Rodney Crowell

With more than 40 years of American roots music under his belt, Texas native RODNEY CROWELL is a two-time Grammy Award winner who has written fifteen #1 hits with five Number One hits of his own and a legacy of songwriting excellence which has made him an icon among giants. With strong roots in country music, Crowell has written chart-topping hits for the likes of Emmylou Harris, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Keith Urban and more. But owing to the distinctly universal, literary quality of his writing, has also penned beloved songs for artists as diverse as Bob Seger, Etta James, the Grateful Dead, John Denver, Jimmy Buffett and countless others. A member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, Crowell is also the author of the acclaimed memoir, Chinaberry Sidewalks, and teamed up with New York Times best-selling author Mary Karr for Kin: Songs by Mary Karr & Rodney Crowell in 2012, with Karr saying of her collaborator, “Like Hank Williams or Townes Van Zandt or Miss Lucinda, he writes and croons with a poet’s economy and a well digger’s deep heart.” Crowell was honored with ASCAP’s prestigious Founder’s Award in 2017, and that same year released the album Close Ties, which spawned another Grammy nomination for “It Ain’t Over Yet” with Rosanne Cash and John Paul White in the category of Best Americana Song. In 2018, he opened his own record label, RC1 Records, and released Acoustic Classics in 2018 and TEXAS in 2019. Also in 2019, Crowell received the Academy of Country Music’s Poet’s Award. His latest album, Triage, was released last July to much critical acclaim.

Bernie Taupin

Bernie Taupin is a lyricist, visual artist, singer, and executive producer who is best known for his long-term collaboration with Sir Elton John. “Rocket Man,” “Levon,” “Crocodile Rock,” “Tiny Dancer” and “Your Song” are just some of the hits he co-wrote with John. Taupin has also written songs for Heart and Starship, among other recording artists. In the wake of Princess Diana’s death, Taupin rewrote the lyrics of “Candle in the Wind” in her honor. The resulting single became one of the biggest chart hits of all time.

Madison Cunningham

Madison Cunningham is a GRAMMY award-winning artist and songwriter known for her “wonderfully tangled imagery and cutting self-awareness” (NPR). As a guitarist, Madison has pushed the boundaries of a conventional singer-songwriter as her “guitar work is both classic and wildly emotive, and her soaring vocals are pristine and inspired” (Consequence). Madison first picked up a guitar at age seven, and by age twelve was singing and performing alongside her five siblings in church. In her teenage years, she met Tyler Chester who would later go on to be a close collaborator and producer of several of Madison’s projects including Who Are You Now (2019) which Atwood Magazine described as “a guitar-driven record, full of twisting, meticulously arranged parts and interlocking melodies. It’s almost labyrinthine; you could get lost in her swirling words.”

Cunningham’s latest effort, Revealer, won the GRAMMY for ‘Best Folk Album.’ Revealer finds her working once again with producer Tyler Chester along with Mike Elizondo and Tucker Martine. Written and recorded over all states of the pandemic, Madison says, “To me, ‘revealer’ is the binding theme of the album. The hand that slowly chips away at the mirror in which you see yourself and the world and replaces it with the reflection that is most true.” The album is “full of intricate musicianship, alongside forthright observations” (All Music), intimations and hard truths—a self-portrait of a young artist who is full of doubt and uncertainty yet bursting with exciting ideas about music and life.

Amy Helm

Her voice, first. Amy Helm has a voice of a thousand ways, twists and turns, ascensions and intentions. It soars, flays, pleads, celebrates, guides, heals, teaches, and above all Amy Helm’s voice makes you feel. Her own emotion enables and encourages the lids and layers to come off your own, as you listen to her on a recording, or in performance. This alone would be enough; but Helm has been much more than a singer for a long time. After decades of practicing and perfecting her arts, Helm has shaped herself into a unique force, personality, and woman in the world of music—and the far wider world of all who love music.

Amy Helm’s early days in ensembles, and learning from many artists, engendered in her two vast strengths: her capabilities as a performer, and her power as a collaborator and teacher. The blended talents of her New York City-based band Ollabelle, formed in 2001, show just how broad and deep Helm’s musical knowledge and abilities go

Amy’s first solo albums, Didn’t It Rain (2015) and This Too Shall Light (2018), are a diptych, showing two views of a remarkable woman and what she can do. Her most recent release, What The Flood Leaves Behind (2021) combines the strengths fostered in Helm in the Hudson Valley, and by musicians she has known and performed with for decades, with her own increasingly formidable writing and singing

Catch her when you can, because Amy Helm is in constant motion these days. Writing and recording new songs, on the road again, organizing the annual Dirt Farmer music festival, and curating at Levon Helm Studios a monthly series of Midnight Rambles, she is a woman of seemingly boundless energy and passions. Asked what she wants from her career now, Helm replies, “I want what I think every artist wants at our core, continued creative expression as the ultimate freedom. To hold it because it’s our calling and our birthright.”

Dar Williams

Dar Williams’ lyrics contain bouquets of optimism, delivered on melodies alternating between beguiling lightness and understated gravity. Williams strongly believes that all of us possess our own power and ability to achieve, and she rejects the exceptionalism that encourages us to “admire that yonder star,” while making us feel small and insignificant; unworthy of shining on our own but hoping to catch enough distant light to inspire some tiny accomplishment. Williams has always been very interested in how to control our future and this album has to do with the fact that at some point, you just can’t.

Like everyone else, Williams spent 2020 in that state of non-control. She and longtime producer Stewart Lerman tracked most of the album, her 12th studio recording, in November of 2019. In late February of 2020, she cut the title tune in Woodstock with bassist Gail Ann Dorsey and Larry Campbell, who produced the track and played guitars, pedal steel and twangy baritone guitar. When told they had to postpone a mid-March mixing date, Campbell said he wasn’t feeling well anyway. Turns out he’d contracted a serious case of COVID-19. That was a clear sign that at some point, you have to meet life where it meets you …the common thread throughout that these songs, the willingness to meet life as it arrives.

Dar Williams was always in the right place at the right time for the success she’s had over a 25+-year career. She rose out of the vibrant mid-90’s Boston scene, inspired by the eclectic influences of alt-rockers, Berklee jazz musicians, slam poets, and folk artists, like Patty Griffith, Melissa Ferrick, the Throwing Muses, Vance Gilbert, and Jonatha Brooke. After a year of touring non-stop with her first album, The Honesty Room, in 1994, she was invited by Joan Baez to tour in Europe and The United States.

“Good and bad things happen, and it’s not necessarily a reward or indictment. I’ve just got to meet it.” Williams observes. “Like, I’m bringing my whole life to this moment; it will surprise me, challenge me, show me where I was wrong, even make a fool out of me, but my job is to show up and not take adversity personally. Real happiness doesn’t have to feel like Snoopy dancing with Woodstock; it can just be knowing you have the resilience to meet whatever comes to you. I will call that a good life.”

Hayes Carll

Singer and songwriter Hayes Carll is an artist whose rootsy sound finds room for the playful swagger of rock & roll, the relatable storytelling of country, and the thoughtful introspection of folk. Capable of singing about boozy debauchery and relationships in the balance with equal skill, Carll rose through the ranks of the Americana community after emerging on the scene in the early 2000s, making his breakthrough as an independent artist and maintaining a regular guy’s outlook even as he found a sizable audience. 2005’s self-released Little Rock was a commercial and critical breakthrough, 2011’s KMAG YOYO (& Other American Stories) and 2016’s Lovers and Leavers were widely acclaimed as among his finest work, and 2021’s You Get It All found him embracing a purer country influence.

Jeff Trott

Award winning, singer/songwriter/producer Jeff Trott is a part of the Nashville music scene.

Jeff was  nominated for a 2023 Grammy® for Best American Roots Song having cowritten and produced the song“Forever” for Sheryl Crow.

Trott’s name is synonymous with Sheryl who has just been inducted into the

2023 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He has co-written many of her biggest hits.

“If It Makes You Happy”, “Everyday is a Winding Road”, “A Change”,  “My Favorite Mistake”, “Soak Up The Sun” and “Forever” . Their musical collaboration has lasted since the mid 90’s.

Jeff has finished production on a new Sara Evans album slated for 2024 release.

Jeff has written songs with many artists including newly released song by Brandy Clark “Take Mine” co-written with Brandy Clark and Lucie Silvas. (Produced by Brandi Carlisle).

Other releases including Meg McRee “Girl Of Your Dreams”, Bethany Cosentino “A Single Day” with Sean McConnell, Natalie Hemby, her single “Heroes” written with Natalie and Aaron Raitiere,

Hayes Carll “Leave lt All Behind” from the album You Get It All , Lucie Silvas “Cool Down”,

Andrew Combs “Save Somebody Else”, Seratones “The Power Of Your Love”, Alissa Griffiths “Clean”.

He has collaborated w local indie darlings The Brummies for the song “For Once”

Produced his good friend Jeff Cohen’s latest EP.

Jeff produced the 2019 Hootie and The Blowfish record “Imperfect Circle”, produced Aaron Lee Tasjan’s album “Karma For Cheap”, Clare Dunn single “Salt And Lime”, Sheryl Crow’s 2017 album “Be Myself” and songs from Crow’s 2019 album “Threads” which include “Wouldn’t Want To Be Like You” featuring Annie Clark of St Vincent.

Leighton Meester’s 2014 LP “Heartstrings”, “One Bad Eye” single with Morgan Kibby of M83, Griffin House 2007 record “Flying Upside Down”.  EP by Liz Bohannon.

Trott also produced Stevie Nicks for the soundtrack of “Practical Magic”.

Jeff was awarded Songwriter of the Year by BMI in 1998.

He has collaborated with James Mercer singer for the band The Shins, Tears For Fears, Keith Gattis, Madi Diaz, Sarah Buxton, Hillary Lindsey, Maren Morris, Brandy Clark, Daniel Tashian, Kristian Bush, Jeff Cohen, Andrew Combs, Jimmy Robbins, Devon Gilfillian, Jonathan Singleton, Kristian Bush, Melissa Fuller, David Shaw of the Revivalist, Rob Thomas, Jillian Jacqueline,  The Brummies, Morgan Kibby, Kendal Marvel, Robert Randolph, Randy Houser, The Who, Joe Cocker.

Jeff toured with wide range of bands such as Sheryl Crow, World Party, Tears For Fears, Wire Train, ,Pete Droge, Bash And Pop, The Lifers.

He recorded a solo album in 2001 “Dig Up The Astroturf” which was mixed in 5.1 for DTS.

Jim Lauderdale

Mary Gauthier

As she has so eloquently accomplished over the past 25 years, acclaimed singer- songwriter Mary Gauthier has used her art once again to traverse the uncharted waters of the past few years. “I’m the kind of songwriter who writes what I see in the world right now,” she affirms. Thankfully, amid dark storms of pandemic loss, she found and followed the beacon of new love: Her gift to us, the powerful Dark Enough to See the Stars, collects ten sparkling jewels of Gauthier songcraft reflecting both love and loss.

Gauthier’s early work, which she began at age 35, reflected her newfound sobriety, delving into events from a troubled life, which persisted after she became a renowned chef in Boston. Dark Enough to See the Stars returns Gauthier to the scintillating confessional mode on such albums as her breakthrough release, 2005’s Mercy Now, as well as such ear worms as the hook-laden “Drag Queens in Limousines.” In addition to crafting instantly memorable songs, Gauthier has never shied away from difficult self-exploration, as with 2010’s The Foundling, on which she explored the repercussions of her adoption from a New Orleans orphanage and subsequent search for her birth mother.

On Dark Enough to See the Stars, she mourns recent devastating losses: the deaths of John Prine, David Olney, Nanci Griffith, and her beloved friend Betsy. But she also sings open-heartedly of love. All ten tracks prove Gauthier’s belief, as stated in Saved by a Song, that “songs can bring us a deep understanding of each other and ourselves and open the heart to love.”

Deep emotion resonates throughout Dark Enough to See the Stars. “It kicks off with three love songs,” says Gauthier. “Somewhere along the work I’ve done in therapy through art and 32 years of recovery, I’ve somehow stabilized enough to be in a relationship that works – and I want to express that in these songs.” The joyous triad – the catchy “Fall Apart World,” the lilting ballad “Amsterdam,” and gospel-tinged “Thank God for You” – each punctuated with Danny Mitchell’s evocative keyboards – comes alive with poetic imagery.

“Thank God for You” contrasts her former life – “another junkie jonesing on a Greyhound bus” – with the state of grace she’s found. Lush instrumentation perfectly underpins the anthemic “Fall Apart World,” which Gauthier calls “adult music.” While on a writing sojourn in Key West, she explains, “It’s understanding that things come together and things fall apart. The awareness of that is an opportunity for gratitude. Right now, I’m looking out the window – and I can’t believe I get to be here! I don’t take it for granted for one millisecond!”

Gauthier’s partner, Jaimee Harris, who sings harmony throughout the album, co-wrote the paean to one of Gauthier’s favorite cities. “I have a long history with Amsterdam,” Gauthier recounts. “My first record deal was on a Dutch label, and I tour there regularly, and much of Mercy Now was written at my favorite hotel there.” A canceled flight to Denmark landed Gauthier and Harris in Amsterdam for an unexpected three days during the pandemic. “To return to that hotel and be able to share that with the person I love and show her the city…,” Gauthier pauses. “It’s complicated – because all around the edges was the pandemic. But you’ve got to express your joy – a joy that’s not free from pain. There’s grief all around us, but there’s this ability to still love and still be aware that the sky is beautiful and the hand that I’m holding is filled with love…”

The album’s bittersweet title track, “Dark Enough to See the Stars,” cowritten with Beth Nielsen Chapman, resonates with that very same emotion. “When things get really hard and the walls are closing in and it starts to get dark, you realize what really matters,” Gauthier says. “And what really matters, of course, is love. Even though my friend Betsy is gone, I get to hold on to her love. And I get to hold on to the love that John Prine showed me, and Nanci Griffith and David Olney. It occurred to me while working on the title track that love didn’t die with them. That was a gift that was given to me that I get to keep.”

On the memory-rich track, “The Meadow,” Fats Kaplin’s haunting pedal steel guitar expresses the sonics of fleeting time, a theme Gauthier explores on one of the first songs written for the album, back in 2019. After performing in Albany, New York, the solitary troubadour found herself yearning for her newly discovered soulmate’s “candlestick fingers on my skin”: The poignant “About Time” documents that lonesome highway, while the singalong waltz “Truckers and Troubadours” acknowledges musical vagabonds’ kinship with long-haulers; in fact, Gauthier and co-writer Darden Smith collaborated with Paul “Long Haul” Marhoefer on the ear-catching lyrics. “Paul said that when Darden and I get together and start talking,” says Gauthier, “we sound like two truck drivers.”

Finally, Dark Enough to See the Stars bids farewell to Gauthier’s tragically departed friends: “Where Are You Now” paints an autumnal picture of the trails where she and Betsy roamed; “How Could You Be Gone” expresses in detail the disbelief inherent in our goodbyes; and “Til I See You Again” offers a prayer “to all those I hope to reunite with,” says Gauthier.

As throughout Dark Enough to See the Stars, all three compositions exemplify Mary Gauthier’s songwriting brilliance: They offer beauty in sorrow, healing in loss, and a perspective only an artist of uncommon generosity can give.

Sarah Jarosz