festivals far and wide in North America and Europe. With tight harmonies and an musical ensemble that includes clawhammer banjo, mandolin and guitars, the effect is to leave listeners with only what matters: the heart of the song and clarity over ornamentation.
After leaving their home base of Virginia and living on the road for 2 years, Laura and Kagey now call Baltimore, Maryland home and it’s where they wrote and recorded their fourth full-length album, Tangled Country, released May 2015. Acoustic Guitar Magazine describes the set of songs as “a handcrafted sound centered on swarming harmonies and acoustic guitars that churn like a paddlewheel and shimmer like heat waves on the highway.” And like their stage performance, these songs rock and reel, and then they console you when you come back down.
The Honey Dewdrops have a busy year ahead of them with festival appearances across the country and a new record on the horizon (slated for release Spring of 2019) along with their first UK tour in Jan/Feb 2019.
Ordinary Elephant
Mesmerizing folk duo Ordinary Elephant has spent the better part of the last decade on a never-ending tour that’s earned married couple Crystal and Pete Damore widespread critical acclaim and made fans of luminaries like Tom Paxton and Mary Gauthier. In 2017, the pair took home the International Folk Music Award for Artist of the Year on the strength of their breakout album, Before I Go, and two years later, they returned with the similarly lauded Honest, which the Associated Press hailed as “one of the best Americana albums of the year.”
The band’s new stripped-down, self-titled collection is the purest distillation of their sound yet, showcasing the arresting power of the couple’s gorgeous harmonies and intricate fretwork. The songs are timeless, rooted in rich, character-driven storytelling, and the performances are similarly transportive, fueled by delicately intertwined banjo, guitar, and octave mandolin. Though the songs were born out of a period of deep uncertainty, the record itself is a work of profound self-assurance, one delivered by a duo whose personal and professional lives embody the limitless possibility of honest, organic collaboration. Press play on Ordinary Elephant and you’ll hear more than just a husband and wife; you’ll hear the sound of sincerity and commitment, of patience and gratitude, of learning to let go of expectation and revel in the simple beauty of the moment.
Courtney Hartman
Singer, songwriter, and guitarist Courtney Hartman started playing guitar at the age of eight, after having already spent several years on the fiddle and mandolin. Her early years were spent steeped in American Roots music, and today she has fused a diverse range of influences, creating music that acknowledges and pays homage to her roots, while pushing beyond its defined boundaries.
Courtney left her native Colorado for Boston, where she studied in the American Roots Music program at Berklee College of Music where she joined Della Mae, and began to grow as a songwriter. She appeared on the cover of Acoustic Guitar’s 2014 30 under 30 issue where her flatpicking prowess was lauded as “Staggeringly good” by the editors and the Fretboard Journal heralded Courtney as “…easily one of the greatest flatpicking guitarist performing today.”
Courtney now lives in Brooklyn and tours frequently, playing some two-hundred days a year, both at home in the states, and in countries as far off as Pakistan and Vietnam as part of the US State Department’s Music Exchange program. Courtney has also worked with a range of musicians including Tom Petty and the Heartbreaker’s Mike Campbell, Buffy St. Marie and Hot Rize’s Bryan Sutton. Her solo project, Nothing We Say, was released in September, 2016.
