Hawktail–fiddler Brittany Haas, bassist Paul Kowert, guitarist Jordan Tice, and mandolinist Dominick Leslie—is hitting the road in support of sophomore album Formations, about which Folk Alley’s Kelly McCartney commented, “We simply haven’t seen these instruments played this way and with this exuberance… except by Hawktail.” Successfully challenging the traditional roles of their respective instruments and genres, Hawktail mixes it up and heads out to explore new directions. “We’re just trying to find something good to play,” says Tice. “We’re not interested in adhering to the same old forms—merely adding some spice to something that we all know how it’s going to end.”

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Cedric Watson & Bijou Creole resurrect the ancient sounds of the French and Spanish contra dance and bourré alongside the spiritual rhythms of the Congo tribes of West Africa, who were sold as slaves in the Cariibbean and Louisiana by the French and Spanish. Unlike many of his contemporaries, the four-time Grammy-nominated fiddler, singer, accordionist is also a prolific songwriter, writing almost all of his songs on his double row Hohner accordion. Cedric’s songs channel his diverse ancestry (African, French, Native American and Spanish) to create his own brand of sounds.

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East LA’s Las Cafeteras take their name from the Eastside Café community space, where the bandmembers first met as students. Since they started playing together in 2005, their infectious live performances use traditional Son Jarocho instruments and sing in English, Spanish, and Spanglish to cross many genre and musical borders. “Yo no creo en fronteras. Yo cruzare. (I don’t believe in borders. I will cross)”, they sing in “La Bamba Rebelde.” Remixing roots music and telling modern day stories, creating a vibrant musical fusion with a unique East LA sound and positive message, their Afro-Mexican beats, rhythms, and rhymes deliver inspiring stories of a community seeking love and justice in the concrete jungle of Los Angeles.

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New Orleans trumpet player and composer Terence Blanchard has garnered many honors over his distinguished career, which had an auspicious start when childhood pal Wynton Marsalis, moving on from Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, recommended Blanchard as his replacement. Since going solo he’s received acclaim for his work on movie soundtracks, most notably those of Spike Lee, with whom he’s collaborated since the ’90s. He has won five Grammy Awards, with 14 nominations, most recently Best Instrumental Composition in 2019 for the haunting, evocative “Blut und Boden” from Lee’s “BlacKkKlansman.” The Metropolitan Opera Company will open its 2021-2022 season with his second opera, Fire Shut Up in My Bones.

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Swedish singer-songwriter Kristian Matsson, performing as The Tallest Man on Earth, has garnered comparisons to Bob Dylan for his songwriting and vocal style, but says “I don’t consider my work to be a part of any tradition. This is how I play. This is how I write songs.” He records and produces his music at home and is known for his charistmatic stage presence. NPR says of his most recent, introspective album I Love You. It’s a Fever Dream, written in the wake of a painful divorce, “Matsson seems to have figured out that the crests and valleys of our interiorities are just as beguiling as the vast expanses around us.”

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Americana and roots singer/songwriter Jackie Greene is a jack-of-all-trades, and an artist who can croon over soulful piano ballads as much as he can shred a bluesy guitar solo. A road warrior and musician’s musician, Greene’s last EP, The Modern Lives-Vol 2 (2018/Blue Rose Music), finds him at a new chapter in his life: his first months of fatherhood, time off his relentless touring circuit, and a cross-country move from Brooklyn to his birthplace of Northern California. Since the release of his critically-acclaimed debut album Gone Wanderin’, Greene has built an enduring audience through continuous solo touring as well as stints with the likes of BB King, Mark Knopfler, Susan Tedeschi, The Black Crowes, and Taj Mahal.

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Growing up with strong influences in gospel, R&B, and soul music in Tennessee, Valerie June first began performing in Memphis in 2000 as part of the duo Bella Sun before launching her solo career exploring what she called “organic moonshine roots music.” Her 2013 label debut Pushin’ Against a Stone, co-produced by Dan Auerbach, and including “Working Woman Blues,” co-written with Booker T. Jones, garnered worldwide acclaim. Recorded during the pandemic, The Moon and the Stars: Prescriptions for Dreamers was released in 2021.

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“Rolling Stone says Bob Mould’s 2020 release Blue Hearts “feels like a lost Hüsker Dü album with Mould howling invective over his buzzsawing guitar,” raging against COVID-19, right-wing politics, and other foes. A founding member of the legendary Minneapolis punk band in the early ‘80s, he’s pursued a solo career since they broke up, exploring moods from alt-rock frontiers from introspective to furious. As Allmusic’s Mark Deming puts it, “Bob Mould began his career as one of the angry upstarts of the hardcore punk scene, and over several decades he’s matured into one of the elder statesmen of alternative rock without giving up his integrity, his intelligence, or the fierce passion of his best music.”

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As a band, Lake Street Dive epitomizes democracy in action in their writing and arrangement duties. Their personalities, skills, and wide-ranging taste in pop, rock, R&B, and jazz have long blended together to make an impressively cohesive sound, both sophisticated and playful, combining retro influences with contemporary attitude. The band –Rachael Price (lead vocals, ukulele, guitar), Bridget Kearney (bass, piano, vocals), Mike Calabrese (drums, organ, vocals) and Akie Bermiss (keyboards, organ, vocals)–teamed up with Mike Elizondo, music director of Chris Thile’s Live From Here series, on its latest recording project, Obviously. Says Price, “Obviously is the first word in the song ‘Hypotheticals’—an undeniable dance track, a great way to say, ‘We are back!’”

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Born from the dark, rich soil of West Virginia, raised in the clear, hop-scented country air, Sierra Ferrell cut her teeth on the rail lines, truck stops, street corners, and dingy, dimly lit listening rooms all across the land. Belting out her old-time melodies, she creates a sorcery, drawing her patrons, ever more deeply, into her animated tapestry of forlorn, star-crossed love, of longing, poverty, of suffering and triumph, encompassing that irreconcilable thrum of the human spirit and all the complexities of emotion that come with it.

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Grammy Award-winner and six-time Grammy nominee, Peter Rowan is a bluegrass singer-songwriter with a career spanning over five decades. From his early years playing under the tutelage of bluegrass patriarch Bill Monroe, and following his stint in Old & In the Way with Jerry Garcia and subsequent breakout as both a solo performer and bandleader, Rowan has built a devoted, international fan base through his continuous stream of original recordings, collaborative projects, and constant touring.

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The New York Times describes Mark Ribot as “a deceptively articulate artist who uses inarticulateness as an expressive device.” Over 40 years, 25 albums, and numerous collaborations, he’s explored everything from the pioneering jazz of Albert Ayler to the Cuban son of Arsenio Rodríguez. His noise rock trio Marc Ribot’s Ceramic Dog (Ribot on guitar/vocals, Shahzad Ismaily on bass, Chess Smith on drums) recently unleashed Hope, a ferocious project fueled by Ribot’s fury over COVID, politics, global warming and not being able to see the ones he loved due to the pandemic.

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Bachelor, the new project from Melina Duterte (Jay Som) and Ellen Kempner (Palehound), came into being in January 2020 when the duo packed the entirety of Duterte’s recording equipment into two cars and headed to a rental house in Topanga, CA, where over the course of two weeks, they wrote and recorded their debut album Doomin’ Sun. Hybridizing their individual songwriting talents, addressing themes from queerness to climate change, it’s a collection that slips between moods with ease and showcases their lyrical prowess.

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Andy Shauf’s songs unfold like short fiction, densely layered with colorful characters and a rich emotional depth. On his album The Neon Skyline, he sets a familiar scene of inviting a friend for beers on the opening title track: “I said, ‘Come to the Skyline, I’ll be washing my sins away.’ He just laughed, said ‘I’ll be late, you know how I can be.’” The LP’s 11 interconnected tracks follow a simple plot: the narrator goes to his neighborhood dive, finds out his ex is back in town, and she eventually shows up. On top of heartbreak, friendship, and the mundane moments of humanity that define his songwriting, Shauf makes music that explores how easy it is to find yourself in familiar patterns and repeat the same mistakes of your past. Shauf says, “There’s moments on the album where the characters are thinking ‘this is the end of the world.’ But there are also moments with some clarity and perspective: Nothing is the end of the world.”

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Rainbow Girls first came together in 2010 as part of an open mic scene in Isla Vista, CA. After years of busking and touring, the band relocated to the Bay Area, releasing their crowdfunded debut album The Sound of Light in 2013. Currently a trio of founding members Vanessa May, Erin Chapin, and Caitlin Gowdey, the Rainbow Girls recently released Give the People What They Want, a covers album inspired when their internet video of “Down Home Girl” went viral. With their sweet harmonies and poignant songwriting, they’ve become favorites at festivals and opened for such artists as John Craigie and The Brothers Comatose.

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Texas Gentleman Shakey Graves (born Alejandro Rose-Garcia) is an American Americana musician from Austin, Texas. Since his 2011 self-released debut Roll the Bones, he’s worked on many recording and touring projects, many of which feature his distinctive one-man-band solo performance style. Of his latest EP, Look Alive, he says, “This record is the most I’ve ever intentionally worked on a project, musically speaking, in terms of the scope of it and how much thought went into it. It’s a dense album; there’s a lot of information going on.”

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One of the first artists to create her own label in 1990, Ani DiFranco has been recognized among the feminist pantheon for her entrepreneurship, social activism, and outspoken political lyrics. Her 22nd studio album, Revolutionary Love, marks the latest proof of one of her most powerful gifts as an artist: a rare ability to give voice to our deepest frustrations and tensions, on both a personal and political level. “My songs have always reflected an acute connection between my personal life and the life of my society,” says the trailblazing musician and activist. “As I started to come out of years of dealing with marriage problems, I saw my entire country in the same situation; the complete breakdown of communication and loss of empathy and connection. But after what seems like unforgivable damage, then where do you go? You can’t kick each other off the planet, you can’t change the past, so what then?”

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2020 saw the release of J.T., Steve Earle’s tribute album covering the songs of his late son, Justin Townes Earle. One of the most acclaimed singer/songwriters of his generation, the elder Earle has distinguished himself as a master storyteller, and his songs have been recorded by a vast array of artists, including Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Joan Baez, Emmylou Harris, the Pretenders, and more. With his longtime band, the Dukes, he recently released Ghosts of West Virginia, with raw, powerful, evocative songs about the catastrophic explosion in the Upper Big Branch coal mine, which killed 29 men in 2010.

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Grammy-nominated, all-women string band Della Mae have traveled to over 30 countries so far, spreading peace and understanding through music. The band—founder and fiddle player Kimber Ludiker, lead vocalist/guitarist Celia Woodsmith, guitarist Avril Smith, bassist Vickie Vaughn, and mandolinist Maddie Witler—released its debut album, Headlight, in 2020, but the pandemic prevented their touring. However, they’ve continued to play and record together, releasing Family Reunion in August 2021. 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.

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Singing in her native Amharic and in English, Bay Area-based Ethio-American vocalist, songwriter, and composer Meklit is known for her soulful performing style and for combining jazz, folk, and East African influences in her work, including her much-acclaimed recent, When the People Move, the Music Moves Too. She has collaborated with the likes of Kronos Quartet, Andrew Bird, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, and musical legend Pee Wee Ellis. A National Geographic Explorer, a TED Senior Fellow, and a former Artist-in-Residence at Harvard University, Meklit is Chief of Program at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. She is also co-founder, co-producer and host of Movement, a new radio series and live show telling stories of global migration through music.

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Known as “The American Songster”™ for his extensive, eclectic repertoire covering over 100 years of early American popular music, Dom Flemons is considered an expert player on the banjo, guitar, harmonica, jug, percussion, quills, fife and rhythm bones. A co-founder of the Grammy Award-winning Carolina Chocolate Drops, he embarked on a solo career in 2014. He’s been busy with a wide range of projects since, most recently with 2018’s Grammy-nominated Dom Flemons Presents Black Cowboys, on Smithsonian Folkways, and 2020’s Prospect Hill: The American Songster Omnibus. He currently serves as a Governor on the Board of Directors for the Washington, D.C Chapter of the Recording Academy.

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Dubbed “the missing link between Public Enemy and Louis Armstrong” by the Village Voice, The Soul Rebels got their name from Cyril Neville—they were opening for him at Tipitina’s and lacked a name at the time. The eight-piece New Orleans-based contemporary brass band got its start when founding percussionists Derrick Moss and Lumar LeBlanc wanted to play a wider range of music in the context of brass and marching bands, incorporating elements of soul, jazz, hip-hop, rock, and pop into their version of the venerable tradition. They’ve gone on to collaborate with artists from multiple genres, from local luminaries Trombone Shorty and Branford Marsalis to Katy Perry, Rakim, Nas, Metallica, Green Day, and the String Cheese Incident.

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“They nearly always come back,” says banjo virtuoso Béla Fleck. “All the people that leave bluegrass. I had a strong feeling that I’d be coming back as well.” The 15-time Grammy Award winner returns to his roots in the third chapter of a decades-spanning trilogy that began in 1988 with Drive and continued with 1999’s The Bluegrass Sessions. My Bluegrass Heart is a homecoming for Fleck, an amalgamation of generations, ideas, and style, returning to the traditional bluegrass band form after a lifetime of exploration. He’s put together a stellar band for this HSB set, featuring Michael Cleveland, Sierra Hull, Justin Moses, Mark Schatz, and Bryan Sutton.

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Shreveport’s own Seratones got their start in 2013 in Louisiana clubs, playing their own distinctive brew of blues-steeped rock, and were soon seen on the festival circuit. Soulful guitarist/vocalist AJ Haynes began singing in church at age 6. With the strong instrumental support of Travis Stewart (guitar), Adam Davis (bass), Tyran Coker (keyboard), and Jesse Gabriel (drums), the Seratones bring a strong, catchy, gospel-tinged mood of uplift and inspiration. Following the release of their debut album Get Gone in 2015, Paste Magazine called them one of the “Best New Bands of 2015.” Their sophomore album, Power, featuring the anthemic title track, was released in 2019.

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Mavis Staples is living, breathing history. She is an alchemist of American music, having continuously crossed genre lines like no musician since Ray Charles. Weaving herself into the very fabric of gospel, soul, folk, pop, R&B, blues, rock, and hip hop over the last 60 years, this iconic singer has seen and sung through so many changes, always rising up to meet every road. “I’m the messenger,” she says. “That’s my job—it has been for my whole life—and I can’t just give up while the struggle’s still alive. We’ve got more work to do, so I’m going to keep on getting stronger and keep on delivering my message every single day.”

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Landing in New Orleans for college in the early ’90s, childhood pals Jeff Raines and Robert Mercurio fell hard for the music scene and started a band. Ever since, their band Galactic has been firmly rooted in NOLA funk, blues, and brass band, while always willing to explore something new, including hip-hop, electronica, fusion, and jazz. Fronted by vocal powerhouse Anjelika “Jelly” Joseph, the band features Raines on guitar, Mercurio on bass, Ben Ellman on sax, Rich Vogel on Hammond organ, and Stanton Moore on drums, Galactic is known for studio collaborations with vocalists including Mavis Staples, Allen Toussaint, Irma Thomas and Macy Gray. Longtime regulars at legendary music venue Tipitina’s, where they regularly invite local artists onstage to perform with them, Galactic became the club’s new owners in 2018.

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A 14-time Grammy winner and Billboard Century Award recipient, Emmylou Harris’ contribution as a singer and songwriter spans 40 years. She has recorded more than 25 albums and has lent her talents to countless fellow artists’ recordings. In recognition of her remarkable career, Harris was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2008 and earned a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018.

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