Don Barry was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts and he grew up in a musical family, (Dad the tenor, Mom the piano player, and Grandpa, banjo, guitar and mandolin,) to become to their dismay, a rock bass player in the early 1970s. After playing for several years in several locally popular rock cover bands, he spent a summer working in the house band in a Catskills NY resort hotel, where he developed an appreciation for blues and jazz and honed his chops on the upright bass. The blues led him to tour with Lonesome Dave Clark, and Chicago Bob, ex Muddy Waters player. Gigs with Luther Johnson down at the old Highland Tap in Boston, Bunratty's, and Central Square's Speakeasy kept him working, and playing with many of Boston's bluesmen. More recently, Don has revived his early Bluegrass and Country interests, performing with singer/songwriter Dawn Kenney, and playing bass on her new CD "Feel That Light". Don appeared with Dawn at her Falcon Ridge Folk Festival emerging artist spotlight.

Andru Bemis lives in South Haven, Michigan, but spends much of his time wandering North America by passenger train with his banjo and guitar (and occasional fiddle or banjo-ukulele), performing almost nightly in cities and towns along the way. While Andru's travels and lifestyle earn him frequent comparisons to Carl Sandburg, John Steinbeck and Woody Guthrie, it's his unmistakeable voice, inventive self-taught banjo and guitar styles and exquisitely crafted tunes of travel, love and longing which have brought him respect throughout the US and Canada. Critics and audiences alike comment on Bemis' remarkable ability to craft timeless-sounding lyrics and tunes and to perform the songs of others – including Don Gibson, Tom Paxton, Greg Brown and Stephen Foster – as if he'd written them himself.

A founding member of such diverse musical combinations as "The Four Jovial Butchers,"
"The New Viper Revue" and "The Reprobates," Jim is widely respected as a master of several stringed instruments and a terrific teacher of guitar styles, especially in Newport, RI, where he's made his home for the past 35 years. An exquisite accompaniest, Jim is also a treasure house of wild and wonderful songs from the bags of arcana, wit and nostalgia.

Carl Bissonette started playing guitar at the age of 13 (60 years ago!) and has been entertaining people ever since. “Hank Williams was the man that I listened to most of the time. I played country most of my life, except some rock and roll in the late 60s and into the 70s. I also wandered into Bluegrass music, playing the mandolin for about 4 years,” says Carl. Since then he’s gone back to good old classical Country music, playing in bars, coffee houses, Grange halls and festivals – in fact anywhere folks will appreciate the honesty and depth of early country.

Now living in Memphis, Andy Cohen has been playing one kind of old time music or another since he was barely tall enough to reach the piano keys. His best-known virtuosity is in the blues, the good old, honest, down-to-earth, licks-filled acoustic blues. He is lucky (and old) enough to have learned directly from some of the greats, including Jim Brewer, Pink Andersen, Honeyboy Edwards, Rev. Dan Smith, Daniel Womack, and many more. He is a scholar of the works of Rev. Gary Davis, and comes just about as close as anyone can to replicating Rev. Davis' intricate style of guitar playing.

John Cohen helped form the New Lost City Ramblers in 1958, and has performed and recorded with them ever since. Their approach, which is based on rural home music, is known as "old time" or "Appalachian," and their campaign for this music placed them in the spotlight at the Newport Folk Festival (1959), as well as in many concert tours, club appearances and recordings. The NLCR influenced well known musicians including Bob Dylan, Jerry Garcia, and Ry Cooder, and started a revival of interest in old time fiddle bands.

John Cohen made a series of documentary field recordings of traditional musicians in their home settings. These include recordings in Kentucky, Virginia and North Carolina, as well as in the highlands of Peru. He discovered the great Kentucky singer Roscoe Holcomb, and has issued many recordings of him. His first film was about Holcomb's music, and he created the term "The High Lonesome Sound" to describe it. Subsequently, the term became the generic name for bluegrass singing, and it has been used in countless music contexts ever since.

In 1961 Cohen founded the Friends Of Old Time Music with Ralph Rinzler & Israel Young. FOTM presented the first New York concerts of Roscoe Holcomb, Clarence Ashley, Doc Watson, Dock Boggs, Mississippi John Hurt, The Stanley Brothers, Bill Monroe, Gus Cannon, Joseph Spence, Hobart Smith, Almeda Riddle, Bessie Jones, and others.

"Truck" has been playing and singing a variety of traditional styles for more than 30 years. He enjoys a reputation as one of the tastiest back-up guitar, mandolin, and bouzouki players in the Northeast, but is also a strong solo performer in his own right. A founding member of the seven-member a capella singing group Calaban, he has taught traditional singing workshops at the New England Conservatory of  Music and performed with the Chamber Singers at Jordan Hall. He was one of the original Erinoids along with Jimmy Devine, Pete Farley and Mark Roberts. His recording credits include work on Jim McGrath’s newest album, “Red Right Returning,” Rare Air’s last CD,  and "Empty Pockets," with the late Johnny Cunningham, Jerry O'Sullivan, Skip Healy and Dave Paton among others, which was nominated for a Grammy. He has also served on the Eisteddfod advisory board.

Nancy Brady Cunningham is a published poet and author of five books of ritual: Feeding the Spirit, I Am Woman by Rite, Tarot Celebrations, Snow Melting in a Silver Bowl, and A Book of Women's Altars. She has been the featured poet at many Boston venues, and has performed her poetry at Boston's First Night 2000 in Big Night at the Bookhouse, held at the Boston Public Library. She has performed her work in France, Greece and Canada, as well.

Sherman Lee Dillon was born in Meadville, Mississippi (pop 451) in 1951. Cousin Geraldene had a piano, so whenever he'd walk to her house, she'd give him lessons. Uncle Erastus taught the old time shaped note singing schools and made sure his nephews carried on the tradition. At age 12, Sherman began playing the guitar, at 14 the harmonica, at 15 the banjo and steel guitar (not to mention playing trumpet and baritone in the school band and teaching his brother the tenor sax). Since 1992, he has organized Mississippi's longest running annual Earth Day event. In 2004, he ran for Governor of Mississippi on the Green Party ticket. Two of Sherman Lee's children, Andrew and Anna Lee, make up the Dillonaires. Performances include songs by The Carter Family, Jimmy Rogers, Robert Johnson, some fiddlin' tunes, some banjo pickin', some old time Shape Note singing, and some originals. Sherman Lee plays the banjo, harmonica, and guitar, Anna plays guitar and Andrew plays the fiddle. They all sing, taking turns singing melody and harmony.

Marylou Ferrante had been described by music critic and writer Daniel Gewertz, in the Boston Herald, as the Bay State's finest female acoustic blues interpreter.

Marylou is an artist who performs pre-war blues from the 1920's & 30's. She covers major artists from the delta to east coast piedmont style players such as Robert Johnson, Charlie Patton, Blind Boy Fuller and Memphis Minnie along with mandolin players such as Yank Rachell.

Her passionate expression of these old songs comes from a love of the music and the arrangements themselves, as well as what she says is an appreciation for "the history of these folks and the difficult circumstances they endured."

Marylou has honed her craft listening to the old recordings and learning from some of the great blues players today such as Paul Rishell, Guy Davis, Robert Jones and mandolin great Rich DelGrosso. Marylou has taught at The Cellar Studio, Salem MA

 "Marylou is a killer I have watched her grow, and now she's taking over. Blues lovers look out!"...
–Guy Davis

When two of America's best songwriters get together the result could be electric, but it is not. It is acoustic. Jack Hardy and David Massengill have known each other since they both moved to New York City in the mid-seventies, Jack from Colorado, David from Tennessee. The Boston Globe has said, "Jack Hardy is one of the most influential figures today in defining the American Folk Song." 
The same could be said of David Massengill.   In this era of pop-driven acoustic music, these two
have dual-handedly kept the folk tradition alive in songwriting.

Jack and David have shared many a stage together at clubs and festivals, been members of the weekly songwriters workshop since its inception, and worked on the Fast Folk Magazine together.  They have traveled together, boulevardiered together, played softball together, had the occasional adult beverage together.  And now they are forming a duo: The Folk Brothers. Move over Simon and Garfunkel and Don and Phil.

David brings the experience of six albums, nine bootlegs and nine books to the mix. Jack brings the experience of fifteen albums and eight plays to the mix. David's songs have been covered by such artists as Joan Baez, Dave Van Ronk, The Roches and Charlie King, whereas Jack's songs have been covered by such artists as Steve Gillette & Cindy Mangsen, Lucy Kaplansky and Joel Rafael.

Their choice of material for this project draws from their own greatest hits such as David's "On the Road to Fairfax County," "Rider on an Orphan Train" and "My Name Joe" to Jack’s "Tinkers Coin," "I Ought to Know" and "The Zephyr," to covering songs of their friends such as Dave Van Ronk, Paul Siebel and Utah Philips, as well as covering traditional songs. David plays the mountain dulcimer (Dave Van Ronk said that "Massengill took the *dull* out of dulcimer") as well as guitar. Jack plays guitar as well as mandolin. They are also noted as being great tellers of tales while introducing their songs.

Their first album as a duo, Partners in Crime, was released in July, with transcendent harmonies and a great mix of history, tradition, politics and irreverence. Rumor has it there is an alternate name for The Folk Brothers: "The Baloney Brothers," but we have been unable to confirm this rumor.

For photos, lyrics for Partners in Crime and itinerary:  see www.thefolkbrothers.com.

Truly a national treasure, for nearly 40 years Geremia has been surviving solely by the fruit of his musical labors. He has performed all over the USA and is just as well known in Europe, Canada and England. Paul is quite possibly the greatest living performer of the East Coast and Texas finger-picking and slide styles on six- and twelve-string guitars. Covers of Blind Willie McTell, Tampa Red, Lemon Jefferson, and Blind Blake (to name just a few) will raise the hair on your neck, and he also boasts one of the most expressive voices in the kingdom of the blues.

Jack Hardy is "a more literate Celtic Townes Van Zandt, grave in his tone and generous in his ideals, as rooted in the present soil and sky of Ireland and America as he is fascinated by the legends of the past" –Roy Kasten, St. Louis Riverfront Times, February 3, 1999

It is a strange mix of themes ranging from the American West to the ballads and jigs of Celtic ancestors that somehow seems to make sense in the musical world Jack Hardy has created. And it is a separate world to which the listener is transported; a timeless place inhabited by tinkers and cowboys, saints and sinners, elves, virgins and crones. From his extensive travels and reading he has forged an endearing non-academic approach to literature, one that is more at home in the pub than in the classroom. "He clearly seems to enjoy making his listeners think. He may dare his audience to figure out what he is saying, but he also credits them with the intelligence to do so" –Tom Nelligan, Dirty Linen, 1998

With their feet firmly planted in Irish music, Boston-based and Chicago-born husband-and-wife duo Matt & Shannon Heaton pair traditional numbers with originals. Their traditional songs sound fresh and modern, and their originals feel timeless. Think Planxty meets Natalie Merchant meets Richard Thompson.  

“Matt & Shannon bring a savvy modernity and American rootsiness to the Auld Sod’s music, without losing any of its folksy Irish essence. Their playing is masterful and inventive, their arrangements
city-smart and spacious.” –Scott Alarik, Boston Globe

Louis Leeman, an active member of the New England music scene for three decades, is a singer, guitarist, and song writer who resides in Swansea, MA. During this time, Louis has had the opportunity to play with many talented musicians in a variety of musical settings and styles.   As an opening act for Tom Rush, Leon Russell, Paul Barrere and Fred Tackett of Little Feat, Savoy Brown, Darrel Scott, Chip Taylor and Carrie Rodriquez, Louis has had the opportunity to play to audiences expecting the best.

"I listen to all kinds of music and it filters through my personality and slightly warped perspective.
I play my own songs and songs by artists whose work I admire. I try to sound like me."

Dale Robin Lockman is a song hunter, always in search of songs from a variety of ethnic, geographical and thematic genres. With a rich, sweet voice and a quick humor, Dale Robin's performances are dotted with love songs, songs of work, hard times and the struggles of the working class, old time blues, songs of optimism and thoughtful intent and an occasional sing-along. She arrives at a show with a carful of instruments - guitar, banjo, Appalachian dulcimer, acoustic bass guitar and spoons - and along with those instruments, she brings her energy and her love for the music to the stage. Her audiences will laugh, sing and possibly yodel along. Her optimism and warmth shine through her music and are present in her anecdotes about her life growing up in Brooklyn, living with comedically aging parents and raising hilariously offbeat children.

David Massengill has written songs recorded and sung by the Roches, Joan Baez, Dave Van Ronk, Nanci Griffith, Tom Russell, David Bromberg, Chad Mitchell, Lucy Kaplansky, Shawn Colvin, Diana Jones and just recently, the young Anthony da Costa. Though he's lived in New York City for over 30 years, he still has his accent from east Tennessee, where he once chased a bobcat and vice versa.  As a boy it was his heart's desire to be a viking or an escaped convict. Noted for his mountain ballad style story songs accompanied on an Edsel Martin dulcimer, he is frequently an artist-in-residence at schools, with his song and picture book programs. He is also a storyteller of charm and wit. Dave Van Ronk once said of David, "He took the dull out of dulcimer." He has a variety of handmade picture books, bootleg and label cds available. His latest cd releases are a tribute to the songs of Dave Van Ronk, entitled "Dave On Dave" (2007 Gadfly Records) and a duo partnership with Jack Hardy as The Folk Brothers, entitled "Partners In Crime" (2008 Great Divide Records).

A saloon singer extraordinaire, evoking an almost forgotten era when the fellow playing and crooning in the corner of your local pub was the only (and best) entertainment you'd find. In these more complicated and noise-infused times, Jim stands out amid the karaoke and the juke boxes and the 54-inch plasma screen TVs and flat-out enchants his audiences, whether longtime fans or brand-new acquaintances. Three songs into a Jim McGrath set and you feel you've known him for years, and you want to know him and his musical stories even better. His recent CD, "Red Right Returning," was recently selected by the National Maritime Heritage Foundation as a "CD of the month."

Russ Mello, a native of New Bedford is a performer who plays country blues music of the 1920's & 1930's. Russ has been playing finger style and bottleneck blues guitar for nearly 20 years studying the great masters such as, Blind Blake, Big Bill Broonzy, Robert Johnson, Skip James, Charlie Patton, and Blind Boy Fuller to name a few. He has studied and performed with the great country blues player, Paul Geremia. Russ strives to keep his playing true to the originals yet his unique style still shines through.

The husband and wife team of Jay and Abby Michaels have been performing Celtic and Renaissance music together since 2002. Jay plays the both the nylon and wire-strung Celtic harps, guitar and he sings. Abby sings, plays flutes, recorders, pennywhistles, guitar, harp and bowed psaltery. Together they perform traditional and popular music from the Celtic lands and beyond, Renaissance and Baroque tunes, and original compositions.

Mike Morin has studied African percussion with Babatunde Olatunji and Abdoul Doumbia, and frame drums with Layne Redmond. He has also done numerous marimba workshops with Michelle Kaminsky. Mike currently plays with the band Treelyne; he has also played congas and other percussion instruments with various local bands over the years. Mike performed with Mickey Hart and others in the grand finale tribute to Babatunde Olatunji in 2001, and played two performances in New York with Michael Hinton, for Broadway's "Miss Saigon". As for his spoken word projects, he provides a wide variety of percussion for the Iyanu theatre troupe, which also includes Nancy Brady Cunningham

The Nashville Clippers are a blend of folk, bluegrass, and the best of Americana country music. Their relaxed style, varied instrumentation, and beautiful harmonies on familiar and obscure songs show their obvious love for the music they play. They've performed at the Boston Folk Festival, the Joe Val Bluegrass Festival, coffeehouse venues, and house concerts. Benefit performances have helped collect 800 pounds of warm clothing for needy children and raised money for a fellow performer needing medical treatment. All four Clippers are veterans of the Summer Acoustic Music Week presented by WUMB radio on Lake Winnepesaukee in New Hampshire. After camp instructors Pete and Maura Kennedy heard several of their songs, they asked if the Clippers would open for them at an upcoming gig. And that was the start. The Nashville Clippers are Gail Wiegner on vocals, guitar and mando; Allen Wiegner on bass, vocals, and dry humor; Mac McLanahan on guitar, mando, dobro, and vocals; and Rae Ann McLanahan on vocals, guitar, and concertina.

2006 Memphis Blues Challenge Finalist, Berkshire-based, Robin O’Herin plays both original and traditional American music using bottleneck and fingerstyle guitar and mountain dulcimer. Her music is distinguished by her pounding rhythm and authentic style. Robin specializes in historically rich, often interactive concerts that include original and traditional American music. Her concerts are warm, affirming experiences she shares with the audience.

"I closed my eyes and thought I was in the Mississippi Delta"—fan at recent concert.

"Bottleneck blues, Gospel and lots of strong folk originals from O’Herin, who accompanies her Appalachian edged, rein-free vocals with some creative, dancing fingerpickin" -- Sing Out

The Patmos Brothers Revival (PBR) is a high energy, driving fusion of bluegrass, alt. country and blues. Playing songs that range from original music to traditional bluegrass PBR has been pleasing crowds throughout Massachusetts and Rhode Island since Fall of 2007. They have been featured performers at three Honky Tonk Road House Review concerts, gathering local Americana musicians into one venue. Individual members have sat in with bands such as Jo Henley and Jake Hill & the Law. Recently signed to Plimro Records they are currently at work on their first album, scheduled to be released Fall 2008.

Jack has been performing traditional jazz and country blues for more than 40 years. He is a master of traditional country blues and stride piano, and a powerful singer/songwriter, as well. He was a fixture on the coffeehouse circuit in the late '60s and early '70s. His major early musical partnership was with Georgia country blues guitarist and singer Larry Johnson, in 1968-1970. He has listened carefully to and learned well from the playing of Albert Ammons, Champion Jack Dupree, James P. Johnson, Eubie Blake, Fats Waller and Teddy Wilson. His own unique style embraces and honors the tradition while exploring new ways to express old musical themes with enthusiasm and humor.

The Remnants play "roots music," combining compelling vocal harmonies infused with solid instrumentals to perform a combination of folk, country, bluegrass and gospel music. The Remnants’ songs will get your feet tapping whether they are performing their own songs or those of folk frontiersman Bob Dylan or country legend Hank Williams.
The Remnants have been together since 2002 and have shared the stage with Ollabelle, Uncle Earl, Jack Hardy, Two High String Band and many more. They have performed at the prestigious New Bedford Summerfest in 2002 and 2004 and at the Narrows Center for the Arts in Fall River, as well as many outdoor events, festivals and coffeehouses throughout Southeastern New England.

Ross Robinson is a Massachusetts area fingerstyle guitar player and country blues entertainer who has been performing as a solo artist since 1990. Ross plays a variety of styles that range from ragtime to Delta slide guitar. HIs influences include Dave Van Ronk, David Bromberg and Jorma Kaukonen to name just a few. He has studied guitar with Elijah Wald and Paul Rishell. In 2005 he recorded his self titled CD and just recently has written a new batch of original material.

The music of William Chico Schwall reflects the Midwestern landscape and blue collar family in which he grew up and shares a uniquely rich palette of musical colors drawn from an extensive musical career. Self taught on guitar, Chico absorbed blues and folk, slide guitar and finger picking. He discovered the mandolin, banjo, fiddle and flute and expanded his horizons to include Celtic, Klezmer and World music. Chico has performed and arranged traditional music for theatre productions including "Under Milk Wood" with the British Theatre Company and Northwest Touring Theatre, performed with the Eugene Symphony and Oregon Festival of American Music orchestras and
actively played on the Contra Dance circuit.

Peter Stampfel was born in Wauwautosa, WI, in 1938. He dropped out of the University of Wisconsin after attending for two years, and began supporting himself by playing music, living in New York, Florida, Chicago, and several cities in California. In 1963, Stampfel formed the folk-pop unit Holy Modal Rounders with his collaborator Steve Weber. Stampfel also played in the bands Bottle Caps (who released albums in 1986 and 1989) and the Fugs. In 1994, he and guitarist Gary Lucas began a duo, the Du-Tels, to play originals, and covers of Charlie Patton, the Stanley Brothers, and other such personal heroes. By 1999, Stampfel lived in lower Manhattan, active in the Du-Tels, working as a science fiction editor, and occasionally collaborating with Chicago's the Dysfunctionells.

Tesseract is a Southeast Massachusetts-based trio consisting of Joan Akin, Joanne Doherty, and Mary Beth Soares. Known for their rich vocal harmonies, they cover a wide range of music that includes traditional, contemporary, nostalgia and a few originals. Sometimes accompanied by guitar, sometimes by ukulele, and sometimes singing a cappella, Tesseract's close harmonies and animated delivery have been delighting festival and coffee house audiences for more than 10 years.

Michael Troy was born and raised in Fall River, Mass. In many ways, his life reflects the lives of the hard-working people who populate this part of New England.  Having spent parts of his own life as a mill worker, fisherman, laborer and carpenter, and most of his adult years as a husband and father, Michael has traveled many paths, and the experience and wisdom he's gleaned along the way echoes through his music.  He is an adept picker, an astute observer and an acute emotional antenna.  Michael has won numerous awards for his music, most recently winning the 2007 New England Songwriting Contest at the Ossipee Valley Bluegrass Festival.

With warmth, humor and understated scholarship, Jeff Warner connects 21st century audiences with the music and everyday lives of 19th century people. He presents musical traditions from the Outer Banks fishing villages of North Carolina, to the lumber camps of the Adirondack Mountains and the whaling ports of New England. Warner is a Folklorist and Community Scholar for the New Hampshire Council on the Arts, has been named an Arts Council Fellow for 2007, and is on the Speaker's Roster for the New Hampshire Humanities Council. He has toured nationally for the Smithsonian Institution and has recorded for Flying Fish/Rounder and other labels. His 1995 recording Two Little Boys: More Old Time Songs for Kids received a Parents' Choice Award.