Thirsty Merc are an Australian pop rock band formed in 2002 by Rai Thistlethwayte, Phil Stack, Karl Robertson (drums), and Matthew Baker (guitar). In 2004, Baker was replaced by Sean Carey, who was, in turn, replaced by Matt Smith in 2010. Thirsty Merc have released one extended play, First Work, and four studio albums: Thirsty Merc, Slideshows, Mousetrap Heart and Shifting Gears. The band have sold over 200,000 albums, toured extensively around Australia, and received national radio airplay for their tracks.
Hank Brian Marvin is an English multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and songwriter. He is widely known as the lead guitarist for the Shadows, a group which primarily performed instrumentals and was the backing band for Cliff Richard, and subsequently for Marvin, Welch & Farrar.
Brad Douglas Paisley is an American country music singer and songwriter. Starting with his 1999 debut album Who Needs Pictures, he has released eleven studio albums and a Christmas compilation on the Arista Nashville label, with all of his albums certified Gold or higher by the RIAA. He has scored 35 Top 10 singles on the US Billboard Country Airplay chart, 20 of which have reached number one. He set a new record in 2009 for the most consecutive singles (10) reaching the top spot on that chart.
Mindi Abair is an American saxophonist, vocalist, author, and National Trustee for the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the organization that puts on the Grammy Awards show.
Johannes Linstead is a Canadian guitarist and instrumentalist who fuses virtuoso Spanish-style guitar with Afro-Cuban, Middle Eastern, and Latin American percussion and instrumentation. In 2017, Linstead was awarded the "Best World Album of the Year" in the T.I.M.A Awards. He has/had an influential artist endorsement deal with the Yamaha Corporation of America and an endorsee with D'Addario String Co.. Further accolades include being named "Guitarist of the Year" in the prestigious Canadian Smooth Jazz Awards (2007), two NAR Lifestyle Music Awards, a nomination for a Juno Award and others.
Earl Klugh is an American acoustic guitarist and composer. He has won one Grammy award and thirteen nominations. Klugh was awarded the “1977” Best Recording Award For Performance and Sound” for his album “Finger Painting” by “Swing Journal” a Japanese jazz magazine.
Taylor Eigsti is an American jazz pianist and composer. He has performed, toured, or recorded with Dave Brubeck, Chris Botti, Joshua Redman, Julian Lage, David Benoit, Terence Blanchard, Becca Stevens, James Moody, Esperanza Spalding, Lisa Fischer, Ernestine Anderson, Red Holloway, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Diane Schuur, Ambrose Akinmusire, Ben Wendel, Marian McPartland, Christian McBride, Nicholas Payton, Joshua Bell, Chris Potter, Stefon Harris, Sting, John Mayer, Hank Jones, Chick Corea, Snarky Puppy, Vanessa Williams, McCoy Tyner, Joey DeFrancesco, Charles McPherson, Geoffrey Keezer, Eldar Djangirov, Joe Lovano, The Doobie Brothers, and Frederica von Stade, among many others. His working trio features bassist Harish Raghavan and drummer Eric Harland. He is also a member of Eric Harland Voyager, Kendrick Scott Oracle, and Gretchen Parlato's group.
Peter White is an English musician and composer who plays guitar, piano, accordion and harmonica. He is known for his 20-year collaboration with Al Stewart. Peter's brother, Danny White, was one of the original members who formed the UK-based band Matt Bianco.
Brian Tarquin is an American jazz guitarist, recording artist, sound engineer, record producer, composer, and author who founded Jungle Room Studios in New York. He specializes in guitar instrumental music and smooth jazz. He records for several labels, including his own launched in 2006, BHP Music/Guitar Trax, specializing in music for guitar. Throughout his career he has recorded with and produced projects with Larry Coryell, Gary Hoey, Hal Lindes, Chuck Loeb, Steve Morse, Billy Sheehan, Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal, Leslie West, and Mike Stern.
Jonathan Michael Batiste is an American singer, songwriter, musician, composer, bandleader, and television personality. He has recorded and performed with artists in various genres of music, released his own recordings, and performed in more than 40 countries. Batiste regularly tours with his band Stay Human, and appears with them nightly as bandleader and musical director on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert since 2015.
To the Stars is an album by American jazz fusion group the Chick Corea Elektric Band, released on August 24, 2004, by Stretch Records. Jazz musician Chick Corea, a longtime member of the Church of Scientology, was inspired by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard's science fiction 1954 novel To the Stars. Hubbard's book tells the story of an interstellar crew which experiences the effects of time dilation due to traveling at near light speed. A few days experienced by the ship's crew could amount to hundreds of years for their friends and family back on Earth.
Diane Arkenstone is a multi-genre musician.
Jay Russell Oliver is an American jazz musician, composer, record producer, programmer and engineer. He began his professional music career at the age of 19 as the youngest member of Maynard Ferguson's band. His later credits include: Sheryl Crow, The Eagles, Jimmy Buffett, Wynonna Judd, Glenn Frey, Peabo Bryson, Chick Corea, Dave Weckl, Russ Kunkel, Jay Graydon, AO Music, Celine Dion and many others.
Jeff Pearce is an Indiana-based ambient/new age musician. He has been called "one of the top two electronic guitarists of all time" by Allmusic, while reviewer John Diliberto wrote in Billboard magazine that Pearce is "one of the best" guitarists to follow the solo electric guitarist concept. Pearce started playing guitar at age 13 and discovered the music of Brian Eno and Harold Budd while in college.
Al Conti is a Grammy-nominated New Age composer, arranger, producer, and multi-instrumentalist.
Wouter Kellerman is a Grammy Award-winning South African flautist, producer and composer who has won eight South African Music Awards. Using his classical training as a foundation, Kellerman has focused his attention on World and Roots music, exploring the versatility of the instrument and fusing classical and contemporary sounds.
Michael Dulin is an American pianist and composer. In addition to performing his original music, Dulin has appeared both solo and with orchestra in performances of classical music. He has also toured as keyboardist with the Motown group, the Temptations.
Erwilian is an American musical group featuring acoustic instrumentation, led by soprano recorder, violin, and hammered dulcimer. The group blends elements from celtic, world, and folk music into an original cross-genre style classified as New Age. Since its formation in 2000, the group has featured various multi-instrumentalists in its lineup. Current members and primary instruments include founders Scott Melton (guitar) and Jordan Buetow (recorders), Bethel Melton, Malcolm Lee (bass), Matt Garcia (harp), John Hintze (percussion), and Keely Rendle (violin).
Jeff Oster is a Grammy-nominated American musician who specializes in trumpet and flugelhorn in the New Age music genre. He is a member of the four-piece band Flow. Oster's style has been described as "Miles Davis meets Pink Floyd." He is three-time winner of the Independent Music Awards and ten-time winner of the Zone Music Reporter Awards. He was featured on the Laura Sullivan's Grammy-winning album Love's River. Flow's debut album reached number 4 on the Billboard New Age Albums Chart in 2017.
Jennifer Louise Rock Johnson is an American Christian worship singer, songwriter and worship pastor. She is a co-founding member of Bethel Music, and is one-half of the husband-and-wife worship duo, Brian & Jenn Johnson. She is also a senior worship pastor at Bethel Church in Redding, California, and a Senior Overseer of WorshipU, an online school of worship under Bethel Music which she co-founded with Brian Johnson.
