NiiTO, Dylan Innes & the Business, Christian James

NiiTOBased out of Raleigh-Durham, NC, NiiTO has spent the last few years crafting a unique sound while becoming more in tune with themselves and the people of this world. With heavy influences from a variety of genres, they’ve stumbled upon a sound that blurs the lines between R&B, Rock, Pop, Soul, Funk, Jazz, Blues and more. “The more genres we can absorb… the more people we can spread love to” Website | Instagram Dylan Innes & the BusinessDylan Innes believes in making music that is honest, original and that brings feeling to the listener. He is an emerging singer-songwriter, based out of North Carolina. The formation of his independent record label, Unrecordings, as well as leading Boone-based band “80 Unlacey,” provided Dylan with a platform to ultimately pursue his solo work.WebsiteChristian JamesSpotify

Lenny Kaye and Friends: A 50th Anniversary Celebration of Nuggets!

Featuring Lenny Kaye, Peter Buck, Hugo Burnham, Don Dixon, Alejandro Escovedo, Kevn Kinney, James Mastro, Tim Nielsen, Corey Parks, Kelly Reidy, Greg Rice, Luigi Scorcia, Jon Wurster, and Steve Wynn.Join the incomparable Lenny Kaye from The Patti Smith Group and an All-Star band as they celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first Nuggets garage rock compilation at the Cat’s Cradle on Sunday November 12th! Lenny and the band will be playing all the great tunes from the late 1960s Nuggets era, like “Dirty Water” by The Standells, “Pushin Too Hard” by The Seeds and “Gloria” by The Shadows of Knight, plus many, many more. Musicians scheduled to appear include Lenny Kaye (Patti Smith Group), Peter Buck (R.E.M.), Hugo Burnham (Gang of Four), Don Dixon (Arrogance), Alejandro Escovedo (Rank & File, The Nuns) Kevn Kinney (Drivin n Cryin), James Mastro (Ian Hunter’s Rant Band, The Bongos), Tim Nielsen (Drivin n Cryin), Corey Parks (Nashville Pussy), Kelly Reidy, Greg Rice (Backsliders, Terry Anderson), Luigi Scorcia (Johnny Thunders Band, The Wise Guys), Jon Wurster (Mountain Goats, Bob Mould Band), Steve Wynn (Dream Syndicate, The Baseball Project). It will be an amazing once in a lifetime night as the Nuggets 50th Anniversary Celebration comes to North Carolina and The Cat’s Cradle on Sunday November 12th!

Victoria Victoria featuring Charlie Hunter

Tori Elliott’s deep love of harmony is the driving force that shapes her soul-pop musical endeavor, Victoria Victoria. Her craft in songwriting is the seedbed for intricate vocal arrangements, creating a layered, ethereal experience—one that translates dynamically from her albums to her live shows. 2022 saw the release of Victoria Victoria’s album, “To the Wayside,” a collaborative effort with guitarist and producer Charlie Hunter. “Writing these songs with Charlie was an otherworldly experience,” says Elliott, who engineered and produced her lead and background vocals in her home studio. “Arranging these songs for our live show was even more incredible.” Hunter and Elliott teamed up to write glossy anthems of self acceptance such as “Over My Shoulder” and “Move Right On,” and enticing tunes of invitation like “Really Really” and “Keep Up.” January of 2023 marked Victoria Victoria’s debut tour with Charlie Hunter on hybrid guitar, her brother, Noah Elliott, on keys and vocals, her dear friend and collaborator Maia Kamil on vocals, and renowned Memphis drummer George Sluppik. The rhythm section makes for a sturdy foundation for transcendent vocal performances and inviting banter. The charisma and kinship between the band members left listeners with the sense that each Victoria Victoria show is truly a family affair. Website | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube

The Brummies

Independent artists, The Brummies, made up of vocalists and multi-instrumentalists John Davidson and Jacob Bryant, and drummer Trevor Davis, have been playing together in various incarnations since high school, growing up together outside of Birmingham, AL. The members count the Beatles, Elton John, ELO, Blitzen Trapper and My Morning Jacket among their influences, but also have an affinity for sweeping film soundtracks. Their trademark sound evokes the psych-rock vibe of the Sixties and the soft indie-folk of the Nineties, yet possesses a timeless quality all its own. The band has toured domestically and internationally playing with St. Paul & the Broken Bones, Kacey Musgraves, the Wild Feathers, NEEDTOBREATHE, and BANNERS among others. They have played festivals such as Governors Ball, Austin City Limits Fest, Electric Picnic, Bonnaroo, Sloss, MOTM, and Hangout and to date have logged over 30 million streams organically as independent artists. The Brummies debut album Eternal Reach was recorded at Battle Tapes Recording in Nashville with Grammy award-winning engineer Jeremy Ferguson (Cage The Elephant) and co-producer David Hopkins. The album which Billboard magazine states as “gorgeous,” “lush,” and “…an album to be listened to from start to finish,” includes single “Drive Away” featuring Grammy-winner Kacey Musgraves. The Brummies sophomore album, Automatic World was also recorded at Battle Tapes with Jeremy Ferguson engineering and Austin Jenkins (Leone Bridges, Khruangbin, Orville Peck) co producing alongside Jarrad K (Ruston Kelly, ELOHIM) and finished at the Chateau Noire. There are rhythmic guitar riffs straight out the Seventies, hypnotic Moog passages that evoke the electronica of Giorgio Moroder, & even the bright tones of soul music. It exists in those atmospheric notes that soundtrack our subconscious. Automatic World was released on November 13, 2020. The Brummies are currently in the studio and will be releasing new music in 2022 for the highly anticipated 3rd album that will be a new sonic landscape. Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook

Sam Grisman Project presents the music of Garcia/Grisman

FOUR FRIENDS — Sam Grisman, Ric Robertson, Aaron Lipp & Chris J. English — PAYING TRIBUTE TO THE MUSICAL LEGACY OF DAVID “DAWG” GRISMAN & JERRY GARCIAA Note From Sam: “The music that my father David Grisman and his close friend, Jerry Garcia, made in the early 90s (in the house that I grew up in) is not only some of the most timeless acoustic music ever recorded, it also triggers my oldest and fondest musical memories. What I find most inspiring about this material is the way their camaraderie and their love and joy for the music, simply oozes out of each recording. It is also impressive how deeply they get beneath their favorite songs—whether they are originals, covers or traditional/old time tunes—and how expertly that material was curated.My goal in starting Sam Grisman Project is to build a platform for my friends and me to showcase our genuine passion and appreciation for the legacy of Dawg and Jerry’s music. By playing some of their beloved repertoire and sharing the original music that our own collective has to offer, we will also show the impact that this music has had on our own individual musical voices. Ultimately, there is nothing that makes me happier than playing great songs with my best friends and my hope is to share that happiness with audiences all over!”Website | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube

The Hails

Following a string of encounters too strange to be coincidence, Robbie Kingsley, Franco Solari, Dylan McCue, Andre Escobar and Zach Levy came together to form The Hails. Despite first playing in an insular Miami high school music scene, the band officially formed at the University of Florida in Gainesville, turning the tattered carpeting and beer bottle lined shelves of their shitty college house into a distinct, refined sound that is now synonymous with their name.After graduation, the group made the pilgrimage back to their home of Miami, the city that directly influenced the sound of their early shimmering singles “Younger” and “Stay”, debut EP He Seems Upset (2020), and the subsequent Alive in Strange Ways (2021). Recent highlights of the road include holding court at festivals including WonderStruck, Okeechobee and Playground, interspersed between sold-out shows across the state of Florida. The first half of 2022 also saw The Hails join WILLIS for West and East Coast dates.Firing the starting pistol of their next chapter, The Hails released “Exonerate” in October 2022, ushering in a flood of editorial praise from Billboard, Consequence, EARMILK and many others excited by the direction the Miami five-piece is headed in. The same weekend as the single’s release, The Hails took it to the stage of Miami’s infamous III Points Festival, winning the crowd’s energy over with a track that had only been out for 24 hours.In 2023 The Hails plan to release singles building towards a forthcoming debut album, and will continue to build their touring history starting with a southeastern run of shows with The Happy Fits and The Beaches.Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | TikTok

Vedo

R&B singer & platinum-selling songwriter, VEDO.From capturing the attention of R&B megastar Usher on NBC’s The Voice to writing hits for some of the biggest names in music, VEDO has proven he is a voice to be heard with his undeniable talent. The R&B singer & platinum-selling songwriter’s #1 hit, “You Got It,” reached platinum status with the help of fans on TikTok, while his prior albums “VEDO” & “For You” remained on the R&B Charts from their 2019-2020 release. The release of his 5th Studio Album 1320, hailed as his most personal project to date, gives fans the best of his artistry and creativity—from the ultra-sexy climactic record “Juicy” with Ari Lennox to a fan favorite with “Yesterday.”In 2022, VEDO released While You Wait — a joint EP with super producer OG Parker to “hold fans over” while completing his next project and kicked off one of the biggest R&B Releases in 2023, his 13-track 6th Studio Album “Mood Swings.” The sultry, yet edgy, body of work features R&B megastar Chris Brown, who VEDO received a recent Grammy nomination with for his contributions on Warm Embrace. Mood Swings also featured Chicago born Singer-Rapper Tink on another stand-out track, Somebody.The release coincides with an impressive wave of momentum from VEDO’s appearance on the now viral Tiny Desk Concert with his longtime friend and mentor, Usher, who called him one of the greatest voices of this generation. With credits under his belt like Usher & Ella Mai’s “Don’t Waste My Time,” Chris Brown’s “Warm Embrace,” and his own double platinum single “You Got It,” VEDO’s contributions to the R&B Charts are undeniable. Instagram | Twitter

Cosmic Charlie – High Energy Grateful Dead from Athens, GA

“Cosmic Charlie really is a great band – these guys do this music the way it should be done: having the conversation in their own voices.” -David Gans, Grateful Dead archivistCosmic Charlie was born in the musical Mecca of Athens, Georgia. From its summer 1999 inception, the band swiftly cemented its reputation as a band that puts a unique and personal twist on the Grateful Dead catalogue, a Dead cover band for folks that are ambivalent about Dead cover bands. Rather than mimicking the Dead exactly, Cosmic Charlie chooses to tap into the Dead’s energy and style as a foundation on which to build. The result is healthy balance of creativity and tradition, and both the band and its audience are taken to that familiar edge with the sense that, music is actually being MADE here tonight. Moving and shaking even the most skeptical of Deadheads, Cosmic Charlie storms into a town and plays with an energy that eludes other bands, an energy that sometimes eluded the Dead themselves. Those precious moments during Dead jams when the synchronicity is there and all is right with the world, these are moments that Cosmic Charlie relishes and feverishly welcomes with open arms. Clearly, Cosmic Charlie’s audiences are also eager to arrive at those moments, and together with the band, they have indulged in many memorable evenings. Website | Facebook | YouTube

Sydney Sprague

Sydney Sprague is making music for the end of the world. The 30-year-old singer/songwriter, now a resident of Phoenix, Arizona, was encouraged by her parents to pursue songwriting early on. She spent her formative years daydreaming alone in her room (decorated lovingly with Britney Spears and *NSYNC posters) and unknowingly incubating a talent that would ultimately lead to her future music career. Backed by familiar-yet-surprising hooks and hard-hitting, topical lyrics, Sprague’s songwriting continues to evolve. With eyes on contemporaries like her ’90s idols, notably Avril Lavigne, she flawlessly carries that same fire, creativity, and wit into her 2021 release — maybe i will see you at the end of the world. Sprague knew exactly who she wanted to produce her next record: Sam Rosson (Death Cab For Cutie, Mac Miller, Pedro the Lion) at Hall of Justice (Seattle, WA). The album creates a world of Sprague’s own creation: Every detail, down to the apocalyptic artwork, was deliberately painted so that the disparate parts become most vibrant when viewed as a whole. Though not birthed in 2020’s quarantine, the album goes a long way towards helping listeners deal with our new reality. That’s because Sprague can only be authentic: “maybe i will see you at the end of the world is my bucket list all checked off. It was my life goal to make this album at this studio with these people, and now that it’s done, and in your hands/ears — I can breathe easy.” Sprague announced that she had signed with Rude Records in October 2020. With an exciting team by her side, she released two singles — “i refuse to die” and “steve” — both of which received a sweeping of support from the press, notably landing features in Substream, Refinery29, NPR, UPROXX, GIG GOER, Alternative Press, Rock Sound, and Phoenix New Times. ToneDeaf praised Sprague’s outspoken lyrics and mature sound, declaring that the record is perfect “for those in the mood for some introspective indie rock by someone who isn’t afraid of speaking out” and calling ‘steve’ “your next must-listen.” Sydney Sprague’s debut LP — maybe i will see you at the end of the world — dropped February 26th on Rude Records. Her new album, “Somebody in Hell Loves You” is scheduled for release Sept. 15, 2023. Website | Instagram | Twitter | Spotify | YouTube | TikTok

Certainly So + Coyote Island

Genre: Miscellaneous