Over the last eight years, Americana singer-songwriter SARAH MORRIS has been busy building: a family, a band, and a reputation for engaging performances, with a voice both clear and lush. Sarah hails from Minneapolis, Minnesota, where from a young age, music was etched upon her DNA. Morris immersed herself in her parent’s eclectic record collection before finally falling in love with the storytelling and songcraft in country music. The music of Mary Chapin Carpenter, Alison Krauss, and Kathy Mattea changed Sarah’s course entirely.

After graduating from the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music, she wasted no time packing her bags for Nashville. Her years in Music City instilled a traditional songwriting sensibility fully on display over the course of her recent albums: 2017’s Hearts in Need of Repair, and 2015’s Ordinary Things. Both albums earned international airplay, reached the top 100 of the Americana Music Associations radio chart, and critical acclaim. Sarah was a winner of the 2018 Kerrville New Folk competition in Kerrville, TX. Additionally, she was a top 4 finalist in The NewSong Music Contest at Lincoln Center in NYC (January 2016), took 2nd place at the 2016 Chris Austin Songwriting Competition at MerleFest in Wilkesboro, NC, and her song, “Brighter” was a 2016 Americana semi-finalist in the International Songwriting Competition.

In addition to Sarah’s solo project, she is one half of Americana duo, The Home Fires, featuring Vicky Emerson.

“Sarah Morris [is] a bright, clear, brilliant songwriter. There are those albums you hear once in a while that just sound right, just pure and crisp and perfect and they make you think well, here’s someone with a…gift.” Jon Hunt, L‘Etoile Magazine

“And what a voice it is, never showy or seeking the limelight, just impressive within the requirements of the song and that in itself, in this day and age, is a rare thing. It is that restraint, coupled with the room to breath that the songwriting affords her that makes her shine so brightly.” – Dancing About Architecture

BEN BEDFORD

“Certainly one of the best young singer-songwriters working today.”-Rob Adams, The Herald-Scotland

“Ben Bedford has proven himself to be a truly inspired and talented storyteller…” according to Arthur Wood (Maverick). Bedford establishes himself as a songwriter in the tradition of musical icons ranging from Bill Morrissey to Woody Guthrie, casting individual people in the theater of the American landscape. 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.

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

In the past twelve years since the release of his first album, Bedford has played his songs for audiences all over the United States hitting notable venues such as The Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, Folkstage in Chicago, and the Fayetteville Roots Festival in Fayetteville, Arkansas. His music has received extensive airplay on folk and roots radio in the U.S., as well as in Europe, taking him overseas on several occasions for concert dates on the continent and in the United Kingdom. Notable dates there include Izzy Young’s famed Folklore Centrum in Stockholm, Sweden, Toogenblik in Brussells, Belgium, and The Green Note in London, England. Bedford’s albums have charted highly on the Euro Americana charts and the Folk-DJ charts and his music has been played on National Public Radio’s Car Talkand featured in The Sounding Board, the official newsletter of the renowned C.F. Martin Guitar Company. In addition to independent terrestrial stations, Bedford’s music has received extensive airplay from syndicated programs such as “River City Folk” (syndicated by WFMT), “The Midnight Special” (syndicated by WFMT), BBC-Scotland, and the SIRIUS XM station “The Village”, all helping to gain Bedford a wider geographical audience.

In 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 also included Bob Dylan, Townes Van Zandt, Anais Mitchell, Joni Mitchell, and John Prine.

In May of 2018, Bedford was named one of the six Grassy Hill Kerrville New Folk winners at the Kerrville Folk Festival in Texas.

Bedford has recorded five studio albums: Lincoln’s Man (2007), Land of the Shadows (2009), What We Lost (2012), The Pilot and the Flying Machine (2016), and The Hermit’s Spyglass (2018).

He will spend 2019 and 2020 touring in support of The Hermit’s Spyglass.