Actor Slash Model is a grassroots DIY, transgendered indie-grass music and performance duo project comprised of simon strikeback and madsen minax. aS/M conveys mega-queer, “trans-centric” and kink-aware music through simple melodies and witty lyrics. from actorslashmodel.com
Michelle Shocked is a traveller, a troubadour, a 'picker-poet', as they say in Texas. As a young feminist, she left Texas to travel, Kerouac-style, and was caught up in Reagan-era grassroots politics. Her musical career was ignited by a bootleg recording made around a Kerrville Folk Festival campfire on a Sony walkman. Released in England as ‘The Texas Campfire Tapes’ without Shocked’s authority, its success abroad enticed Mercury Records to offer the newcomer a recording contract.
Roots/alt. country duo The Yearlings combine warm harmonies with delicate flat-picking and sparse country blues to create songs that are at once haunting and soothing. Hailing from Adelaide, The Yearlings have pushed new limits in Australia's Roots/Alt. country scene. Robyn Chalklen and Chris Parkinson have wasted no time in getting down to the business of making music since meeting at the Tamworth Country Music Festival in 2000. Their successful self-titled debut album (released on Reckless Records in 2003) was recorded live in 8 hours and long-listed for an ARIA nomination.
The day before his senior year as a playwright student at the University of North Carolina, Joe Pug sat down for a cup of coffee and had the clearest thought of his life: I am profoundly unhappy here. Then came the second clearest. Pug packed up his belongings and drove the longest route possible to Chicago. Working as a carpenter by day, the 23 year-old Pug spent nights playing the guitar he hadn't picked up since his teenage years.
Mary Gauthier (born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 1962) is an American folk singer/songwriter. Given up at birth by a mother she never knew, Mary was adopted. At age 15, she ran away from home and stole her parents' car, and spent the next several years in detox, halfway houses, and living with friends; she spent her 18th birthday in jail. These experiences provided fodder for her songwriting later on (particularly her song "Drag Queens in Limousines").
Sam Amidon (real name Samuel Tear) was born in Brattleboro, Vermont, on June 3, 1981. His parents are Peter Amidon and Mary Alice Amidon, both well established folk musicians. Folk music runs freely throughout the New England heartland of Vermont, and the Amidon family are a strong lifeline in that movement’s heritage. Both Sam’s parents, Peter and Mary are performers and teachers of music. Growing up in this solid environment with strong family ties most certainly set the scene for Sam’s musical trajectory. His little brother is the great Stefan Amidon, who is a drummer.
Richard S. "Kinky" Friedman (born October 31 or November 1, 1944) is an American singer, songwriter, novelist, humorist, politician and former columnist for Texas Monthly who styles himself in the mold of popular American satirists Will Rogers and Mark Twain. He was one of two independent candidates in the 2006 election for the office of Governor of Texas. Receiving 12.6% of the vote, Friedman placed fourth in the five-person race.
Crooked Still is a self-styled alternative bluegrass band consisting of vocalist Aoife O'Donovan, cellist Tristan Clarridge, fiddler Brittany Haas, banjo player Dr. Gregory Liszt, and bassist Corey DiMario. They are known for their high energy, technical skill, unique instrumentation and innovative acoustic style. O'Donovan and DiMario met at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts in spring of 2001. Former cellist Rushad Eggleston, who was studying at Berklee College of Music, and Liszt, a graduate student at MIT, were playing music together around the same time.
Lucinda Williams (born January 26, 1953) is an American rock, folk, and alt-country songwriter and singer. A three-time Grammy Award winner, she was named "America's best songwriter" by TIME magazine in 2002. Williams has garnered considerable critical acclaim but her commercial success has been moderate. She has a reputation as a perfectionist and as a slow worker when it comes to recording; six years passed between the release of her second and third albums. However, she frequently makes guest appearances on other artists' albums and contributes to compilations and soundtracks.
Writing a concise biography of Chris Altmann is hard. It’s hard to pin him down. Perhaps “Multi-instrumentalist” is the most fitting description, but that doesn’t allow for his other artistic facets; he’s also a songwriter, a performer, a band leader, a collaborator, and a session musician. “Multi-talented” may be a better depiction. Altmann has been fascinated with music since he was old enough to reach the keys on a piano.