Robbie Fulks
Seated show. Robbie Fulks is a singer, recording artist, instrumentalist, composer, and songwriter. His current release, Bluegrass Vacation on Compass Records, returns him to his bluegrass roots, with a large group of masterful musicians including Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Justin Moses, Ronnie McCoury, Alison Brown, David Grier, Tim O’Brien, Todd Phillips, John Cowan, Brennen Leigh, Randy Kohrs, Sierra Hull, Stuart Duncan, Shad Cobb, and Chris Eldridge. Across 11 new original songs (and one freewheeling interpretation of the Delmore Brothers), Robbie covers themes like small-town blues, the endurance of childhood memory, inebriation, love, divorce, the role of music in strengthening family bonds, losing a loved one to Alzheimer’s, and bluegrass itself. His most recent release, 2017’s Upland Stories, earned year’s-best recognition from NPR and Rolling Stone among many others, as well as two Grammy® nominations, for folk album and American roots song (“Alabama At Night”). Fulks was born in York, Pennsylvania, and grew up in a half-dozen small towns in southeast Pennsylvania, the North Carolina Piedmont, and the Blue Ridge area of Virginia. He learned guitar from his dad, banjo from Earl Scruggs and John Hartford records. He attended Columbia College in New York City. In 1983 he moved to Chicago and joined Greg Cahill’s Special Consensus Bluegrass Band. He taught music at Old Town School of Folk Music from 1984 to 1996, and worked as a staff songwriter on Music Row in Nashville from 1993 to 1998. His early solo work — Country Love Songs (1996) and South Mouth (1997) — helped define the “alternative country” movement of the 1990s. For most of the present century, Robbie has been playing acoustic music through microphones, which lets him give more attention to his flatpicking and banjo playing, and complements his more sepia-toned subject matter — the slings of time, the troubles of common people. His repertory of traveling players includes folks like Shad Cobb, Missy Raines, Robbie Gjersoe, Jenny Scheinman, Matt Flinner, Don Stiernberg, and Jesse Cobb. However, two non-acoustic recent side projects are his 2018 duo record with Linda Gail Lewis, Wild! Wild! Wild!, an NPR favorite which leans to rock-and-roll and classic country-and-western, and his double-vinyl reinterpretation of the Bob Dylan record Street-Legal, which is titled 16, is musically unbounded and is no one’s favorite. Radio: multiple appearances on WSM’s “Grand Ole Opry”; PRI’s “Whadd’ya Know”; NPR’s “Fresh Air,” “Mountain Stage,” and “World Cafe”; and the syndicated “Acoustic Cafe” and “Laura Ingraham Show.” TV: PBS’s Austin City Limits; NBC’s Today, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, Later with Carson Daly, and 30 Rock. From 2004 to 2008 he hosted an hourlong performance/interview program for XM satellite radio, “Robbie’s Secret Country.” Artists who have covered his songs include Sam Bush, Kelly Hogan, Andrew Bird, Mollie O’Brien, Rosie Flores, John Cowan, and Old 97s. Robbie’s writing on music and life have appeared in GQ, Blender, the Chicago Reader, DaCapo Press’s Best Music Writing anthologies for 2001 and 2004, Amplified: Fiction from Leading Alt-Country, Indie Rock, Blues and Folk Musicians, and A Guitar and A Pen: Stories by Country Music’s Greatest Songwriters. As an instrumentalist, he has accompanied the Irish fiddle master Liz Carroll, the distinguished jazz violinist Jenny Scheinman, and the New Orleans pianist Dr. John. Instagram | Twitter
Jordana
Who is Jordana Nye? And what is her signature sound? It depends on when you ask. The 24-year-old, Maryland-raised songwriter arrived on the music scene with 2020’s Classical Notions of Happiness, an album of lo-fi pop and hushed folk songs recorded in her Maryland & Kansas bedrooms. She’d be back by the end of that same year with Something To Say To You, a compilation of two EPs featuring craggy indie rock and brokenhearted acoustic fare recorded in NYC apartment studios with friends. By 2022 she was swinging for the fences with the pristine pop of Face The Wall, all while shuttling back and forth between Brooklyn and her soon-to-be home of Eagle Rock, LA collaborating on a wide array of projects with a who’s who of Gen Z artists: Magdalena Bay, TV Girl, Yot Club, Paul Cherry, Dent May, Inner Wave. “I don’t think I’ll ever settle on a specific sound,” says Jordana. “I’m just a chameleon.” So her vibrant fourth LP, Lively Premonition, which is equal parts Laurel Canyon folk and shimmering yacht rock, should surprise no one. “Maybe it’s my LA record,” she says of the album she worked on with producer and multi-instrumentalist Emmett Kai for the entirety of 2023. “I can’t pinpoint exactly what affected it, but I do think the sun has its beam on me. Through all of these releases, it’s so cool to see which eras I’ve gone through and what I’ve experimented with,” says Jordana. Though the concept of eras is exhaustingly omnipresent at the moment, Jordana has earned the right to draw the definitive lines between her releases and musical phases. Her current iteration owes a debt to a deep love for artists like The Mamas & The Papas, Carole King, Donald Fagen & Walter Becker – all New Yorkers who, like Jordana, moved out west and found their sounds flourishing. You can hear that newfound confidence on the blissed out opening track “We Get By,” a rollicking folk rock epic brave enough to detour into a forty second violin solo. “I’m fully back on my violin shit and it feels good. I’m so glad I rediscovered the magic of it,” says Jordana of the instrument she studied as a child. “Sometimes you need time away from something to come back to it with open arms.” “The whole record is this mixed bag of tricks with plenty of cheeky lyrical and instrumental decisions,” she says. “We’re taking tons of risks here.” But it’s not just the music that takes risks on Lively Premonition, Jordana’s writing blossoms as well. For the first time ever, the thematic and conceptual preoccupations of her songs stem from stories both real and imagined. “I was actually ushered into a new process of writing I didn’t think I was capable of,” she says. “Making shit up!” On “Like A Dog” a jaunty bassline leads a sunbeam synth and staccato piano stabs under a song about being a dog for someone’s admiration. “I love how theatrical it sounds with the metaphorical humor of being a dog for someone,” says Jordana. “But the breakup songs were straight up for the most part — I don’t fuck around with that.” So ultimately the core of the record comes back to her lived experience: crumbling relationships, a newfound sobriety, finding a place in a new city and people to help build it with her. Instagram | Twitter | Spotify | YouTube | Soundcloud | TikTok
Mercury Rev
Since forming in 1989 in Buffalo, New York, Mercury Rev has made a career of boldly exploring the fringes of artistic perception, channeling colors and sounds and visions that always seem just beyond our mortal reach. The Guardian hailed the group as “a rarity in indie rock: a band who have continually evolved their sound, pushing at the boundaries of what rock music actually means over 25 years, borrowing from jazz, funk, doo-wop, techno, folk and more along the way,” while Rolling Stone praised their “majestic chaos,” and the BBC lauded their “shimmering psychedelic pop, immersive indie-rock, [and] spectacularly engrossing passages of sumptuous instrumentation.” The band’s 1991 debut, ‘Yerself Is Steam,’ landed on Pitchfork’s Best Shoegaze Albums of All Time, and their 1998 breakthrough, ‘Deserter’s Songs’, upon its release was named NME’s Album of the Year, Pitchfork’s 100 Favorite Records of the 1990s (2003),Melody Maker’s All Time Top 100 Albums (2000),Uncut’s 200 Greatest Albums of All Time (2016) and multiple1000 Albums to Hear Before You Die lists. Diverse musical collaborations with legendary artistic luminaries as well as major festival and network television performances around the world have solidified their status as One of America’s most pioneering groups capable of straddling the line between mainstream appeal and progressive musical experimentation… Recorded in the Catskills, the band’s ninth album, Born Horses, is out now on Bella Union. Website | Instagram | Facebook
Sierra Hull
Sierra Hull is widely regarded to be a master of her instrument; A two-time Grammy Nominated artist and songwriter, recognized for both her most recent projects, 25 Trips (2020) and Weighted Mind (2016), she is also the 6x recipient of IBMA’s Mandolin Player of the Year, the first woman to ever receive this distinction. A pioneer for acoustic music throughout her already impressive multi-decade career, she has graced the country’s most iconic stages, including Carnegie Hall, the Grand Ole Opry, and the White House. Her virtuosic abilities have garnered respect from genre-defining trailblazers, friends, and collaborators such as Alison Krauss, Sturgill Simpson, Garth Brooks, Dolly Parton, Béla Fleck, Bobby McFerrin, and Brandi Carlile. Originally hailing from Byrdstown, Tennessee, her unique sound is rooted in bluegrass, and she is widely considered one of acoustic music’s most inventive artists. Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube
Leprous: Melodies of Atonement 2025
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Hovvdy – The Hovvdy Tour
A self-titled statement piece, Hovvdy’s fifth album fits with the comfortable confidence of faded blue jeans. Underlining years of hyper-reflective, deeply-fan-beloved songwriting, the 19-track sequence draws together swirling piano lines and vivid production under the cohesive vision of longtime friends Charlie Martin and Will Taylor. Hovvdy boldly broadens the scope of the Texas duo’s songwriting in a new partnership with Toronto-based outlet Arts & Crafts. The expansive double album presents a true co-production between Hovvdy and their frequent collaborators, Andrew Sarlo (Bon Iver, Big Thief) and Bennett Littlejohn (bassist, multi- instrumentalist). An unprecedented focus on live takes further peels the band’s early slowcore layers to show dazzling dynamic range, from the country feel of “Portrait” to the bombastic drums of “Meant.” Never staying still too long, Hovvdy easily folds introspection into their big, fearless choruses. Always guided with a gentle hand, the listener lands right there in the room, to witness the spontaneous synchronicity of Charlie and Will’s shared songcraft. Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube
MIKE
MIKE is a quintessential old soul. The 24-year-old artist’s wisdom is evident in both his calm delivery and measured questioning, even if he doesn’t always understand the depth of his words until they’re written. “All of these random ideas come to my head, but always end up making sense after it’s done,” the NY-based rapper-producer says about his method. Known for introspective, subtly profound rhymes that explore grief, family, and identity, and melt over muffled, soul-seasoned samples, on his expansive new record Burning Desire MIKE reaches new heights far above the sonic foundation he laid with his previous project. As MIKE’s career flourishes – already spanning numerous critically celebrated albums and tours with artists like Blood Orange, Earl Sweatshirt, The Alchemist, and Freddie Gibbs – his inner world demands nurturing. In a noisy metropolis, it can be hard to see beyond what’s right in front you, to find stillness. “So much shit is happening on surface level, it’s hard to have some idea of external shit outside of that,” MIKE says. The beloved rapper has come a long way from making waves in underground hip-hop circles with the [sLUms] collective—a group of young rappers Adé Hakim, Darryl Johnson, King Carter, Jazz Jodi, and DJ Mason formed in New York in 2015. In 2017 MIKE released his mixtape May God Bless Your Hustle, capturing a singular moment in a city where the only constant is change. It received a Best New Music review from Pitchfork as MIKE started to gain international attention outside of New York City. At the end of 2018 MIKE released his album War In My Pen independently, and followed it up in mid 2019 with Tears of Joy, his second album to be selected for Pitchfork’s Best New Music. MIKE’s Weight of the World, released in 2020, is nearly entirely self-produced, and only contains features from Jadasea and Earl Sweatshirt. It is one of MIKE’s most introspective and sonically diverse releases. Disco! followed Weight of the World, and saw MIKE combine his new style of production with his top tier songwriting and delivery. On his most recent record, Beware of the Monkey, MIKE polished the sound he established with Weight of the World and Disco! and cemented himself as one of the main figures at the front of a new wave of hip hop that is showing early signs of cracking the mainstream – a wave that MIKE himself pioneered. Three weeks ahead of Burning Desire, MIKE released Faith Is A Rock, a collaborative LP with fellow NYC rapper Wiki and legendary producer The Alchemist. The project is a kind of passing of the torch, that sees Alchemist cosign MIKE as the future of hip hop not only within New York but far beyond the city. As producer dj blackpower, MIKE has armed himself with a tapestry of ancestral sound built upon repurposed material, from soulful cuts to archival motifs. The ethos of dj blackpower shows up throughout episodes of IFE Radio, an ecosystem of black sound (Sun Ra, Miles Davis, Roy Ayers, Yesterday’s New Quintet) he hosts, featuring guest conversations and sets from artists like duendita and Frank Dorrey. Bandcamp | Instagram | Twitter | Soundcloud
WXYC Presents: Final Girl: Halloween Night Dance Party
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Mon Rovîa
Mon Rovîa has partnered with PLUS1 so that $1 per ticket goes to supporting Hurricane Helene relief in partnership with Habitat for Humanity of TN. I’m Mon, born in Mon Rovia, Liberia. My life can be summed up by being born into a civil war, escaping the life of a child soldier, rescued by the hands of missionaries. Spent a lot of my developmental years living in a variety of places with a number of life experiences. And then layered on top of all of this is the assimilation I felt being a transracially adopted refugee. My music in a nutshell is a culmination of these experiences blended with the empathy I feel for the experiences with others. The mission of my music is to heal with others — with every nation and tongue, in due time. Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube | TikTok
CG5
CG5 is a 24-year-old prolific singer/songwriter and music producer from Arizona. CG5 has an impressive organic viral following and is well known for his popular YouTube channel which touts over 7.5 Million subscribers. His channel has obtained over 10 BILLION views making CG5 one of the platform’s leading music creators. To date, CG5 has amassed over 1.2 BILLION worldwide streams on Spotify alone accompanied by 2+ Million monthly listeners, and has over 400+ Million streams from his singles; THX, Lonely King, 4GET, Dancin,’ Vibrant Eyes, Good To Be Alive, & I See a Dreamer. In addition, you can find nearly 8 Million video creations on TikTok based on his songs, with 3.5 Million followers on the platform. CG5 is a savage capturer of views and streams by creating catchy music that meets the demands of the masses. Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube | Soundcloud | TikTok
