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“PETER MULVEY is reaching for gold with his new record The Silver Ladder, produced by Chuck Prophet. The eclectic range of Mulvey’s tireless past pays handsome dividends on this stylistically sweeping, LA-recorded album. A crack specially convened band (including regular Dylan drummer David Kemper) adhere to his well-established live and direct recording approach and allow the performer’s deeply matured, naturally wry and hard-edged Americana to attain full, flowing life. From the raunchy melodic pop of “Sympathies” through suburban requiem “Remember the Milkman”, the dizzying weirdness of “If You Shoot At A King” and even Led Zeppelin modal thunder on “Copenhagen Airport”, Mulvey’s troubled visions attain striking clarity.” Gavin Martin, Uncut

Davis Enterprise:
“The cream of the crop sings with a clarity reserved for the likes of legends.”

Boston Globe:
“Peter Mulvey is all substance, which is his style.”

JOHN STATZ recorded his new album with an all-star band in the middle of a Vermont ice storm.  After years of DIY touring everywhere from Eastern Europe to Mexico, the Wisconsinite who now resides in Colorado fell in with fellow Midwesterner Jeffrey Foucault, a critically acclaimed songwriter and veteran of the americana circuit. A fan of Statz’s last album (2012’s Old Fashioned, produced by Bo Ramsey), Foucault offered to produce his next record while the two were on tour together in Colorado.

The resulting Tulsa is beautiful blend of soft americana and smooth folk with echoes of The Jayhawks and Whiskeytown. “John writes songs you can’t shake,” says Foucault. “They follow you around all day and run through your head at 3 a.m. Open hearted, horizon-line songs.”

“Jeff kicked my ass. He pushed me to crank out well-written songs,” continues Statz. “He’s such a great songwriter himself and I felt like I had to step up my game. And then there is the absolutely amazing band…” The band John speaks of features Billy Conway (Morphine) on drums, Mark Spencer (Son Volt) on electric guitars and pedal steel, Jeremy Moses Curtis (Booker T) on bass, Jeffrey Foucault on guitars and vocals, Caitlin Canty singing harmonies and Matt Lorenz on fiddle.

“Tulsa feels like how I was always supposed to make a record. Hunkered down for three days, living and eating with the band, tracking live, all during the raging ‘Polar Vortex’.”

BEN BEDFORD delivers intriguing sketches of America, its individuals, their victories and their struggles. Poignant, but never sentimental, Bedford’s portrait-like songs capture the vitality of his characters and draw the listener deep into the narratives. With three albums to his credit, Bedford’s songs tackle scenarios including homelessness, the plight of a Confederate soldier’s wife during the American Civil War, the aerial triumphs of Amelia Earhart, the life of Jack London, the murder of Emmett Till in 1955, John the Baptist, the poet Vachel Lindsay and even the 1973 standoff between members of The American Indian Movement and federal agents on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Often drawing upon history, Bedford’s songs have a strong sense of time and place. The songs are rich in sensory detail which allows the listener to hear, see and feel each narrative.

A true son of the heartland, Bedford dips into the deep inkwell of classic American literature and writes with the ‘old soul’ quality of his literary idols, such as John Steinbeck and Toni Morrison. All three of Bedford’s albums have charted highly on the Euro Americana charts and the Folk-DJ charts with What We Lost also charting highly on the Roots Music Report charts. IIn July of 2010, Bedford was named one of the “50 most significant Folk singer-songwriters of the past 50 years” by Rich Warren of WFMT-Chicago. The list, which included artists such as Bob Dylan, Townes Van Zandt, Judy Collins and John Prine subsequently appeared on the blog of journalist Eric Zorn on the Chicago Tribune website.

“The Illinois songwriter is a masterful storyteller who can turn what seem like obscure historical references for engaging tales rife with vivid, stark imagery.”
–Erik Ernst, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Lyric-driven songwriter ANNA TIVEL has loved words long before they became the backbone of her music. After moving to Oregon in 2007, she slowly discovered the friendly music scene as a fiddle player, and soon after picked up the guitar and began to write. Her latest album was released in June 2014 on Portland’s well-loved Fluff and Gravy Records. Anna is based in Portland, OR and spends her time reading and writing and touring and fiddling and watching her dog try to catch flies by the window.

“These are organic songs that freely reveal the poetry of the mind, heart, and soul, the sharp imagery of the world translated into sound.” – No Depression

“Anna’s strength is that of a lyricist. Her songs are filled with lines that intrigue and haunt.” – David Steinberg