Kristin Andreassen is a singer, songwriter & percussive dancer whose music honors both the playful & the profound. She's toured with some of the most respected acoustic groups around: the stringband Uncle Earl, the "folk noir” singing trio Sometymes Why,  the Appalachian clogging troupe Footworks, and NYC's "anti-folk" superhero Jeffrey Lewis. Her originals range from the infectious rhythms of her #1 kids' hit "Crayola Doesn't Make a Color for Your Eyes” to the emotive soundscape in this shadow art video made with beloved MoM instructor Anna Roberts-Gevalt. 2018 promises a new trio album with drummer Shane Leonard & Punch Brother Chris Eldridge as well as an album of children's songs about emotions, co-created with Brooklyn psychiatrist Dr. Kari Groff for the Smithsonian Folkways label.  An experienced teacher & square dance caller, Kristin is a true believer in the transformative power of music camps for all ages. After studying creative writing, history and community development at Montreal’s McGill University, she is as surprised as her parents to have found a career where she employs all three of those skills in balance. www.kristinandreassen.com

Laura Cortese has built a distinguished career as an Americana fiddler, songwriter and vocalist. She is now one of the most in-demand musical collaborators on the folk circuit. She grew up in San Francisco, CA and moved to Boston, MA to study at Berklee College of Music, immersing herself in the city's vibrant indie music scene and enjoying a busy touring-and-studio career which included appearances with Band of Horses at Carnegie Hall and Pete Seeger at Newport Folk Festival. She tours internationally with her band, the Dance Cards. The group is bold and elegant, schooled in the lyrical rituals of folk music and backed by grooves that alternatively inspire Cajun two-stepping and rock ’n’ roll hip swagger. Laura Cortese & the Dance Cards have appeared at venues and festivals throughout the US, UK, Sweden, Canada, India, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Estonia, Montenegro, Greece and Bangladesh pairing sophisticated string arrangements (two fiddles, cello & bass) and rich vocal harmonies with poignant and powerful singing. www.thisislauracortese.com

Lauren Balthrop is a multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter born and raised in Alabama where her family gatherings always included sing-alongs of the Everly Brothers, the Andrew Sisters, the Louvin Brothers, and the Beatles. After 10 years making her way in NYC, she heard the siren call of Nashville where she now calls home. Lauren has one solo album released with another one due out this year. This year, she partnered with NYC’s Blue Balloon Songwriting School to open her own music school in Nashville where she teaches the young ones to express themselves through songwriting. Her big folk-rock band and "small town" with her brother called Balthrop, Alabama toured all across the states to a cultish following. Her 60's inspired girl group, The Bandana Splits, has released two records with songs landing on shows such as HBO's 'Bored to Death'. She's also toured extensively as a multi-instrumentalist for Elizabeth & the Catapult and Ximena Sariñana. Lauren is a knitter and tap dancer too! www.laurenbalthrop.com

Zachariah Hickman is a double bassist, multi-instrumentalist and producer based out of Boston, MA. Originally from Lynchburg, VA, he received his formal training in jazz performance and composition from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. For most of his adult life he has toured with singer-songwriter Josh Ritter, traveling all over the world and recording 7 full-length albums. Currently, he is performing as bassist and musical director for Ray Lamontagne. He has performed at many notable venues and festivals, including Carnegie Hall, Radio City Music Hall, Red Rocks, Bonnaroo, Dublin Castle, The Fillmore, and the Royal Albert Hall. With Josh Ritter, he has also performed with the Boston Pops in Symphony Hall, the New York Pops in Central Park, and many other orchestras in Europe and the United States. Television appearances include five David Letterman appearances, Conan O’Brien, Ellen Degeneres, and Late Night with Jools Holland for the BBC. As a producer, Zachariah as made records with a number of talented singers, including Rose Cousins (for which he won a Canadian JUNO award), Mark Erelli, Laura Cortese, Miss Tess, and his own bluegrass band Barnstar! He has also produced and ring-mastered his own circus, released his own brand of mustache wax, and runs a vaudeville style variety show, Zack Hickman’s House of Ill Repute. www.wearebarnstar.com

Olivia Hally + Pepita Emmerichs are Oh Pep!. They met at the Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School as classical musicians when Liv moved from the island to the city as a 16yo kid. Since then they have studied at the University of Melbourne (Liv as a classical guitarist, Pep as a jazz violinist) and taken on the world as a pop duo. They have also spent time learning Appalachian Mountain Music from the greats in Tennessee, North Carolina and West Virginia and perform this music as Fat Cousin Skinny. They've joined a pop punk group with Angie McMahon called Good Option and performed their original music all over the world as Oh Pep!. They’ve been on tour with the Mountain Goats, Billy Bragg, Valerie June, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Nightsweats, Lord Huron, Martha Wainwright, Lake Street Dive + some more. They've written with Ron Sexsmith, Valerie June, Joel Quartermain + some more. Liv is currently writing music for a play in NYC and Pepi sessions for various groups. They’ve got a supportive team around them of booking agents, record labels, management and a worldwide publishing deal with Sony ATV. In 2016 they released their debut album, Stadium Cake, and highly regarded tastemakers like NPR, The New York Time and Rolling Stone, all said nice things about them. They have facilitated songwriting and music business workshops with Woodford Folk Festival, the National Folk Festival and state government initiative, FReeZA. Liv is currently secretary of Folk Alliance Australia and focuses her time on their national youth development program. They each teach individually and like learning new things themselves. www.ohpep.com

Sean Staples has been a presence on the vibrant Cambridge/Somerville MA music scene for over 20 years. As a member of The Resophonics, Tim Gearan Band, Todd Thibaud Band, The Benders, and Session Americana, he's performed on every big stage and dimly-lit corner pub in town. He's won three Boston Music Awards as a member of the year's Outstanding Folk Act, Americana Act, and Ongoing Live Residency. He's produced and appeared on dozens of recordings, and maintains a busy schedule playing down the street and overseas. Sean is an original member of the long-running Sub Rosa Three Mile Island songwriting retreat and, as a result, is very familiar with the culture of collaboration and encouragement that embraces you when your bags land on the dock. He's good at music, less good at self promotion and finds writing about himself in the third person a little odd. 

Dietrich Strause’s songs are a mix of timeless melody, literate lyricism, and a "virtuosic command of imagery.” (The Artery, WBUR) In less than one year, Strause released two albums -- How Cruel That Hunger Binds and Dietrich Strause & The Blue Ribbons -- proving himself to be one of the most prolific and eclectic writers and performers coming out of New England.

His blend of mid-century modern pop and atomic-age folk has drawn comparisons to M. Ward and a young Paul Simon and has garnered him invitations to support folk luminaries such as Anais Mitchell and Sarah Jarosz, to indie pop acts like Great Lake Swimmers and Lake Street Dive. This fall he spent three months living in London and touring extensively throughout the UK & Ireland by train and foot, writing material for his next release. More information can be found at www.dietrichstrause.com.

Valerie Thompson is a native of Kansas City, MO. She began classical cello studies at the age of ten, and is a graduate of Berklee College of Music with a B.M. in music performance. She has performed in the Czech Republic as a participant of the Ameropa Chamber Music Festival, at the Banff International Youth Symphony Festival in Alberta, and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine with the Berklee String Orchestra. When not freelancing or teaching cello, Valerie can be heard in any of her fine musical projects FLUTTR EFFECT, the Yurodivy Quintet, and the Ephemeral Duet. www.valeriethompson.com

Sean Trischka is a drummer and singer/songwriter living in Boston, Massachusetts. Playing a wide range of styles, from folk to pop to heavy metal, Sean tours nationally and internationally with many groups, including The Stray Birds, Oh Pep!, The Stash Band, and Lula Wiles. His own project, Corporate Punk, combines pop music with jam band sensibilities and is releasing its debut album in early 2018. www.mycorporatepunk.com

Kelley Anderson is a multi-instrumentalist and sound artist based in Memphis, Tennessee. She studied jazz guitar at the South Carolina Governor’s School for Arts & Humanities and earned a Bachelor’s in Recording Industry Management from Middle Tennessee State University. She uses her experience in sound engineering to create unique textures, incorporating those soundscapes into more traditional song structures of the American musical canon. 

Anderson founded and toured internationally with the band Those Darlins, releasing two full-length albums and several singles with the group. She later recorded and toured as the Grand Strand, releasing a 7" record on Riot House Records and securing an opening spot on a tour for Richard Lloyd of the band Television. She founded the Southern Girls Rock Camp in 2003 and Youth Empowerment through Arts & Humanities (YEAH!) in 2006 to empower more young people through music.

She has shared a stage with a who-who’s of American rock, blues, country, folk and pop legends as wide ranging as John Fogerty, Jon Spencer, Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys and Wanda Jackson. She currently performs under the name Crystal Shrine, a project in which she uses various sounds to produce eerie, Southern gothic folk and pop songs.

Born and raised in southwest Virginia, Sam Gleaves performs innovative mountain music with a sense of history.  Sam carries on the ballads and dance music he learned from numerous mentors in the Appalachian tradition including multi-instrumentalist Jim Lloyd and ballad singer Sheila Kay Adams. In 2015, Sam collaborated with producer Cathy Fink and released a debut record of original songs, titled Ain’t We Brothers, which has been featured by The Old Time Herald, the Guardian, National Public Radio, No Depression, and The Bluegrass Situation. In 2016, Sam toured in the UK supporting Peggy Seeger and in the US opening for John McCutcheon.  Sam tours extensively in the U.S. performing with fellow Southwest Virginia musician Tyler Hughes. The duo released a self-titled record in 2017 and their recording of Hughes' original song "When We Love" was featured by the Huffington Post.  Cathy Fink, Marcy Marxer and Sam perform as Fink, Marxer and Gleaves and in 2017, the trio performed at the Coolidge Auditorium at the Library of Congress. Appalachian novelist Lee Smith has heralded Sam as “the best young songwriter around . . courageous as hell and country to the bone.”  Sam teaches individual lessons in clawhammer banjo, guitar, dulcimer and fiddle and he has taught at many music camps, including the Augusta Heritage Center Vocal Week in Elkins, WV, Common Ground on the Hill Tradition Week at McDaniel College in Westminster, MD and Mountain Music School at Mountain Empire Community College in Big Stone Gap, VA. In 2016, author Silas House and Sam collaborated in writing the folk opera IN THESE FIELDS, commissioned by the Southern Foodways Alliance.  As a songwriter, Sam draws on his love of traditional music to tell stories from contemporary Appalachia and give voice to social issues through song.  

Originally from the North of England, Joy Askew has made New York City her home for over 30 years. In the 80s and 90s Joy led her own band as lead vocalist/keyboardist developing her songwriting to become a writer for Quincy Jones Music Publishing. During this time she also played and toured in the bands of such luminary artists as Joe Jackson, Peter Gabriel, Laurie Anderson, Rodney Crowell and Jack Bruce and appeared in Laurie Anderson's quintessential movie “Home Of The Brave”.

In the last few years Joy has focused on her own records and inspired by memories of growing up in Newcastle, Joy recorded her latest album, “Queen Victoria” in Yorkshire England with The Brighouse & Rastrick Band, the most famous traditional British Brass Band. It was released in 2017.

Joy teaches voice at Stevens Institute of technology and has coached many artists in the recording studio and in preparation for tours & recording.