National Folk Festival winner of the 2008 Lis Johnston Award for vocal excellence, Ange Takats' voice has been described as Joan Baez meets Gillian Welch. Her debut album Aniseed Tea tells stories of knitting, longing and lovely Irishmen. Born in Sydney but now based on the Sunny Coast, Ange somehow managed to begin her musical journey in Bangkok where she was based for two years as a foreign correspondent.
John Hiatt (born August 20, 1952 in Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.) is an American rock guitarist, pianist, singer, and songwriter. He has been nominated for eleven Grammy Awards. John Hiatt's sales have never quite matched his reputation. Hiatt's songs were covered successfully by everyone from Bonnie Raitt, Ronnie Milsap, and Willie Nelson to Iggy Pop, Three Dog Night, and the Neville Brothers, yet it took him 13 years to reach the charts himself.
JIm Lauderdale is a Nashville showman in the grand tradition. He's also one of the city's finest songwriters, as the Dixie Chicks, Patty Loveless, Mark Chestnut, Vince Gill and George Strait will be glad to attest. Beyond Music Row, Lauderdale is well known in bluegrass and jamband circles. He recorded two albums with the legendary Ralph Stanley, one with Donna the Buffalo and he collaborated with Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter on <i>Headed for the Hills</i>, his 2004 release on Dualtone Records.
Justin Townes Earle walks the line between old time country and modern acoustic Indie music by breathing new life into Early country, blues and gospel forms. His first release, Yuma, was a stark and beautiful set of songs written while Earle was fresh out of rehab and is now re-released by Bloodshot Records, who have a further three albums on their catalogue. The Good Life, Midnight At the Movies (Americana award nominee) and the latest Harlem River Blues show Earle's characteristic charm, wit and rhythm to the forefront.
Lucinda Williams (born January 26, 1953) is an American rock, folk, and alt-country songwriter and singer. A three-time Grammy Award winner, she was named "America's best songwriter" by TIME magazine in 2002. Williams has garnered considerable critical acclaim but her commercial success has been moderate. She has a reputation as a perfectionist and as a slow worker when it comes to recording; six years passed between the release of her second and third albums. However, she frequently makes guest appearances on other artists' albums and contributes to compilations and soundtracks.
Michelle Shocked is a traveller, a troubadour, a 'picker-poet', as they say in Texas. As a young feminist, she left Texas to travel, Kerouac-style, and was caught up in Reagan-era grassroots politics. Her musical career was ignited by a bootleg recording made around a Kerrville Folk Festival campfire on a Sony walkman. Released in England as ‘The Texas Campfire Tapes’ without Shocked’s authority, its success abroad enticed Mercury Records to offer the newcomer a recording contract.