Midnite - Roots reggae - St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands

Since 1989, Midnite has been laying out a deep groove roots reggae sound reminiscent of the 70s classic Jamaican period. Hailing from the Caribbean's St Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, this band has created a transformative Reggae entity - one that does not only grow out of Jamaica nor America, but is close enough to both coasts to have fully understood and then synthesized those influences, while evolving a totally original sound. Lead by singer Vaughn Benjamin's captivating, calm-but-intense delivery, which at times seems an amalgamation of the many great voices in reggae-soulful chanting, this sound features a lyrical 'chant and call' style, focusing on the plight of the oppressed, the failures of the current political, economic and social settings on a global scale, and the redemption available to mankind through dedication to Jah. The music thus conveys a spiritually intense and an overtly Rastafari sensibility:: a deep, lucid trance state that penetrates straight to the heart. Along with Vaughn are his bassist / producer Ron Benjamin, Christian Molina (drums), Edmund Fieulleteau (guitar), Edwin Byron (guitar) and Ras L (keyboards). Their communion has achieved epic status and an enormous following in the Reggae roots community. "The time has come for the those who thought only authentic reggae comes from Jamaica, to bite their tongues. Time is not counted from daylight, but from Midnite.

www.midniteband.com
www.myspace.com/midnite

The Coup w DJ Pam the Funkstress

- Funk / Hip-hop / Soul - Oakland, California

Based in Oakland, California, the Coup is a perfect amalgamation of dance & inspired protest, and more than a dash of pure fun. Front man Boots Riley shakes his metaphorical fist at all manner of political and economic injustices, while you shake your booty at the Parliament-inspired grooves. Formed as a three-member group in 1992 with emcees Raymond Riley and E-Roc, along with DJ Pam the Funkstress, their music is characterized by electronic sounds and bass-driven backbeats, overlaid by humorous, cynical and often uncompromising lyrics, criticizing capitalism, American politics, patriarchal exploitation, and police brutality, among other things.
1998's Steal This Album, released by indie label Dogday Records, was received as a masterpiece and sealed the Coup's rep. But the band's next record, Party Music, scheduled for release shortly after 9/11, became a cultural flashpoint amidst Cheney-Ashcroft hysteria as the album's original cover, completed three months prior to 9/11, depicted the crew setting off an explosion in the World Trade Center using a guitar tuner and drumsticks. The band's label, 75 Ark, pulled the cover immediately after the attacks. "As far as the record industry was concerned, it was the end of my career," Boots says. Instead, Boots' defiant refusal to "ride the fence" and the album's undeniable funk made it an underdog favorite, hitting #8 in the 2001 Pazz and Jop Poll, the most important year-end critic's list. Then, in 2003, the Coup joined with Billy Bragg, Steve Earle, Tom Morello, and Janeane Garofalo, on the barnstorming, Bush-slapping "Tell Us the Truth" tour.

www.myspace.com/thecoupmusic

Ron Sexsmith - Classic Canadian singer/songwriter, pop / folk - Toronto, Ontario

Ron Sexsmith is a double Juno award winning contemporary singer-songwriter, who maps the human heart with surgical skill and great compassion, offering hard-earned pieces of wisdom set to strong yet gentle melodies, sung unaffectedly yet with great emotional eloquence and genuine soul. His songs are creative signatures, and have earned the Toronto-based singer/songwriter immense respect from his peers, critics, and a devoted international audience. A self-directed, independent musician since 14, Ron made his major label debut in 1995, including his 11th album and most recent release this year, Long Player Late Bloomer, and has since amassed a sizable and consistently enthralling body of work that began public life in 1991 with the limited cassette release Grand Opera Lane, which attracted Interscope/Warner's interest and resulted in them signing Ron to a songwriting deal. Four years later, the label recognized that not only had they a great songwriter on their books but also a singer and guitarist of rare accomplishment, and Ron's 1995 self-titled "proper" debut represented the cream of nearly 200 songs that had been road-tested for years in the bars of Ontario and was acclaimed by fans from Elvis Costello (for whom Sexsmith later opened) to Paul McCartney as an instant classic.
As legendary record producer, Daniel Lanois, told Love Shines, the documentary about the making of Ron’s new album, “Not a lot of people have Ron’s gift: the ability to see a tiny snapshot of a feeling, then expand upon it and deliver a beautiful song. The songs are like Polaroids.”
Among the artists who have covered Ron’s songs are: Rod Stewart, Michael Bublé, k.d. lang, Nick Lowe, Feist, The Brodsky Quartet, Curtis Stigers, Anne Sofie von Otter and Mary Black.

ronsexsmith.com

EOTO - Breakbeat / House / IDM - California and Colorado)

EOTO is a 100% improvised dubstep/breakbeat/house/drum & bass/trip-hop duo, the child of String Cheese Incident percussionists Michael Travis and Jason Hann, born out of their shared love of electronic dance music and a serious passion to take the free-wheeling party vibe of a DJ set to the next level by using organic instruments, innovative performance technology, and uncharted musical exploration. For the last 16 years, Travis has been the drumming octopus in SCI, morphing to melodic multi-instrumentalist in EOTO by providing the raw basslines and harmonic tapestry that fill out the soundscape of the duo. Hann plays a hyper EQ’d drumkit, chock full of multi-touch screens and MIDI controllers, and throws a number of effects on his otherworldly vocal styles, occasionally picking up guitar or a bass, and showing off his proficiency with instruments of all shapes and sizes. He has also collaborated, toured, and recorded with the likes of Youssou N’Dour, Isaac Hayes, Dr. Dre, Loreena McKinnett, SCI, and a slew of other established artists, allowing him to move fluidly between many genres, including a fascination for African and Latin drumming traditions.
Although the pair have managed to put out 3 albums, their true heart lies with the live experience, playing almost 200 shows a year and have played more than seven hundred unique sessions in Canada and 48 different states in the five years since the project’s inception, many recorded on LiveDownloads for repeated listening pleasure.

www.eotomusic.com
www.myspace.com/eotomusic

The Lost Fingers Acoustic / Gypsy Jazz / 80's Pop - Quebec City, Quebec.

With a name inspired by Django Reinhardt's loss of the use of two fingers following a fire in his gypsy caravan home, this creatively frenetic trio from Quebec City plays standards of the gypsy jazz repertoire, à la Reinhardt, with superb deftness & flare; but they truly sparkle when this becomes a heavy acoustic filter through which various hits of the 80's are brilliantly, and usually humorously reconstructed. Lost in the 80s, their 2008 debut album, earned platinum sales in just a few months within Quebec, and double that in Canada after (second only to Nickelback), as well as wide international exposure. Their latest release, Gypsy Chameleon, is an entirely English album, revises such past stars as Madonna, Men Without Hats, Corey Hart, Earth Wind & Fire, Rick Astley, Bryan Adams and Dolly Parton. This relatively nascent & prolific band has also been diligent with live appearances, playing in international music festivals, including ten nights at the Montreal International Jazz Festival, as well as live broadcasts on several television and radio shows. In 2009, the group was nominated for two Juno Awards in the categories of Fan Choice Award and Album of the Year based on the success of their debut release. The Lost Fingers' members are Alex Morissette (backing vocals, double bass), Dr. Christian Roberge (lead vocals, guitar), and Byron "Maiden" Mikaloff (backing vocals, guitar).

thelostfingers.com (francais)
thelostfingers.com/en (english)
myspace.com/thelostfingers

Adham Shaikh & the Outworld Orkestra New World Fusion: Global Traditional / Electronica - The Kootenays, BC

As a music producer and composer, Shaikh skillfully weaves organic and electronic sounds into global music tapestries that take listeners on sonic journeys transcending time and place. He has released 12 albums and many individual compositions, among them the 2004 release, Fusion, which was nominated for a Juno Award (Canadian Grammy) in the World Music category. Music labels from around the globe have released his music, including Interchill, and the famous Six Degrees Records.
The Outworld Orchestra also includes artists Boris Sichon, Ben Johnson, Shine Edgar, and often Kris Ledrew, Gemma Luna, Bessie Wapp, Slava Doval & Jeff Holden, and more deeply explores and inter-faces contemporary electronica with ancient music & instrumentation from around the world, including the Middle East, Tibet, Brazil, India, Russia & the Balkans. This is supported by the entrancing visual projections by Sijay James of Onbeyond Metamedia.

www.sonicturtle.com
www.myspace.com/sonicturtle44

Cast of Clowns Americana / Jam Band / Psychedelic - "The Big Top" (pick your town), USA.

Founded in 2008 by Craig Wright (Redemption Center), the Cast of Clowns dwell on holy grounds that perfectly imbue rootsy Americana with psychadelic sparkle in an authentic, wonderous jam band solar system, full of great orbiting talents immersed in reverent irreverence. This fun machine started churning with the songs of Wright joined to lyrics penned by Robert Hunter (of Grateful Dead fame), and takes flight through the masterful playing of co-founder Greg Anton (of jam band pioneers Zero, with Seve Kimock), Jeff Pevar, (guitarist for Crosby Stills and Nash, Phil and Friends, Dr John and Ray Charles, amongst others), as well as Melvin Seals, (famed organist of The Jerry Garcia Band), and Damian Erskine (Les McCann, Peter Erskine, Tony Furtado). The Grateful Dead's Bill Kreutzman has also been know to make extended appearances with the group.

castofclowns.com
myspace.com/castofclowns

Bombino Tuareg Rock / Blues - Agadez, Niger

Bombino, or Omara Moctar, hails from the Tuareg ("rebel") culture of South Saharan Africa, originally camel-based nomadic herders & caravan traders, who have been fighting attempts by bigger powers - be that the Arabs, the French, or modern African states - to control them for much of their 1000+ year history. The desert has been their home and pastureland, representing freedom from oppressive religion, colonialism, and modernity. In dynamic crossroads such as Timbuktu & Agadez, the confluence of Arab and African modes of expression has produced great guitar artists such as Ali Farka Toure, his son Vieux, Tinariwen, and now Bombino - all of whom share a foundational, genetic link with all the modern American musical idoms that grew from the blues. With a strong ethnic integrity that also feels vital and current, Bombino's guitar can flow like the Saharan sand, then soar through Hendrix-like solos evoking the starry desert night sky. His influence is rapidly extending through inter-actions with the broader world, in projects like Rolling Stones collabs, playing guide to Angelina Jolie during a Niger desert tour, and being featured in an award-winning, widely shown documentary film on the Tuareg people's plight, called Agadez, the Music and the Rebellion. Don't miss this amazing creative tour-de-force, as well as a glimpse into a fascinating struggle for cultural self-determination.

www.bambinoafrica.com/ZeroGravity_Films/Bombino.html

Namgar   Folk / Folk Rock - Siberia, Buryatia.

Namgar - whose name means "white cloud" in Tibetan - grew up in a small village near the borders of Russia, Mongolia, and China, ... and, under bottomless blue sky in the heart of Siberia, the songs sung by Namgar were born. As she pondered the mysteries of the great wide open and heard the spirits of mountains and forests, she realized the value of the voices of the Buryat musical tradition around her - songs of the ring, of epic heroes, fairytale beauties and the limitless grasslands... songs quickly becoming extinct. She would devote much of her life to maintaining the identity of these songs on stages around the world, as well as to translating them into a modern vernacular that betrays a jazz sensibility and routinely uses heavy, mega-groovin rock riffs. In creating this East Asian-Western fusion, Namgar is accompanied by an international group of very talented musicians, some with ancient traditional instruments, some with electric ones, and whose on-stage dress reflects characters from ancient Asian legends.
Ultimately, the music delivers something truly exotic, engaging us with infectious bass & drum lines familiar to our Western ears, while preserving and fully enlivening a wide range of the authentic ancient East Asian sounds, rooted in songs and melodies you might hear at Siberian shamanist gatherings, celebrations at a midsummer fest in Buryatia, or thru exquisite melodies in Inner Mongolia. Don't miss this!

http://namgarfolk.com/?lang=en
myspace.com/lkhasnamgar

Nathaniel Rateliff Powerful folk rock / Indie - Denver, Colorado.

A true American "folk" singer/songwriter, affirming his resilience through revealing his inner self, with a voice so confident that you can occasionally imagine the music dropping out entirely, Nathaniel Rateliff grew up the son of devout Southern churchgoers with whom the family often sang together. His youth in rural Missouri was quiet and rambling. He built skateboard ramps, explored caves, slept outdoors in the heat. “I loved growing up there,” he says. “It’s beautiful. There’s something really nice about there not being much to do; it really helped me be a creative person.” After his father passed away, when Rateliff was only 13, he picked up the guitar and started penning his own songs. At eighteen he relocated to Denver, where he took a job with a trucking company, working on the dock and in the yard. The money was good, but health issues made him decide to take time off from the job. It was a period of rest and recovery, but also one of artistic growth and fresh challenges in which he began writing quieter, more introspective and patient songs; and subsequently developing a dedicated following within the Denver music community and beyond:: Spin magazine: "a massive, alluring voice .... Billboard: the unsigned singer-songwriter that's a ‘must hear'.... The New York Times: “stark, eloquent Johnny Cash echoes".... New York Magazine: "an artist everyone should be listening to". Live, and on his most recent album, In Memory of Loss (2010), he is joined by Joseph Pope (guitar, harmonica and vocals), and Julie Davis (bass and vocals).

nathanielrateliff.com          myspace.com/nathanielrateliff

Rick Scott  Folk / Children's Entertainer - Protection Island, Nanaimo, BC.

Rick Scott is an award winning singer/songwriter/actor who combines music and laughter in lively, participatory concerts for all ages. He is Canada’s leading proponent of the Appalachian mountain dulcimer, known by kids around the world as "The Electric Snowshoe". Over 35 years, he has released 17 albums through his various projects, and performed his music in 9 countries. His gift for combining wacky humour and poignant human commentary has earned him a devoted following from all ages. His six children’s recordings, co-written and produced by his longtime partner Valley Hennell on the independent Jester Records label, have sold over 90,000 copies and won numerous kudos including three Juno nominations and NAPPA Gold, Parents’ Choice Silver Honor, Canadian Book Centre Our Choice, West Coast Music, Pacific Music Industry and Children’s Music Web Awards. With Valley Hennell and illustrator Linda Sanborn, Rick is currently adapting his children's novel, The Great Gazoon, as an audio recording to be released on CD in 2011, with the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts Specialized Sound Recording Program.
Of course, Rick is an integral member, along with Shari Ulrich and Joe Mock, of the legendary folk trio PIED PUMKIN, who pioneered independent, rogue folk music in BC in the 70’s, touring nationally and selling 30,000 LPs from the stage.

www.rickscott.ca
www.piedpumkin.com
www.myspace.com/davidessigrickscott

We Are the City Experimental / Progressive / Rock - Kelowna, BC.

Since forming in 2008, Kelowna, BC's We Are The City has become one of the most exciting and unpredictable forces in the Canadian music scene. The band soon began earning accolades for its atmospheric progressive-pop sound with the release of their debut LP In a Quiet World in 2009. Then, in January 2010, the band earned a whopping $150,000 by winning the PEAK Performance Project, a massive "battle of the bands" contest hosted by a Vancouver radio station. Now, the trio of Cayne McKenzie (vocals/keyboard), Andrew Huculiak (drums) and Blake Enemark (guitar) are taking their most ambitious step yet, releasing in March 2011 the six songs entitled High School, where they revisit their teenage years, laying bare some shameful memories and creating great fodder for their fervent, demonstrative, yet sensitive pop artistry. With their sights now set on a sophomore LP, the new direction remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: We Are The City will continue to stretch boundaries and stumble across something not yet heard in the process.

wearethecity.ca     myspace.com/thecitiesmusic

Frazey Ford Americana / Soul - Vancouver, BC.

Frazey Ford is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is best known throughout the last 10 years as a founding member of the critically acclaimed Vancouver trio, The Be Good Tanyas. Now ready to tell her own story with her debut solo album she describes as being "moved by motherhood, earth and land", Obadiah (released on the Nettwerk label, 2010) is a collection of songs hand-carved by the hardships and exaltations of life, and stained with the rich colors of soul and folk music that fueled artists like Joni Mitchell, Ann Peebles, Neil Young, and Donny Hathaway. After a period of stillness, it’s the sound of Ford finding herself once again. A lot of this album is coming out of healing, of "the knowledge that in all grief there is joy, and in all joy there is grief," she says. A true storyteller with a voice that defies comparison, Ford's greatest talent is her ability to inhabit completely the mind of her song's protagonists. Reflecting on motherhood, Frazey states that "the experience affected my songwriting to the point where it just felt like I had removed myself from being myself. I suddenly felt this ability to zoom out and feel people's lives and then sing that story. I hadn't done that before."
Frazey's youth was here in the Kootenays, with her free-spirited parents (her father an American draft dodger who moved to Canada), as well as a spell in Toronto. Currently, she resides in Vancouver.

frazeyford.com
myspace.com/frazeyford

Shook Twins Acoustic / Folk / Progressive - Portland, Oregon.

Shook Twins are not your average folk duo. The sisters, Laurie and Katelyn, have some tricks up their sleeves. You wouldn’t expect a small town girl from North Idaho (Sandpoint) to drop a beatbox in the middle of a song. One plays the guitar, glockenspiel, mandolin, and sings into a telephone and bocks like a chicken, and the other plays wah-wah Banjo and loops various melodies and beats to make it sound like more than just two identical twin sisters. Together they sing in twin harmony, which is a whole different experience from non-twin harmony. Their sound was sculpted from the artists who inspire them most such as: The Beatles, Ani Difranco, Joni Mitchell, Feist and Bjork. They bring an exciting, lighthearted, and refreshing energy to the stage. “Shook Twins are great. Harmonies and songs that feel entwined with the mountains of Idaho. A unique, personal music that lights up the stage with its joy and enthusiasm.” (Mason Jennings)

shooktwins.com
myspace.com/shooktwins

Kashoo - Live Electronics - Nelson, BC

Two computers, effect pedals, keyboards, midi controllers and an upright bass are the tools that bandmates Ness and Jakob use to apply their lush symphonic brushstrokes. Building from a rich background in traditional music to modern electronica, dubstep and glitch-hop, the two maestros work beats, samples and basslines off each other like two old timey banjo players jammin’ on the porch. Ness holds down the beats and melodies working with Ableton Live and an array of keyboards and controllers, while Jacob pummels the bins with his revolving kit of bass tools, from stand-up to midi controller. The feel is truly organic, while the sound is unmistakably electronic.

www.kashoomusic.com
www.myspace.com/kashoomusic

Tippy Agogo   Children's Music Workshopper - Edmonton

Tippy Agogo, the "One Man Orchestra" and Mouth Musician, is known throughout the free world for making beautiful, scary, heavy, and insightful music on reclaimed tin cans, broken guitars, and racks full of technological gadgetry .... as well as popcorn filled shampoo bottles and clusters of car keys to put down the beats. When Tippy first saw kids making music with garbage cans and oil barrels, he learned through them that music could come from anywhere. His love for children and their creative energy lead to the cd/book “In the Groove – a guide to interactive music making,” adjudicated by the Royal Conservatory in Toronto. This passion has compelled him to conduct many children's workshops all over the place, even a Bosnian Refugee camp. With his frenetic creativity and four octave voice, he makes music to connect, to build communities, not to build bank accounts. His multi-faceted talents will this year be focused on a very cool kazoo "making & playing" workshop for the kids, as well as an equally cool but more sprightly "cosmic frizbee" session in the field.

tippyagogo.com

Green State   Bluegrass Jamming - Portland, OR.

Green State is the embodiment of three accomplished players.
Guitarist, writer and singer Scott Law embodies the ideal of the steel-string guitar master. Recognized for his ability to fit into and uplift any musical situation, Scott's energizing stage presence, fearless improvising, articulate phrasing and exquisite tone have served him in other projects as well, such as Darol Anger’s Republic of Strings, and collabs with the like of Phil Lesh, String Cheese Incident, & David Grisham.
Bassist Tye North grew listening to The Holy Modal Rounders, with whom his father Roger played drums. He spent several years playing and touring the U.S. with Leftover Salmon, and has recording in the studio with acts like Taj Mahal, Jerry Douglas, Bela Fleck, and Earl Scruggs. He also currently leads his own Portland band The Piano Throwers.
Luke Price is a multi-instrumentalist known for his deft balance of taste, rhythm, and technique. Pushing genres, styles, and fellow musicians into new territory while respecting the great traditions, he began by winning the National title in fiddling as a teen, and continued his development at Berklee and by extensive teaching, settling in Portland, where he records and performs original music with his soul/pop band Dean.

www.scottlawmusic.com
www.tyenorth.com
www.youtube.com/user/scottlawmusic?feature=mhum

Winay Taki Ayllu Traditional Folk - Cusco, Peru

Wiñay Taki Ayllu means ancient, sacred music community.
Wiñay Taki Ayllu practices the most authentic expression of our traditional Andean music and dance, reflecting the cultural heritage of our ancestors in collective form and in synchrony with ancestral cosmic calendars. With musical instruments and instrumental ensembles of the Andean world, always keeping with due respect and humility, and specific instruments of each Andean season, we represent each region of the Andes.
We understand that Andean music is a totally different concept of music and unfortunately in the dominant society, especially in their schools their second view does not work with our music. In our indigenous music all living nature partakes of a harmonious reflection of the natural order of the universe.
Wiñay Taki Ayllu does not only makes music, but also researches, practices, disseminates and promotes the values and principles of the ancient Andean culture. For them, the Indian is a category of dignity. To be Indian is to respect and care for all living things on earth.

http://winaytaki.blogspot.com/
http://hugofranco.wordpress.com/winay-taki-ayllu/

Shred Kelly Folk-Rock - Fernie, BC

Shred Kelly is a formulation of friends and foot stompin' good times born in the East Kootenay's of British Columbia. Hailing from the town of Fernie, the six-piece band is best known for mixing clawhammer banjo riffs that tear the fabric of space and time with a ghostly mandolin, high voltage guitars, fierce drums, and hauntingly sweet harmonies to produce a sound that has been properly coined "Stoke Folk". Singing songs about powder days, tornado destruction, and a sincere distaste for work, these ski bums are consistently turning doubters into sweaty folk rock believers on the dance floor.

Anne Glover  Children's Entertainer/Workshopper - Victoria, BC.

Anne Glover has spent years enchanting audiences with her stories and string games and inspiring educators with her innovative approaches to education. Since the 80's, Anne has appeared at countless schools, festivals, theatres, and conferences across the continent, and has performed her original stories on CBC radio, in both English and French. She is a polished, engaging entertainer with a humorous wisdom and an infectious enthusiasm for life.
Although she had no concept of becoming a “storyteller,” as a child she enjoyed entertaining her friends with invented characters and tales of a sometimes eccentric family life. When she moved to Victoria, Anne taught French independently, with an emphasis on creative approaches and multi-age groups, including reaching resistant learners. It was here that Anne began integrating storytelling and string figures into “teaching,” which has continued to this day, now helping students create their own “string stories.”

anneglover.ca

~ Rob Goblin & Douglas Watt (beat box performance and a "sound circle" beat box workshop)
~ Cookie Hoops (hooping workshops and a "Harp 'n Hoop" performance)
~ The Hip Sisters (belly dance workshops and performance)
~ Samba workshops with Ben Johnson
~ Haka workshops with Sarah Connolly
~ FolkFusion Skirt Dancing with Slava Doval
~ Yoga with Karuna Erickson, Katya Hayes and The Dharmas, kids yoga with Anna Collins
~ Story telling with Susan Hulland
~kids instrument making with Jacqueline Wedge, crafts with Petra Eck, and LIVE painting with Avrell Fox
...and much more...