Scott Slay grew up in a musical family on the gulf coast of Florida. It was a performance by Sam Bush, then with the New Grass Revival, at a small festival that grabbed six year old Slay’s attention. “My dad said that after the show I looked up at him and said, ‘I want a little guitar’ referencing Sam’s mandolin,” ...

Ashley Beck, a.k.a, Den of Ashes, comes from a deep tradition in music as the grandson of 1930’s to 50’s era Country & Western entertainers, John and “Texas Peggy” Clemens, know as the The Wyoming Ramblers. They toured and shared friendships with The Carter Family, Tex Ritter, Patsy Cline and Johnny Cash. As the musical landscape ever evolves, we see a new emergence of the Western music ...

Brothers Michael (guitar and vocals), Charlie (bass and vocals) and Mark (vocals) make up the trio called The Riddle Brothers. They write and perform an eclectic blend of acoustic, Americana, and Folk, laced with stories from the life they’ve lived along the shores of the Mississippi River, including, Baton Rouge, LA; Moline, IL; and Minneapolis / St. Paul, MN. “Music ...

South Carolina is the home state for the group of guys who call themselves, The Jake Bartley Band. Each member of the band spent years playing and traveling with other musical endeavors prior to seizing this opportunity to play together as a band. Their quest to create a fresh, soulful, yet roots oriented sound is realized with the release of ...

Not all bands start out the traditional way. For Don Harrison, it was his experience making documentaries for his daughter’s travel Lacrosse team that unearthed a latent interest in songwriting, which led to a full blown CD recording several years later. Don’s friend, Steve Willett, runs Crosse Over Lacrosse, a lacrosse exchange program for 13-15 year old girls with the ...

Audie Blaylock currently resides in Auburn, Indiana but was born in Texas, and spent part of his childhood in the Cumberland Gap area of Virginia; an area rich in Appalachian traditions. In the mid-60s his family moved to Michigan for work, but they would visit family in Virginia often. So Audie grew up with a musical family exposed to the ...

Anya Hinkle’s (2019 Merlefest’s Chris Austin Song Contest winner) distinctive vocals set the tone for Asheville-based Appalachian roots-music band, Tellico. A native of Southwest Virginia, Anya’s native influences coupled with her worldly travels makes for a seasoned musical flavor full of honesty and heart. Both of Anya’s parents were musicians, and she grew up playing violin, singing in the church ...

Singer/songwriter Artie Tobia makes his home in New York, and comes from a deep pedigree of music. “My great, great grandfather played with John Philip Sousa. I had grandfathers and uncles and cousins who all had careers in music. So I got the gene and/or that bug,” he told us. Artie said he remembers writing his first song at around ...

Boston, MA is home base for the Americana band, Los Goutos. Five multi-instrumentalists made up the original core of the band, three of them being singer-songwriters. Over the years the group has morphed and expanded to now include a fourth singer-songwriter (Emily Grogan), a two-piece horn section, and sometimes a fiddle. They’ve described themselves as an off-kilter and infectious concoction ...

Mark Wayne Glasmire was just 10 years old when his parents gave him a guitar as a Christmas present. Although now residing in Arlington, TX, Mark was born and raised in Bethlehem, PA. “I always wanted to be a rock star,” he told me. A child of the 60’s, Mark grew up listening to the singer-songwriters of the day like ...