Lightnin’ Luke & Yes Ma’am
Soulful, passionate, and sincere are the words used most frequently when describing Portland-raised Lightnin’ Luke. Singer, songwriter, and violinist, Luke’s bluesy vocals, heartfelt lyrics, and wild fiddle playing have made him a versatile musical force. Lightnin’ plays fiddle in the Bridge City Sinners and currently is located in Charleston, SC. Born from the swamps and underpasses of the American South, Yes Ma’am merges Depression Era blues, Jazz and Bluegrass with instrumental virtuosity and the raw, emotional storytelling of early punk rock. Matt’s soulful voice and authentic stage presence have made him a muse for the traveling community and solidified his legendary status as street-corner royalty. His sound has shaped a generation of musicians, whether he’s performing solo or with a rotating ensemble of folk punk’s finest. Yes Ma’am is a force that demands attention.
David Huckfelt
A Honky Tonk Hootenanny Hellraiser
Silent auction from 3pm – 6pm
Josiah and the Bonnevilles
Josiah Leming has paid his dues. As a teenager from East Tennessee, his devotion to music led him to hit the road, where he lived in his car and played for anyone who would listen. That took him all the way to a major record deal when he was only nineteen. When that ended, he refused to give up and became an indie artist, relying solely on the music and his undeniable gift for crafting relatable songs that led to a devoted fan base he calls the Bonnevilles. He appreciates them so much that he includes them in his artist name. “They’re the reason I’m able to make music,” he says. 2024 saw Josiah and the Bonnevilles reaching new heights, completing a headlining tour of thirty-three sold-out dates followed by a slew of international stops that proved his global following. He has become known for raw emotion and a profound connection to his audience. This newfound attention has led to much anticipation for his new album — and As Is lives up to the expectations. His tenth studio album finds him going more electric than ever before, even as he unplugs from the digital world. “I feel like a grizzled old veteran at this point,” he says, even though he is only thirty-six. “I’m desiring quiet, a work space away from the internet…I felt like it was important to pull back this last year and try to understand what’s on my heart.” What he found there resulted in an album focusing on joy, sorrow, and working-class issues that feel very of the moment in a time when so many Americans are struggling to make ends meet. Leming comes by his empathy for working people honestly. He’s one of nine siblings, born and raised in Morristown, Tennessee, right in the heart of Appalachia. He taught himself piano when he was eight and was writing songs by thirteen. As a child he was intently aware of his community and intensely proud of his people, something he thinks about even more in these trying times. “I look at my I look at my folks in East Tennessee and very few of them seem to be winning in this new world,” Leming says. “Being a regular person, working, trying your best. I think that’s something to be proud of.” His records have always been intensely personal. But on As Is he wanted to step away from being the main character and instead use vignettes to express essential truths he has learned. “I want anyone to be able to put it on and not think about me when they’re listening. I want them to be in the emotion.” Because of this he made a conscious choice to not include himself on the album cover. The songs on As Is feature Leming’s vivid sense of place, precise yet poetic lyrics, and emotion that is always longingly expressed by his vulnerable vocals. This collection is more up-tempo than most of his work, which is something Leming and Snyder strived to make happen on about half the songs. “I was thinking a lot about the energy, of having a couple songs that can amp up people at live shows,” he says. They all make for a collection of songs that take the listener full circle. “There’s all these kinds of love stories, and it walks through many variations on heartbreak, ultimately landing on home, acceptance and overcoming that hurt. I just want people to be able to see themselves in the songs.” As Is proves to be all of that, and more, a milestone for one of our most authentic and resonant artists working today.
James McMurtry and the Martial Law Review
James McMurtry released The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy on June 20th via New West Records. The 10-song collection was co-produced by McMurtry & Don Dixon (R.E.M., The Smithereens) and is his first album in four years. It follows his 2021 acclaimed new West debut, The Horses and the Hounds, which UnCut Magazine said “lifts storytelling-in-song to meticulous new levels” and Pitchfork awarded an 8.0, saying “James McMurtry stands out even among the Lone Star State’s finest songwriters…” The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy features appearances by Sarah Jarosz, Charlie Sexton, Bonnie Whitmore, Bukka Allen and more, alongside his trusted backing band, THE MARTIAL LAW REVIEW, Tim Holt on guitar and accordion, Cornbread on bass and Daren Hess on drums. As varied as they are, McMurtry’s new story-songs find inspiration in scraps from his family’s past: a rough pencil sketch by Ken Kesey that serves as the album cover, the hallucinations experienced by his father, the legendary writer Larry McMurtry, an old poem by a family friend. A supremely insightful and inventive storyteller, McMurtry teases vivid worlds out of small details, setting them to arrangements that have elements of Americana but sound too sly and smart for such a general category. Funny and sad often in the same breath, The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy adds a new chapter to a long career that has young songwriters like Sarah Jarosz and Jason Isbell cite him as a formative influence.
Buffalo Traffic Jam
Buffalo Traffic Jam is a folk band born in the heart of Bozeman, Montana, where its members, Frankie Cassidy and Nathan Ross, first crossed paths as students at Montana State University. United by a love for storytelling and the raw beauty of acoustic sound, they began crafting music that evokes wide-open landscapes and the emotions that live quietly beneath the surface of everyday life. The result was a self-titled debut EP followed by singles “Rescue Me” and “Forgot Your Roots,” the latter of which saw the band gain their first bit of online momentum, leading to explosive growth in the past 3 months. Their newest release, the Take Me Home EP, marks a defining moment in Buffalo Traffic Jam’s evolution—showcasing a deeper, more expansive sound while staying grounded in the heartfelt lyricism and raw instrumentals that first won them fans. The project weaves together themes of resilience, nostalgia, and self-discovery, subjects that have become commonplace in the songwriting of Buffalo Traffic Jam. Since its release on Oct. 24, the EP has picked up over 8 million streams across DSP’s. In 2025 Buffalo Traffic Jam made their festival debuts at Under the Big Sky, Redwest Fest, and went on tour with country singer-songwriter Dylan Gossett. From dorm room jam sessions to packed venues across the US, Buffalo Traffic Jam has stayed true to their roots.
Dean Johnson
With I Hope We Can Still Be Friends, his debut for Saddle Creek, Dean Johnson makes a pact with the listener: He will sing you his truth in the most heartfelt and charming way possible, if you promise to keep an open mind. The title partly stems from the playful way the Seattle-based singer, songwriter and guitarist communes with his audiences at concerts. “I hope you’re not afraid to talk to me after the show,” he’ll say, sweetly, before launching into “Death of the Party,” the album’s seventh song. Centered on the “energy vampire” archetype — the exasperating windbag we’ve all encountered at some point — its lyrics are at once intellectually biting and unmistakably hilarious. His tender voice rings out like the ghost of Roy Orbison or a misfit Everly brother. Johnson spent years tending bar at Al’s Tavern in Seattle’s Wallingford neighborhood. There, he encountered folks of all stripes; and regulars enthusiastically murmured about his budding musical greatness — There’s the best songwriter in town! Johnson was a kind of local lore, a long-held family secret, before the singer finally broke out in 2023 with his debut album, Nothing For Me Please, at age 50. I Hope We Can Still Be Friends is essentially an anthology that bridges Johnson’s earliest days as a songwriter with his present-day outlook and abilities. There are songs that have been in his setlists for years, and others that will be new to fans. Each of its 11 tracks contains jocular social commentary or lovingly rendered affairs of the heart. The album’s songs about love and relationships offer another way to interpret its title: as a parting thought to an ex. Like all of Johnson’s cable-knit writing, the title is a clever banner for the album’s dual nature, the thing that binds its tragedy and comedy masks. Johnson explains that he didn’t set out to make a concept album. It’s a coincidence that about half of the album’s songs are a bit sardonic, and the other half are more lighthearted. I Hope We Can Still Be Friends floats in a liminal plane between timely and timeless, its minimalist instrumentation elevating Johnson’s affecting voice to new heights. Recorded at Unknown Studio in Anacortes, Washington, the record was produced by Sera Cahoone — the Seattle-based singer-songwriter Johnson describes as a “soulmate sibling.” Overdubbing took place at Seattle’s Crackle & Pop! For the sessions, Johnson assembled a small band of friends including Abbey Blackwell (bass, backing vocals), multi-instrumentalist Sam Peterson and Cahoone (drums, backing vocals), who created a familial tone on the already intimate album. I Hope We Can Still Be Friends, with its sharp observations and stirring personal insights, holds space for both intense reflection and emotional release. You may laugh, or cry or both. In this sense, the album is powerful medicine — a way to both expose yourself to and inoculate yourself against the ugly, absurd, existential and heartbreaking. At its core rests a basic truth that is often difficult to remember or accept: Happiness wouldn’t exist without sadness as its counterpart. On his uncanny ability to so clearly see and then encapsulate humanity in all its messy glory, Johnson offers this core memory, drawn from his childhood on Camano Island in the Puget Sound. “I was raised on a bluff,” he says. “I’m not trying to make it sound dramatic, but I did have a sweeping view.”
Leo Kottke
Acoustic guitarist Leo Kottke was born in Athens, Georgia, but left town after a year and a half. Raised in 12 different states, he absorbed a variety of musical influences as a child, flirting with both violin and trombone, before abandoning Stravinsky for the guitar at age 11. After adding a love for the country-blues of Mississippi John Hurt to the music of John Phillip Sousa and Preston Epps, Kottke joined the Navy underage, to be underwater, and eventually lost some hearing shooting at lightbulbs in the Atlantic while serving on the USS Halfbeak, a diesel submarine. Kottke had previously entered college at the U of Missouri, dropping out after a year to hitchhike across the country to South Carolina, then to New London and into the Navy, with his twelve string. “The trip was not something I enjoyed,” he has said, “I was broke and met too many interesting people.” Discharged in 1964, he settled in the Twin Cities area and became a fixture at Minneapolis’ Scholar Coffeehouse, which had been home to Bob Dylan and John Koerner. He issued his 1968 recording debut LP Twelve String Blues, recorded on a Viking quarter-inch tape recorder, for the Scholar’s tiny Oblivion label. (The label released one other LP by The Langston Hughes Memorial Eclectic Jazz Band.) After sending tapes to guitarist John Fahey, Kottke was signed to Fahey’s Takoma label, releasing what has come to be called the Armadillo record. Fahey and his manager Denny Bruce soon secured a production deal for Kottke with Capitol Records. Kottke’s 1971 major-label debut, “Mudlark,” positioned him somewhat uneasily in the singer/songwriter vein, despite his own wishes to remain an instrumental performer. Still, despite arguments with label heads as well as with Bruce, Kottke flourished during his tenure on Capitol, as records like 1972’s “Greenhouse” and 1973’s live “My Feet Are Smiling” and “Ice Water” found him branching out with guest musicians and honing his guitar technique. With 1975’s Chewing Pine, Kottke reached the U.S. Top 30 for the second time; he also gained an international following thanks to his continuing tours in Europe and Australia. His collaboration with Phish bassist Mike Gordon, “Clone,” caught audiences’ attention in 2002. Kottke and Gordon followed with a recording in the Bahamas called “Sixty Six Steps,” produced by Leo’s old friend and Prince producer David Z. Kottke has been awarded two Grammy nominations; a Doctorate in Music Performance by the Peck School of Music at the U of Wisconsin, Milwaukee; and a Certificate of Significant Achievement in Not Playing the Trombone from the U of Texas at Brownsville with Texas Southmost College.
The Talbott Brothers
The Talbott Brothers, hailing from the heartland of Imperial, Nebraska, embody the heart and soul of Americana, Folk/Rock, Soul, Blues and Country with their blue-collar grit and unapologetic authenticity. Grounded in the character of their rural upbringing, brothers Nick and Ty Talbott have built a name for themselves with their soul-stirring lyrics, sibling blood harmonies, and rich melodies that represent the ebbs and flows of life.
Socks In The Frying Pan – CANCELLED
Socks in the Frying Pan are a multi-award winning trio from County Clare on the West coast of Ireland, the universal hub of Irish traditional music. Their dynamic vocal harmonies, virtuosic musical ability and their onstage wit has captured and captivated audiences the world around. One of the most sought after groups in Irish music today, the worldwide ‘Sock Invasion’ continues! This youthful trio blend Irish traditional melodies with their own personal flair which has gained them critical acclaim and accolades including ‘New Band of the Year’ by the Irish Music Association. The group have been embraced in the United States, having been booked by every major Irish festival and praised for their modern traditional style and energetic approach to music. They have a clear love for live performance which only compliments the traditional essence in their shows and makes for a truly unique form of entertainment.