In the modern musical landscape, it’s rare to hear something as put-together as Cascadian folk duo West My Friend - something so layered, deeply symphonic, baroque, and mysterious in its own winking way while still courting an edge of disaster. Simple is safe, but complex is fiery, intricate, and ultimately more rewarding.

Steeped in the visual styles of western Canada, West My Friend are Eden Poynter (Guitar, Vocals) and Jeff Poynter (Accordian, Vocals). They are veterans of the Victoria music scene and recently released their Independent Music Awards-nominated fourth album “In Constellation”.

With over 750 performances and countless tours under their belt, West My Friend is bringing forth a new sound you’ve never known you’ve wanted and new meaning to the things you’ve never known you needed.

Website: http://www.westmyfriend.com/

Videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAtAvAkocbc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPxd5FOKpxg

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Tish Hinojosa is a Mexican-American Singer Songwriter born in San Antonio Texas and living most recently in Austin, Texas. She is the youngest of 13 children born to two Mexican immigrants who, as stated in her song “West Side of Town,” “made a good life the hard way…”

Her songs blend the genres of country, folk and Hispanic music in a way that can only be described as a musical melting pot; unique and insightful.  She sings and writes in Spanish and English and has many bilingual songs, including a full album of children’s songs that has often been used by teachers as a tool for teaching the Spanish language. The Chicago Tribune put it succinctly “Simply put, Hinojosa is a first-class songwriter.”

Hinojosa started playing guitar and singing in her early years of high school at 14. She was influenced by her Mexican parents’ kitchen radio with its eclectic Latino programming, her older sisters sixties records and the seventies folk rock she grew up with.  By the time she started college she was playing gigs at local coffee houses and student gatherings on campus.

In 1979 she was invited to sing at the Kerrville Folk Festival, but was also required to present some original songs. Even though she had never written before, she won the New Folk Songwriters contest that year and launched her career as a writer.

Website: https://www.mundotish.com/

Videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rU-3R0q-cm4

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Whiskey Deaf performs bluegrass, old-time and early country, mostly drawn from early pioneers in the music, and brings to the stage many years of professional experience and skill.

Their shows are always spontaneous, entertaining, and joyous, and feature exciting instrumental work and a unique repertoire of interesting songs and tunes.

Website: https://whiskeydeaf.com/home

Videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLHRSwUuLQE&t=2s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2obrtsPjkc

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Americana artist Kelly Brightwell and folk-rocker Woody Moran serve up catchy melodies and heartfelt messages with their collection of Eclectic Acoustic folk-rock tunes.  This Portland, Oregon-based act released their first EP under the project name  “Radio Stranger” in 2016.  Their follow up release scored high marks from Music Connection Magazine in November 2017, and they were included in the year's Best Unsigned Bands. That same year, they had an Official Showcase at the Folk Alliance Region-West Conference, and opened for David Wilcox's only Portland appearance.

Brightwell & Moran are the Global Award winners of the 2022 Talent is Timeless Songwriting Contest, and just released their Abbey Road recording of the winning song “Bare Boards”.  “Land of Plenty”, their newest recording, came out as a full EP in Spring 2023.  Brightwell & Moran perform as a duo and a full band in the Pacific Northwest region, playing house concerts, listening rooms and festival stages. 

Website: https://brightwellandmoran.com/

Videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WU6Gl5M8PS4&t=27s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQOUVPEodpA

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Fadin’ by 9 is a collection of many musical streams, converging into the great river of bluegrass. As long as there’s a driving beat, interesting lyrics, places to harmonize and show off tasty licks Together going on 18 years now, they pull from our various musical histories, from traditional bluegrass to more contemporary tunes that, in Seth’s words, “were really bluegrass tunes from the beginning, but never knew it until we got to them.” Come find out what they mean at an upcoming show.

Fadin' by 9 artists are: Seth Moran, Joe Lapidus, Dave Irwin, and Ben Shafton.

Website: https://www.fadinby9.com/

Videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axx4bEovzVU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1agqoIp6i4

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John Batdorf is a singer-songwriter solo artist and one half of Las Vegas Rock and Roll Hall Of Famers folk-rock duo Batdorf & Rodney and 70’s hit band Silver whose hit song Wham Bam became a part of the Guardians Of The Galaxy ll blockbuster movie. He’s also a successful film and TV composer, session vocalist, and inspirational musician in the substance recovery community.

In his five-decade career, he’s worked with icons such as Ahmet Ertegun, David Geffen, Clive Davis, Roger Birnbaum, Adele, James Horner, Jimmie Haskell, Bill Conti, Bob Ezrin, Tom Werman, Bill Halverson, America, Rod Stewart, Dave Mason, Donna Summer, Dwight Yoakum, David Lee Roth, and Motley Crüe, plus many others. In the realm of film and TV incidental music, he’s lent his voice and compositional skills to beloved shows such as Tom and Jerry Kids, Garfield and Friends, Touched By An Angel, Promised Land, and Doctor, Doctor, and Book of Days. Most recently Wham Bam, a hit by John’s band Silver in 1976 is now part of the soundtrack to Guardians Of The Galaxy ll. With legendary Utah-based singer, composer, and filmmaker, Michael McLean, under Batdorf & McLean, he’s launched a unique substance abuse survival platform, and released the CD Soundtrax2Recovery.

Batdorf has also released new music collaboratively with his old partner Mark Rodney and James Lee Stanley. Since 2004, he’s released nine solo albums on his own imprint, BATMAC MUSIC.

Since 2017, John has released three new CDs including, Me and My Guitar, a 17-song rearranged and unplugged collection of songs John has recorded in his 52 year career, Last Summer and An Extraordinary Ordinary Life, Side ll, I’ll Let Roy’s Song Carry Me Home, and latest release, I’m Not Givin’ Up, were all written, recorded and released during the great pandemic of 2020/2023.

Website: https://johnbatdorfmusic.com/

Videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTmFtMHXxA8&t=1762s

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Julianna Waters and Barry Crannell are Heart & Hammer…and we're not youngsters. We're seasoned songwriters who pull the audience into a quirky world with rich lyrics, engaging musicality, honest emotion and ribald humor. We combine original music with tasteful, re-worked cover tunes like Stephen Foster's “Oh Susanna,” and Tom Petty's “Face in the Crowd.”

We perform throughout the Pacific Northwest in venues such as The Portland Summer Concert Series, Artichoke Music, Portland FolkMusic Society, The Leavenworth Coffee House, City of Lake Oswego Concerts and the Ridgefield Liberty Theater. We are house concert favorites from Seattle, Washington to the San Francisco Bay Area.

We're winners and finalists of the Kerrville New Song Contest, Wildflower Songwriting Contest, The Great American Song Contest, The Mountain Stage New Song Contest, and Mike Pinder's International Song Contest. We were featured lyricists in American Songwriter Magazine, winners of a Regional Arts and Culture Council Grant and featured on the Oregon Literary Review.

Heart & Hammer Rules of Engagement: Size doesn't matter. We play for anyone and promise a great performance; Tuned instruments required, in particular, the banjo; Audience equates to family; If you laugh, we've done our job; If you cry, we've done our job; If you're offended, Barry wrote it; We are approachable, responsible, flexible and on time; Minstrels should never take themselves too seriously; Broken string? Keep playing; Power outage? Play louder.

Website: http://www.reverbnation.com/heartandhammer

Videos: https://www.facebook.com/HeartandHammerMusic/videos/337079811727921

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Tom May has been an important part of the North American folk music scene for four decades, and continues to perform and organize events, including Winterfolk, the annual benefit concert for Sisters of the Road in Portland. Tom is also the founder and host of the nationally-syndicated live radio program, River City Folk.

Writing and playing his own music, and eloquently interpreting the songs of others; sharing through his music history, romance, and his travels with audiences throughout the U.S., Canada and overseas in concert halls and clubs; hosting and performing weekly on the national radio/TV program River City Folk; that is just a glimpse at some of the highlights of Tom May's more than 40 years as a professional folksinger.

Originally from the plains of Nebraska, Tom has called Toronto, Boston, St. Louis, Omaha, and since 1996, the Pacific Northwest, home. On twelve and six string guitars, he accompanies his baritone voice with intricate stylings not often heard in folk music. Stories, humor, and occasionally even the Irish pennywhistle introduce the songs featured in his concerts.

Over 40 years as a professional musician has led Tom May to describe the "true wealth of the music business--the friends that you made and the folks you are lucky enough to have a chance to play for." He has lived a life performing, writing, and promoting this music that he truly believes is "music that makes a difference."

The people who hear Tom are captivated by his unforgettable voice, evocative melodies, the history and romance in his songs,and a warmth that gives his performance a degree of musicality and professionalism unsurpassed in acoustic music.

Website: https://tommayfolk.com/

Videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUIbpEK0RwY

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Why would two of the most talented, zany and widely-respected roots musicians in the United States - both of whom have appeared on Garrison Keilor's Prairie Home Companion - choose to go on the road as a duo? Simple: Mark Graham and Orville Johnson love the magic when they play together as much as their audiences do. "People comment on that all the time," says Orville. "They can tell we're having a good time up there. We play on a lot of different emotions." 

Wry humor, virtuoso harmonica, soulful blues, hot pickin' and sweet country vocals - that's what you get when Orville and Mark combine forces as the Kings of Mongrel Folk. 

Graham's harmonica virtuosity on Irish and American fiddle tunes and his rich, woody sound on clarinet are well-known to fans of Kevin Burke's Open House. Graham's sardonic skewering of contemporary life, in such songs as "I Can See Your Aura and It's Ugly" and "Zen Gospel Singing" have been cult classics for years. His songs have been recorded by many, including the Austin Lounge Lizards, Bryan Bowers, and the Limelighters. 

Orville Johnson, an instrumental gunslinger whom the Seattle Times describes as "player's player," has a gift of finding the "secret ingredient" that makes a song sound letter-perfect, whether it's an R & B tune from New Orleans, a country blues or a jazzy ballad. Orville's guitar, dobro, and quavering, honeyed vocals have seasoned more than two hundred recordings, soundtracks and countless TV and radio commercials. He also produces records and teaches at events like the International Guitar Seminar and Pt. Townsend Country Blues Workshop. He has shared the stage with artists such as Doc Watson, Bonnie Raitt and John Lee Hooker. 

Between the two of them, they have played many of the most coveted gigs in North America and Europe: the Newport Folk Festival and Caffe Lena, out East; South by Southwest, in Texas; the Bay area's Freight and Salvage and Kuumbwa; London's Festival Hall and Glasgow's Celtic Connections Festival, in Europe;and on their home turf, Bumbershoot and the NW Folklife Festival. 

Though they were longtime acquaintances on the Northwest folk scene, it was at a Folklife Festival jam session in 1991 that they hatched their plan to expand their kingdom of mongrel folk nationwide and, yes, even worldwide. Wherever they go, their performances and recordings have inspired raves: 

Website: https://mongrelfolk.com/

Videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHyy6Jt2yXw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyjNQ1MFomU

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