Artist Bios

Oshima Brothers

 Raised in a musical family in rural Maine, the brothers have honed a harmony-rich blend of contemporary folk and acoustic pop. On stage, Sean and Jamie create a surprisingly full sound with dynamic vocals, electric and acoustic guitars, octave bass, loops, and percussion. The brothers live in Maine but are often on the road performing, producing music videos, and dancing.  

Maine-based indie duo, Oshima Brothers’ have been creating music together since childhood. The brothers blend songs from the heart with blood harmonies to produce a "roots-based pop sound that is infectious." (NPR) On stage, Sean and Jamie offer lush vocals, live looping, foot percussion, electric and acoustic guitars, vintage keyboard and bass - often all at once. They want every show to feel like a deep breath, a dance party and a sonic embrace. When not recording or touring they find time to film and produce their own music videos, tie their own shoes and cook elaborate feasts. Maine Public Radio’s Sara Willis describes their songs as “beautiful, those brother harmonies can’t be beat. They are uplifting and, let’s face it, we need uplifting these days.”

Here’s a live video of the brothers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8oV3yO0Vpo

Matt Nakoa

Matt Nakoa is an award-winning songwriter, singer, and multi-instrumentalist. A modern troubadour, he makes his home on the highways and concert stages of America, and appears regularly with folk music icon Tom Rush. The Boston Globe says of Nakoa, “Between his piano chops and heartfelt originals on guitar, he drops jaws.”

Born on a small goat farm in New York State, Nakoa trained to be a concert pianist before accepting a scholarship to attend Berklee College of Music as a vocalist. He developed his dramatic songwriting style with his college alt-rock band, The Fens, and after the band dissolved, he landed in NYC. It was in Manhattanʼs all-night piano bars that Nakoa developed an uncanny ability to command the attention of any audience. His first solo albums, released in 2012 and 2014, garnered multiple songwriting awards, including a win at Kerrville Folk Festivalʼs New Folk Competition.
 

Nakoaʼs newest album, Casting Shadows, is a spellbinding blend of pop, soul, and classical influences that tells a story of childhood dreams crashing headlong into grownup reality. The Ark of Music magazine proclaims, “What we have here is a truly encouraging sign of what pop could once again become …”

Matt Nakoa on Youtube

At well over a million miles of roadwork, including two stints as members of Nanci Griffith’s Blue Moon Orchestra, Pete and Maura Kennedy show no signs of slowing down either on tour or in the creative realm.

Originally based in Austin, Texas, they spent a few years in the Washington DC area before moving to the East Village in New York City, where they have been based for most of the last two decades. The Kennedys are known nationwide as the hosts of the late lamented Dharma Café program on Sirius Satellite Radio, and on Broadway, they are regular cast members of Theatre Within's annual tribute to John Lennon — working in that capacity with Patti Smith, Debbie Harry, Jackson Browne, Cyndi Lauper and a host of others. 

Life on the road and time spent in the creative ecosystem of the Village have informed their songwriting over the course of 14 duo albums and half a dozen side projects, and Safe Until Tomorrow is true to that tradition. What sets the album apart is the inclusion of several anthemic, rocking songs of social consciousness that convey a strong message best summed up in one of the song titles: “Be Silent No More.” The Kennedys' music has been described as uplifting, empowering and encouraging. In these turbulent times, they rise to the occasion with Safe Until Tomorrow. 

The Kennedys on Youtube

********* Important for the Kennedy Concert on April 7th- MASKS AND PROOF OF VACCINE ARE REQUIRED!!*****

Nikki Talley and Jason Sharp

Along with her guitar & clawhammer style banjo, Nikki Talley‘s musical partner & husband Jason Sharp adds resonant lush guitar tones as well as harmonies to round out this duo’s sound.
Hardworking, energetic, mountain girl with a big voice…these could all describe Nikki Talley. Raised in Ruffin, North Carolina and hailing from Asheville, it’s only fitting that her music is as eclectic as the state that boasts the mountains and the sea. Trying to pin down Nikki’s style, critics and reviewers alike have compared her to Patty Loveless and Gillian Welch, but to leave the comparisons there would be doing a disservice to her fiery stage performance, hauntingly seductive and raw gritty lyrics, lifted by a voice that harkens back to the Appalachian roots from which she was born, and shores up on the edges of contemporary country, folk, and old time that has her audiences stomping and clapping for more. 

Nikki Talley on Youtube

Annabelle's Curse

  "This five-piece alternative folk band from Bristol, Tennessee/Virginia doesn't seem to be cursed as much as blessed with talent."

-Huffington Post

"Annabelle’s Curse are one of several folk-rock bands that have gone out on a limb to give the classic American genre an engaging revitalization..."

Annabelles Curse on Youtube

Jackson Grimm & The Bull Moose Party

Jackson Grimm marries folk pop melodies with the lonesome sound of traditional Appalachian music. In a region with a strong music culture, it is no surprise that Grimm's songwriting is representative of his musical birthplace: Asheville, NC. His songs run the gambit from an homage to a traditional country waltz in "If Not For You", an unrequited love song driven by a Beatles-esque melody in "I'd Hold You (But I Don't Wanna Hold You)", to a drunken partygrass song à la Old Crow Medicine Show in "Last Train Home".  

Grimm lives in Asheville, North Carolina, and can be found playing solo or around Western North Carolina with bluegrass band, The Bull Moose Party. The band is also the band on Grimm's latest album by the same name, "The Bull Moose Party".  Jackson has also shared the stage and played with singer-songwriters Ben Bedford, Krista Detor, and Jennie DeVoe. 

                                                   Jackson Grimm on Youtube