It’s been 35 years since Doc Watson helped create a festival to honor the life if his son Merle that was tragically cut short. That first event was held on a flatbed trailer stage in 1988, then titled the Eddy Merle Watson Memorial Festival. Today, MerleFest draw thousands of fans from all over the world to the foothills of the ...

Tennessee based, Americana Singer/Songwriter, Billy Hubbard, has musical roots that run back for generations. His mother was in a 40’s and 50’s band called, the Tennessee Pardners, that toured the southland with many great artists of their day. “Mom played the mandolin and guitar, and they recorded several of the old 78 speed records in their day,” Billy told us. ...

The six-piece North County Band, featuring acoustic and electric guitars, fiddle, lap steel, Dobro, bass, drums, and three vocalists, was formed in 2020 in Connecticut and released their debut EP, Connecticut, in October 2022. Rounding out the band’s lineup are: Cat Lines on fiddle and vocals, Bradley Clark on bass, Jimmy Johnston on electric and pedal steel guitars, Jona Ziac ...

Eddy Mann has been a full-time musician for most of his adult life, a fact for which he is grateful. “I went to business school…In my second year I decided I was going to take some time off and get ‘the music thing’ our of my blood,” Eddy remembers. “A lifetime later, here I am…I have really truly been blessed…I’ve ...

After a long introduction to music via classical piano lessons, David Arn found himself, around age 12, being drawn instead to rock music. His ear lead him further down that path. “I had enough of a background that I could easily make the transition. I remember, even in high school, I would have classmates come up…they would hear a song ...

Rock music and biomedical science are strange bedfellows, but it is the bed that John Blangero, has made for himself. One listen to Delta Tales, the soulful debut album he released in 2020 under his aflter-ego, Sun King Rising, will make the oddness of that pairing seem almost normal. The intermingling of his music and his work as a genetic ...

K.K. Hammond is a singer-songwriter and slide guitarist who channels the dark and gritty vibe of the swamp and old Appalachia into her personal take on the blues, which has been sometimes labeled “horror blues.’ “I’ve always loved the blues…I’ve always loved horror films and murder ballads, the darker folk music,” the artist explains. “The old blues has a lot ...

Veteran Nashville songwriter Trent Summar calls the music he creates these days “farm rock,” his own unique blend of traditional and contemporary country with heartland rock & roll and honky tonk. Trent sums up his initiation into music succinctly: “My third grade music teacher put me on-stage for a ‘Hee Haw’ show and it got in my blood…Any time anybody ...

Born in Manitoba and raised mostly in the Vancouver area, Canadian, Kevin Arizona (a.k.a Kaz) was bitten by the performance bug at age 13. After an early childhood in a home immersed in music, including a mom who was into drums (“She set me up with spoons and upside-down Tupperware”) and dedicated to singing, Kaz, remembers a particular moment when ...

It’s the world premier release of “River N’ Me,” the latest single from Arkansas Americana group Ten Penny Gypsy. The song is an infectious, acoustic skiffle that enthusiastically pays homage to the classic American Roots music of the early 20th century. Recorded as a studio outtake from the group’s “Fugitive Heart” sessions, the song has become a fan favorite, and ...