Philadelphia-based singer-songwriter blending folk, rock, and soul alternatives with messages of positivity and change. Her single “When I’m Gone” (Don Giovanni Records) garnered attention and opened new opportunities, including touring with The Black Opry and official showcases at SXSW. Sug’s debut studio album is set to release in the spring of 2025.
Artist Category: Singer/Songwriter
John Forster
As a recording artist John’s 19,94 debut album Entering Marion got an Indie Award HM (the independent record labels’ Grammy) for Best Comedy Album. Many of his witty topical songs have been featured on NPR’s “Morning Edition.” His songs have been recorded by Christine Lavin, Judy Collins, Rosanne Cash and the late Dave Van Ronk, among many others. His song “Entering Marion” is included in Dr. Demento’s “50 Greatest Novelty Songs Of All Time.” John is also co-author of the children’s books “This Pretty Planet,” based on his song, as well as “The Backwards Birthday Party” (Atheneum) and the teen parody book “The BSAT Official Study Guide” (Running Press).
As a writer and producer of bright, sassy music for children John has been nominated for four Grammy Awards, most recently for the Tom Chapin album Some Assembly Required. Other children’s albums include Family Tree, This Pretty Planet, Billy The Squid and a dozen more. He has produced records for everyone from the Olsen Twins to the original “tot rock” band, Rosenshontz. John’s song “Sing Me The Story Of Your Day” was sung by Faith Hill on the 2006 Grammy-winning Thanks & Giving.
His musicals includes the regional theater favorite Eleanor-An American Love Story (licensed through Concord Theatricals) as well as “Into The Light” on Broadway and the Off Broadway revues “Pretzels” and “A Good Swift Kick.” His latest is “Mariel,” an Afro-Cuban immigration story commissioned by the Cincinnati Playhouse. His scores for young audiences include the perennial “How To Eat Like A Child,” one of the most widely produced children’s shows in the country (licensed through Concord Theatricals), as well as book and lyrics for Freaky Friday with composer Mary Rodgers.
“If Joni Mitchell and Daffy Duck had a love child, he’d probably write songs just like JOHN FORSTER. His sharply observed satires range from sheer slapstick to Jon Stewart acute.” -Scott Alarik (The Boston Globe)
“You don’t need me anymore. Now you’ve got John Forster to kick around.” -Tom Lehrer
Olive Klug
While only a relatively short time since the van-dwelling singer-songwriter Olive Klug has fully pursued the nontraditional life of a touring musician, their sophomore album Lost Dog finds them contemplating a propensity for adventure no matter what avenue of love and loss it leads down. Although still very young, on Lost Dog Klug artfully addresses “aging as a neurodivergent free spirit” on the road with an unarguably talented ability to fearlessly voice deeply honest emotions through captivating storytelling.
Gentle at the start, album opener “Taking Punches From the Breeze” gets its title from Klug’s self-described nature of “letting the wind take them wherever they’re meant to be.” As more instrumentation fills in alongside fingerpicked guitar and Klug’s soft croon, a shuffling drum beat arrives under lyrical imagery of life’s new direction and the ups and downs of being beholden to the breeze.
Deemed by Klug as “the happiest song you’ll ever hear about unrequited love,” “What to Make of Me” is a “zydeco-inspired romp” so full of life and self-assuredness that there’s hardly room to dwell on anything remotely devastating. Pure unshakeable confidence clocking in at just under three minutes, this tune is much like the short-term romance that inspired it with the added benefit of being able to listen on repeat.
“No one is their best self in the first few weeks following a big breakup,” explains Klug. “And the song ‘Cold War’ demonstrates how this manifests in our modern world.” Poignant and precise, the stark recording of guitar, bass, haunting strings and vocals accentuate a very twenty-something realization on ended relationships and the proclivity to stalk the internet thereafter:
“The cold war has begun
Of who can prove that they’re having the most fun,
Through tiny screens and Spotify streams
Trying to prove to the other that we won”
“The song shows us parts of ourselves we might not always be proud of,” says Klug. “But can undeniably relate to.”
A “take on Paul Simon’s wordy magical chaos,” “Train of Thought” is an experimentation into the world of abstract metaphors compared to Klug’s usual literal storytelling style. On the surface the fun and frolic of wordplay and rhythm are countered by the personal meaning to Klug, and letting the listener in to what it’s like to be neurodivergent and how they have “recently embraced the internal chaos instead of trying so hard to control and repress it.” Additionally, lines like “and they try to button up my suit and tie in an attempt to hold me back but I’m this strange old conductor wearing pearls and a backwards baseball cap” highlight how their “nontraditional gender presentation is intrinsically linked to this neurodivergence and desire to resist societal pressures.”
The “fast-paced folk punk anthem” “Opposite Action” creatively puts Klug’s “under-utilized psychology B.A” to use – taking a therapeutic concept for a song name and putting its practice of encouraging “patients to do the opposite of what their emotions are telling them to do” in the chorus. Frustrated after applying these methods and not attaining immediate results during a depressive episode in the summer of 2023, Klug’s stream of consciousness style verses offer emotional release and the recognition that getting older and more responsible can feel like an inner-battle when the old patterns want to “give into the worst of me sometimes.”
Slowing down the tempo, “Lost Dog” is a melancholic examination of lifestyle choices. “It’s about watching your peers settle down into serious relationships and buy houses and wonder if you made the right decision to choose freedom and independence,” says Klug. “It’s about learning that the other side of the freedom/independence coin is often instability and loneliness.” Klug carefully acknowledges that their career can be captivating to many as “a wanderer’s lifestyle,”but others’ admiration can quickly turn to contempt as they age – a feeling expressed through the track’s titular metaphor in the chorus.
Revisiting the same break up depicted in “Cold War,” the minimalist ballad of “One Dimension” harnesses the healing power of hindsight. “With more time to process,” explains Klug. “It’s much easier to come to terms with the nuance in a relationship and recognize that the anger and vengeance that first arise after a breakup are often a coping skill for processing the real sadness and loss of cutting ties with someone you were once vulnerable enough to share your life with.”
Already serving as a special moment in Klug’s live set, Lost Dog ends with the enchanting and existential “Fleeting.” Reflecting on the complexities of connection, this swaying track is enhanced by crowd participation on the lullaby-like chorus “it’s fleeting, I’m better when I’m leaving” – a sung mantra between artist and audience of appreciating the present when departure is imminent.
Lost Dog was produced and engineered by Isaiah Beard (Jobi Riccio) and recorded at Club Roar in Nashville, TN.
Annie Lynch
Annie Lynch is a singer, songwriter, guitarist, and leader of the internationally touring Americana band, Annie and The Beekeepers. She has performed at SXSW, Philadelphia Folk Festival, UK’s End of The Road, Bristol Rhythm and Roots Reunion, and has shared stages with The Lumineers, Josh Ritter, Justin Townes Earl, and Scott McMicken (Dr Dog) amongst others. Since their 2007 debut, Annie and The Beekeepers have released two albums and an EP, including their most recent full-length, “My Bonneville”, titled after Annie’s first car. Annie has received wide ranging critical praise from publications like The Boston Globe, Washington Post, American Songwriter, Paste Magazine, and Filter. Performer Magazine refers to Annie’s music as “American roots music, sweetly intimate with vast boot-stomping songwriting”.
Julianna Zachariou
Julianna Zachariou is a songwriter and artist based out of San Diego, CA. After 3 sold out nights with Alisa Amador last spring, the two are returning again for a summer night of storytelling and song craft. Her newest album, Dreamer Dreamer is now available everywhere.
“She masters a blend of pop, folk, rock, indie and Americana and turns it into something that feels fresh, like it’s just hers.” (J. Dixon Evans, KPBS)
Zion Rodman
Zion Rodman is a multi-instrumental singer-songwriter known for his soulful voice, intricate guitar playing, and poignant lyrics. With a melodic style that blends folk and rock influences, Zion’s performances are heartfelt and captivating as he weaves storytelling between songs.
Zion is currently recording a new album following the release of “The Lives I’ve Kept” EP in the fall of 2024.
Holly Near
After 50 years of bold work, Holly Near is still one of the most consistent and well informed voices for change. Her work is loving, challenging, funny, thought-provoking, and remains rooted in the global community. As an outspoken singer and ambassador for peace, Holly brings a unique integration of world consciousness and self-evaluation, always growing and sharing experience humbly and boldly.
Holly discovered her unique and recognizable voice at an early age, learning to sign along with recordings of some of the world’s great singers. After graduating high school, Holly attended UCLA but her academic journey ended after just a few months when she was spotted by agents and drawn into the world of film and television. She did guest spots on TV shows like The Partridge Family, Room 222, All in the Family, and played supporting roles in films like John Cassavetes’ Minnie and Moskowitz and George Roy Hill’s Slaughterhouse-Five. She moved to New York and performed for a short run in Hair on Broadway but soon turned to singing full time, as a soloist as well as sharing the stage with her sisters Laurel and Timothy. Throughout her career she has enjoyed collaborations with such artists as Mercedes Sosa, Ronnie Gilbert, Inti Illimani, Emma’s Revolution, and her long-time songwriting partner, the late Jeff Langley.
In her early twenties, Near traveled with the Free The Army Show and the Indochina Peace Campaign; an experience that enabled her to learn about the function and consequences of the military industrial complex. While on the FTA tour in 1971 Holly was first introduced to the concept of global feminism. By 1974 she was crossing paths and sharing songs with the wave of new lesbian feminist performers such as Meg Christian, Cris Williamson, Linda Tillery, Mary Watkins, and Alive! Near dove into the feminist movement, trying to understand the depth of sexism and homophobia by turning those lessons into song
Holly is known for the anthemic quality of some of her songs. As a songwriter she takes up the challenge of turning big concepts into small, personal stories. In response to the slaughter of the students at Kent State, she wrote It Could Have Been Me. And following the assassinations of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk in San Francisco, she penned Singing For Our Lives, which has become an anthem for the LGBTQ community and appears in the Unitarian Church hymnal. The chilling disappearance of people in Chile under the Pinochet dictatorship brought forth Hay Una Mujer Desaparecida to commemorate the women who had “been disappeared.”
In 2019, Near began a website project called Because of a Song, an online historic archive that documents some of the influential artists that rose from the feminist lesbian music scene in Oakland, California. The site can be viewed at www.becauseofasong.com.
A recipient of dozens of awards from organizations such as the ACLU and the National Organization of Women, Holly was one of Ms Magazine’s Women of the Year recipients and has been nominated for Grammys as well as the Legends of Women’s Music Award.
Matthew and the Atlas
When it came time for fifth full-length ‘Many Times,’ Matt Hegarty needed to try something different. The Aldershot songwriter, better known as Matthew and The Atlas, was keen to follow up 2023’s ‘This Place We Live’ quickly, jumping straight back into the studio at the end of that same year. Tapping up Bear’s Den member and producer Kev Jones for the challenge, they approached ‘Many Times’ with a production style antithetical to its title: each song was to be recorded in as few takes as possible, stripped-back and direct-to-tape, with no overdubs.
This process, the pair explain, was intended to capture Matt’s songwriting in its purest form. Recorded over just two days at the iconic Rockfield Studios in Monmouth, Wales, “the idea was just to capture a moment in time that is very, very honest and open,” Jones says. Inspired in part by Nick Drake’s ‘Pink Moon’ (which was itself captured over just two nights).
“We said to ourselves that I shouldn’t rehearse too much,” says Matt. “It’s a balancing act – you have to write the songs, and know the melody and the lyrics, and how you’re going to perform it. But only up to a point – you’re still trying to capture something a bit truer to its original form; something you haven’t over-rehearsed or refined down.”
It’s an approach that was taken to avoid the slow gestation process and over-thinking that Matt openly admits led to the four-year gap between his previous two albums. “I definitely tend to disappear into my studio space,” he says of previous records, “There’s definitely been a lot of overthinking in my home studio, and working on things, and taking a lot longer than I thought.”
For ‘Many Times,’ then, it was a total about-face in terms of approach. “I really wanted to do the complete opposite of that,” Matt explains, “and not think about instrumentation – just think about songwriting.”
Capturing those songs in their rawest form led to some of ‘Many Times” most stunning moments coming from the most unlikely of places. From the engineer running around the studio mid-take, to re-position microphones while Matt was still ‘in the zone,’ to rhythmic thigh slaps from Kev during the recording of ‘Standing Here’ adding one of the record’s only embellishments – and taking the track to a new dimension in the process – it’s a record that thrives on its simplicity. “It’s because the elements are so simple, the minutiae is massive,” says Matt.
“There was always an element of uncertainty about it, which I think was a good thing,” he continues of the recording process. Recording to tape – an expensive method in an increasingly digital age – “gave it an element of pressure,” he admits. But despite the pressure Matt might have felt, ‘Many Times’ feels like Matthew and The Atlas’ most effortless release in a decade.
“You’ve got nowhere to hide, the songs have to speak for themselves,” says Kev of the approach, and it’s something Matt agrees with. The result is a record which houses some of Matthew and The Atlas’ most brilliant songs to date.
Nicolás Emden
Nicolás Emden is a talented multi-instrumentalist, composer, singer, and songwriter, hailing from Chilean Patagonia. His music navigates the waters of pop, rock, and South American folk, creating a distinctive South Americana indie folk rock sound, with evocative Spanish lyrics.
Emden began his musical journey at the age of six, through South American folk and church music, singing and playing acoustic nylon guitar. His early musical career saw him founding the Chilean band Tejado Pimiento (2007-2012), with which he won the national TV contest “Garage Music” and released two albums as the main songwriter of the group, “Triciclo” (2007) and “Sensación de verdad” (2010). In 2014, he launched his solo career with the album “Como Los Pájaros,” accompanied by a YouTube documentary series, “Como Los Pájaros x Chile,” showcasing his new music busking through the streets of multiple Chilean cities.
Since moving to Boston in 2014 to study at Berklee College of Music, Emden has continued to expand his musical horizons, performing and touring throughout the United States, Canada, and Chile. His involvement in diverse artistic projects, ranging from folk and rock to contemporary music theater, reflects his commitment to using music as a universal language to connect people together, globally.
In 2023, Nicolás released two singles, “Sin Ti” and “Todo Volverá,” and won the World Act of the Year at the New England Music Awards (NEMAs). Additionally, he was selected as one of the 2023 Iguana Fund recipients of Club Passim in Cambridge, MA, for recording his second studio album.
Mariee Siou
Mariee Siou, of Eastern European and Hispanic ancestry, is a healing singer, wordsmith and visionary artist, channeling and transmitting medicinal qualities through her music for over 17 years.
Siou has been a fixture in the Neo-folk scene since her 2007 debut “Faces in the Rocks”—now acclaimed as a cult classic in the indie music world. She is revered for her delicate finger picking and poetic mysticism, often drawing, as from the ether, immense feeling through a voice of soft potency and otherworldly wordsmithing. She is known as a healing singer and as being a visionary artist, channeling and transmitting medicinal qualities through her music.
The songs continue to come to Mariee Siou, and her approach as a singer continues to mature. The flowing melodies and quivering vibrato of her voice, as well as the poetry itself, continue to locate themselves and their work with a more solidly grounded precision as to just what that work is. Her most recent songs most deeply reflect this clarity of vision and acceptance of both her role as an artist and the endless need for that role in this changing world. Mariee Siou brings us back to the child and the grandmother in ourselves, in a time in which it has never been more needed — and she intends to keep it up as long as she has a voice.
Mariee Siou has extensively toured Europe and the US, and opened for acclaimed artists like Mazzy Star, Buffy St. Marie, Bert Jansch, Brightblack Morning Light, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, and Joanna Newsom. In 2021 she played Le Guess Who? In Utrecht, Netherlands, at the invitation of Phil Elverum of The Microphones/Mt. Eerie, and she continues to tour the US and Europe.
