David Nagler is a Brooklyn-based musician and songwriter. He is the musical director for Wesley Stace’s Cabinet of Wonders and the founder & frontperson for NY metropolitan area pop group Nova Social.

Wesley Stace was born in Hastings, East Sussex in 1965. He released many albums under the name John Wesley Harding, before switching back to his birth name for more recent recordings, including 2021’s Late Style. He has recorded duets with, among others, Bruce Springsteen, Lou Reed, and Rosanne Cash. Stace has published four novels, including the international bestseller Misfortune, and recently co-wrote Mark Morris’ memoir Out Loud. He also created Cabinet of Wonders, a monthly show that plays at New York City’s City Winery, and which The New Yorker called “one of the finest nights of entertainment this city has to offer.”

He has taught at Princeton, Swarthmore and Fairleigh-Dickinson, and writes regularly for the Times Literary Supplement and the Wall Street Journal. He lives in Philadelphia.

ERIC ANDERSEN’S voice, songs, guitar and piano playing created a career that has spanned over 45 years. He has recorded 25 albums of original songs, and made numerous tours of North America, Europe, and Japan.

His songs have been recorded and performed by world renown artists such as Ricky Nelson, Judy Collins, Sandy Denny, Fairport Convention, The Kingston Trio, Peter Paul and Mary, Linda Ronstadt, Johnny Cash, The Grateful Dead, Linda Thompson, Mary Chapin Carpenter, and Francoise Hardy, plus many others in Europe, Australia, England, and Japan.

My path to music has been long, and at times very uncertain.

After graduating with a degree in classical vocal performance in 2011, I felt a little lost, and feared I would never be worthy enough to be a “real” musical artist. I ignored those fears, joined a local Folk/Americana band and fell in love. We toured the country singing our songs for many years. During this time I was focused on fitting myself into what I thought a good musician, band-member, partner, and woman should be.

We recorded a couple EPs and one studio album together. Then in 2018 the band broke up, and my relationship fell apart. This was without a doubt one of the most painful times of my life. My fears had come true. I felt unmoored, ashamed, and alone.

The songs on this, my first solo album, were all written either during or about this time. I didn’t know it then, but these songs were like seeds; seeds being planted by tooling over their melodies and meaning. By tending to these songs, I was able to process my trauma and grief, and see that the healing process for me began by recognizing and accepting all the parts of myself – the sure and the struggling.

I am not one thing. I am not defined by the bad or the good things that have happened to me. My triumphs will not always yield abundance, and my failings will not always spell blight. I can be resolute, and still sometimes have to weed out the doubt. I am whole; and I am learning, and growing. I am cultivating who I am. This album is my Garden.

Kayla Ringelheim is a singer-songwriter and pianist who weaves together intimate storytelling with folk and jazz-inspired music to create songs that lift the spirit. Raised in the Boston music scene, Kayla has been writing and performing original material since she was 13 years old. Kayla is celebrating the release of her 5th album, “Returning Home.” Her other releases include Tides (2005), Play (2007), Wandering Feet (2012), and Grow On (2019). She has been a finalist in the John Lennon Songwriting Competition, was voted “Audience Choice” at the Boston Folk Festival Songwriting Competition, and has performed extensively across New England, New York, and in Canada, at fabled folk venues such as Club Passim, Caffe Lena, and Rockwood Music Hall. Alongside her work as an artist, Kayla is an activist and public health practitioner. She studied at Brown and Yale University and is now based in New York City, where she works on efforts at the intersection of health, environment, racial justice, and collective healing.

Raised in the Blue Ridge of Virginia, Heather Lynn keeps the sounds and traditions of Appalachia close to her heart. Born into a musical family, her earliest memories are of singing in the church choir alongside her family. Heather’s music reflects her love of folk artists like Etta Baker and Jean Ritchie, weaving fingerstyle guitar with free flowing melodies and lyrics.

Music took her to study at New England Conservatory in Boston, where she spent five years exploring and expanding her personal style. During her time in Boston, Heather performed her original music throughout the city at venues such as Jordan Hall, Club Passim, the Museum of Fine Arts, and Atwood’s Tavern. She’s worked with artists across many genres, including Dominique Eade, Jason Moran, Carla Kihlstedt, Ellen Kempner (of Palehound), and Larry Unger. Most recently, her love of the outdoors has brought her to Portland, Maine where she continues to teach, perform, and write music. Fond of agriculture, Heather currently helps manage a greenhouse at an organic farm that serves the Maine community. Her first EP is being polished and will be released in the late spring/early summer.

Ellie Turner quietly captures moments out of time on her album When The Trouble’s All Done.

“I can’t tell you where I’m going / I can’t tell you where I’m bound”, sings Ellie Turner over a serene soundscape that seems to draw you into her world, “That train has come to carry me, a little farther down the line”. Turner’s first full-length album, When The Trouble’s All Done uses stripped-down production and a commitment to capturing a singular performance to deliver unique moments, seemingly divorced from day-to-day life. While “Folk Music” has come to mean so many things over the past decades, Turner’s approach is both refreshing and vintage, evoking early Bob Dylan, and a tradition of bygone years, embracing beautiful imperfection.

Originally from Dallas, Texas, Turner has always been creative, although her passion was initially channeled into visual art and design. “I was all set to attend Savannah College of Art and Design”, she explains, “but a last-minute conviction of spirit led me elsewhere. I ended up at The University of Arkansas on a total whim where I studied Economics, and more importantly, where I fell in love with folk music.” In Arkansas, Turner discovered old-time music through a local fiddle jam and became enamored. “I was too afraid to actually participate at that point, I would just sit and observe in complete wonder. It filled me up like nothing else ever had. I couldn’t get enough… I think that was probably when I first started to understand the power folk music had to stop time.” This observation is readily apparent in Turner’s songs, which do seem to exist on their own metaphysical planes, as meditations of sorts.

The album’s title track is one such meditation, seemingly a mantra for hope. “And we will sing of the good years and wait on that sun / Cuz soon it’ll be here when the trouble’s all done”, croons Turner. “This is actually the first song I wrote for the album back before I even realized I was writing one, in April of 2020. I consider this song the wellspring of the record as a whole. It is a longing for what is to come. A hopeful declaration of belief that the morning will come to claim its turn.”, she explains.

Despite her brazen hopefulness, Turner’s own path has not been straightforward. After a few years working as an analyst for Southwest Airlines, she “finally mustered up the courage to leave my corporate gig for something more creative,” although she still didn’t pursue music. It would take one more year and a brief stint at the interior design company The Citizenry before she finally gained the confidence to say yes to the thing she truly loved. “I was at breakfast with my Dad on a Saturday morning when I made the decision to quit my job, sell my house, and move to Nashville. It was July of 2018, I was 26 years old, and I felt so behind,” she says.

When The Trouble’s All Done, also explores more intimate themes of love and loss. On one of the standout tracks, “Holyoke”, Turner speaks from a moment of devastation with a loved one. “But I’m tangled up in moments of a soon forgotten past / in a bed of shattered memories of a love gone by too fast”, she sings with her signature soft yet piercing vocals, which feel like a secret told to a best friend. Even in heartbreak, Turner approaches everything with a zoomed-out view, in the context of deep time, and the knowledge that nothing is constant.

Through every element of her album’s creation, Turner has taken care to retain a specific presentation of her songs. Most of the tracks feature just acoustic guitars, upright bass, and vocals. “The album was performed and recorded live-to-tape at Sound Emporium Studios in Nashville, TN,” she says. “This was a very conscious decision made by myself and my producer, Jack Schneider. We would play the song live until we felt like the most honest version
of the song had been performed and captured. The imperfections and unexpected little moments of each performance are where the magic of the record lives. I wanted it to feel as if I was in someone’s living room and was handed a guitar to play.”

In an era when it is possible to edit every note of a record into some semblance of “perfection”, Turner’s music moves and breathes, and reminds us where folk music comes from; the homes and souls of regular people, singing unedited songs for one another on quiet evenings.