Meghan Cary

• Folk
• Singer/Songwriter

Meghan delivers award-winning original songs with powerful vocals and unshakable stage presence. Hailed a “storytelling troubadour” by Billboard Magazine, Cary inspires connection and community with music that’s earned comparisons to Melissa Etheridge and Brandi Carlile. Her anthem “Sing Louder” and 2025 single “Raise Your Voice” rally audiences to hope and action. A favorite at festivals like Falcon Ridge and Philadelphia Folk Fest, she’s shared stages with Joan Osborne, Chris Smither, and more. Whether performing, teaching, or speaking, Cary empowers others to embrace their stories with humor and heart. “If you can get to a Meghan Cary show—run, don’t walk.”

Lance Cowan

For the past 30 years, Lance Cowan has worked behind the scenes with some of the country’s finest songwriters, including Joe Ely, Nanci Griffith, and Michael Martin Murphey and many more. Along the way, he has quietly honed his own songwriting skills, learning from those artists and a deep well of influences from Jackson Browne to John Prine. His works have been performed and/or recorded by such respected artists as Joan Baez, Janis Ian, David Mallett, and several independent artists. His 2024 debut, So Far, So Good and his new Against The Grain, have been met with tremendous critical acclaim.

Kemp Harris

• Blues
• Folk
• Jazz
• Roots

Kemp Harris defies categorization. He is a singer and songwriter, a master weaver of American musical styles. He’s an actor, activist, author, and storyteller, and an award-winning educator who has taught young public school students for more than 40 years.  

“It’s all about communication,” Kemp says. “Everything I do.”

Born in segregated Edenton, North Carolina, and transplanted to Massachusetts, where he bounced between relatives’ homes, Kemp learned to adapt to whatever world he found himself in – a talent that has come to define him as a person and an artist. He began writing songs at 14 and recording them in college, using a pair of old cassette players to track parts, and has been delighting music lovers ever since with his earthy, soulful creations.

Kemp honed his powerful, intimate performance style in Cambridge’s coffeehouses, developing into a magnetic frontman who has shared stages with artists such as Koko Taylor, Livingston Taylor, Gil Scott-Heron, Kandace Springs and Taj Mahal. He has composed original music for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and Complexions Contemporary Ballet, established a songwriting residency at Boston’s Wang Theater, and recently delivered a series of master classes at Berklee College of Music on the subject of Artists as Activists, alongside Chad Stokes of the band Dispatch and members of the dance troupe Urban Bush Women.

Kemp’s most recent album, Edenton, featuring vocals from the legendary Holmes Brothers, is a modern blues journey that fuses the personal and the political, the sacred and the profane, to haunting effect. Edenton’s title track, a bittersweet valentine to his birthplace, explores a simpler time in a racially-divided town with the clear-eyed grace that is a hallmark of Kemp’s work. Everything he makes is built on a foundation of social awareness and the desire to reflect the world as he sees and experiences it. Whether he’s performing a rousing soul tune backed by a 14-piece orchestra in a grand concert hall or a hushed meditation alone at his piano, Kemp speaks truth the only way he knows how: by baring his soul. Considering the state of the world, it is no wonder Kemp is back on the road playing to the biggest audiences of his life – selling out rooms from Northern New England to New York City and enjoying a wave of new fans who have discovered this seasoned Renaissance man via word of mouth.

“Kemp Harris is a thief, a tease and a heartbreaker. He knows too much. And it’s all right there when he sings… beautifully there. He’ll take your breath away.”  – NPR: ‘On Point’

Adam Monaco

• Folk

“Adam Monaco lives what he writes and writes what he lives, allowing him to deeply connect with those he plays for and alongside of.” – Trevor Gordon Hall
These words will ring true for anyone who has experienced folk/Americana artist Adam Monaco’s thoughtful songwriting and poignant presence firsthand. Adam’s music is lush, colorful, melodic, and takes deep root in the complex, beautiful stories that connect humanity. His lyrics resonate like a conversation with an old friend: personal, profound, engaged, and thought-provoking. His authentic performances showcase his ability to evoke the full range and complexity of human emotions; in one musical moment, he can bring audiences to tears, then lift them back up with witty banter and a relatable anecdote.

Buddy Mondlock

• Folk

Buddy Mondlock met Guy Clark on top of a hill at the Kerrville Folk Festival in 1986. It was a moment that changed his life. Guy liked the song he heard and started passing around tapes of the young Chicago songwriter’s songs to people he knew in Nashville. When Guy Clark gives you a tape, you listen. Soon Buddy was headed south to a publishing deal and a manager. Since then his songs have been recorded by Nancy Griffith, Joan Baez, David Wilcox, Janis Ian, Peter, Paul & Mary, Garth Brooks and a host of other artists. In 2001 he co-wrote and recorded a trio album with Art Garfunkel and Maia Sharp called “Everything Waits To Be Noticed.” Guy Clark’s album “The Dark” is bookended with songs Clark and Mondlock wrote together – “Mud” and the title song, “The Dark,” which was their first co-write.

Rees Shad

• Folk

Rees met Guy for the first time at a recording session in Nashville, where Guy lent his vocal talents to a track on Shad’s debut album. Guy’s kindness led to many more people paying attention to the album than would have otherwise, and to pay it forward, Shad has been the organizer of this and other shows in the Northeast to benefit the Foundation. Over the course of a prolific 40+ year career, 32 releases and 17 solo albums, Shad has crafted music that is both poignant and profound. He is dedicated to crafting short story songs that cross genre lines to serve the spirit of each tale he weaves and engage his audiences in deep and meaningful ways. Shad’s latest release Porcelain Angel has spent the last few months near the top of the Folk charts being and has lauded for its “grace and elegance” (Americana UK), “all-knowing tonality” (Americana Highways), and for “pushing the boundaries of musical storytelling” (The Rogovoy Report).

Carole Wise

• Folk

Carole Wise is a Maine-based singer-songwriter known for her sweet and soulful folk-acoustic music, often described as honest and relatable. Her songs explore themes of love, loss, societal issues, and personal growth, always with a focus on finding the silver lining. She also incorporates her love for nature and her experiences navigating life's challenges into her songwriting. Carole was an award winner at the Rose Garden Songwriter Competition in 2022 and was a finalist for the ISSA Emerging Artist and Best Video awards in 2023.