Al Kooper is an American songwriter, record producer and musician, known for organizing Blood, Sweat & Tears, although he did not stay with the group long enough to share its popularity. Throughout much of the 1960s and 1970s, he was a prolific studio musician, playing organ on the Bob Dylan song "Like a Rolling Stone", French horn and piano on the Rolling Stones song "You Can't Always Get What You Want", and lead guitar on Rita Coolidge's "The Lady's Not for Sale", among many other appearances. He also produced a number of one-off collaboration albums, such as the Super Session album that saw Kooper work separately with guitarists Mike Bloomfield and Stephen Stills. In the 1970s he was a successful manager and producer, notably recording Lynyrd Skynyrd's first three albums. He has also had a successful solo career, written music for film soundtracks, and has lectured in musical composition. He is currently retired.
Guy Charles Clark was an American folk and country singer-songwriter and luthier. He released more than 20 albums, and his songs have been recorded by other artists, including Jerry Jeff Walker, Jimmy Buffett, Kathy Mattea, Lyle Lovett, Ricky Skaggs, Steve Wariner, Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell, Steve Earle, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson and Chris Stapleton. He won the 2014 Grammy Award for Best Folk Album: My Favorite Picture of You.
Reeves Gabrels is an American guitarist, songwriter and record producer. A member and guitarist of British band The Cure since 2012, Gabrels worked with David Bowie from 1987 to 1999, and was a member of the band Tin Machine. He has lived in New York, Boston, London, Los Angeles, Nashville, and New York's Hudson Valley. His Nashville-based band since 2007, Reeves Gabrels & His Imaginary Friends, features Gabrels on guitar and vocals.
William Joel MacDonald Plaskett is a Canadian rock musician and songwriter based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He was a member of Halifax alternative rock band Thrush Hermit in the 1990s. Plaskett performs in a number of genres, from blues and folk to hard rock, country, and pop.
Ellis Paul is an American singer-songwriter and folk musician. Born in Presque Isle, Aroostook County, Maine, Paul is a key figure in what has become known as the Boston school of songwriting, a literate, provocative, and urbanely romantic folk-pop style that helped ignite the folk revival of the 1990s. His pop music songs have appeared in movies and on television, bridging the gap between the modern folk sound and the populist traditions of Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger.
Mark Erelli is an American singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and touring folk musician from Reading, Massachusetts who earned a master's degree in evolutionary biology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst before pursuing a career in music. Erelli has released nine solo albums and three collaborative albums. His self-titled debut album was released in 1999, the same year that he won the Kerrville Folk Festival's New Folk Award. His first recording for the Signature Sounds label, Compass & Companion, spent ten weeks in the Top Ten on the Americana Chart. Erelli has worked as a side musician for singer songwriters Lori McKenna and Josh Ritter. He has performed at various music festivals and shared the stage with John Hiatt, Dave Alvin, and Gillian Welch. Erelli's song “People Look Around”, which he co-wrote with Catie Curtis, was the Grand Prize winner at the 2005 International Songwriting Competition. His songs have been recorded by Ellis Paul, Vance Gilbert, Antje Duvekot, and Red Molly.
Mary Veronica Gauthier is a Grammy-nominated American folk singer-songwriter and author, whose songs have been covered by performers including Tim McGraw, Blake Shelton, Kathy Mattea, and Jimmy Buffett. She has won multiple awards, including at the International Folk Music Awards, the Independent Music Awards, and from the Americana Association. Mary's songs often deal with marginalization, informed by her experience of addiction and recovery, and growing up gay, and demonstrate an "ability to transform her own trauma into a purposeful and communal narrative". Her 2018 album Rifles & Rosary Beads, co-written with military veterans and their families, has been hailed as a landmark achievement.
William Christopher Smither is an American folk/blues singer, guitarist, and songwriter. His music draws deeply from the blues, American folk music, and modern poets and philosophers.
Anne McCue is a singer-songwriter, guitarist, music-recording producer, video director, and radio host from Australia, more recently based in Nashville, Tennessee, United States.
Jonathan Kingham is a folk, pop and jazz musician from Nashville, TN. He was born in Woodland, California and graduated from Woodland Senior High School in 1992. Kingham has released three full-length albums, one EP, and appeared on Meet The Bixbys as a band member for The Bixbys in 1999. Since 1997 he has toured nationally. His singing has been featured in WB network's show Felicity. Kingham is among a group of Seattle artists whose music is featured when a person calling the City of Seattle is put on hold. He is currently playing keyboard and slide guitar with Toad the Wet Sprocket, supporting the release of New Constellation, and tours extensively with the band's leader singer, Glen Phillips, in his solo shows. Kingham also teaches songwriting workshops with students all over the country with Ryan Shea Smith with a program called "Songwriting Made Simple"
Ann Vriend is a Canadian singer-songwriter and pianist based in Edmonton, Alberta.
Craig Carothers is an American singer-songwriter originally from Portland, Oregon, who now lives in Nashville, Tennessee. Carothers's "Little Hercules" was recorded for Trisha Yearwood's 1996 album Everybody Knows. The record went gold.
Steve Seskin is an American singer, songwriter, and musician whose songs have been recorded by recording artists Garth Brooks, Reba McEntire, Waylon Jennings, Tim McGraw, Colin Raye, and Mark Wills among others. The debut single from McGraw's Set This Circus Down, "Grown Men Don't Cry", was nominated for a 2002 Grammy award and also garnered the No. 1 position on the Billboard Country Single Chart in June 2001. Seskin also is known for performing at schools in support of the Operation Respect/Don't Laugh at Me project, named after "Don't Laugh at Me," a song he wrote with Allen Shamblin that was recorded by Mark Wills and Peter, Paul and Mary, among others.
John Common is an American songwriter, musician and singer based in Denver, Colorado, United States.
Benjamin Evans Rector is an American singer, songwriter and record producer based in Nashville, Tennessee. He has released seven studio albums, including Brand New (2015), which peaked at number 9 on the Billboard 200, and Magic (2018), which debuted at number 1 on the Billboard Americana/Folk Albums chart.
Marc Douglas Berardo is an American singer-songwriter. He was born in Port Chester, New York, and raised in Rye, New York. Berardo is a notable alumni of the Iona Preparatory School in New Rochelle, New York. His songwriting and performing career began while attending Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. His songwriting and performing career began while attending Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts and was fine tuned as a staff performer at the Milltop Tavern and Listening Room, St Augustine, FL from 1989 to 1995. Berardo is also known as a member of the Northeast country rock group, Chris Berardo and the Desberardos.
Kyle James Hauser is a songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and singer. He was born in Alexandria, Virginia on March 14, 1985.
Tony Ramey is an Americana and Country Music singer and songwriter. During his career, he has recorded eleven albums and EPs and had dozens of songs recorded by other country music artists. His repertoire of songs reaches over 3,400 in number and his songwriting career spans twenty-four years as a professional. Ramey wrote and performed the title song for the movie, The Last Ride a fact-based drama about the final days of troubled country-music legend Hank Williams. His music can also be heard on the soundtrack for Pure Country 2: The Gift. He has performed a duet with Willie Nelson on his Soul Survivor album, which brought some acclaim to his status as a troubadour. His songs have appeared in television as well on daytime drama series “The Young and the Restless” and on outdoor television shows such as “Canada in the Rough”.
Dana Cooper is an American singer-songwriter from Missouri. His awards include the 2014 Heritage Musician award from the Pilgrim Center for the Arts in Kansas City, MO and Folk Alliance International's 2015 Spirit of Folk award. He has performed on Austin City Limits, Mountain Stage and at the Kerrville Folk Festival. Cooper’s songs have been recorded by a long list of artists that include Trout Fishing in America, Rex Foster, Claire Lynch, Maura O’Connell, Pierce Pettis, and Susan Werner. Fellow singer-songwriter Buzz Holland has said “Cooper is a person who can sing like an angel and play like the devil.”
Dave Tough is an American multi-instrumentalist, producer, engineer, songwriter and music industry educator. He is also a member of the band Xavier & Ophelia who released their debut album X&O in 2011. Tough has released two solo albums, one in 1999 and one in 2005, and he has won the grand prize in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest twice, in 2009 in the country category, and in 2013 in the electronica category. He has also written and produced songs for shows such as Hart of Dixie, Nashville, Hemlock Grove, and the Seth Rogen film Observe and Report. Tough has won two GMA Covenant Awards for his work producing, engineering, and writing songs with guitar instrumentalist Sean Spicer.
