THE BROTHERS COMATOSE

Whether traveling to gigs on horseback or by tour bus, Americana mavens The Brothers Comatose forge their own path with raucous West Coast renderings of traditional bluegrass, country and rock ‘n’ roll music. The five-piece string band is anything but a traditional acoustic outfit with their fierce musicianship and rowdy, rock concert-like shows.
 
The Brothers Comatose is comprised of brothers Ben Morrison (guitar, vocals) and Alex Morrison (banjo, vocals), Steve Height (bass), Philip Brezina (violin), and Greg Fleischut (mandolin, vocals). When they’re not headlining The Fillmore for a sold-out show or appearing at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, the band is out on the road performing across America, Canada, Australia, and hosting their very own music festival, Comatopia, in the Sierra foothills.

LOS CENZONTLES

Los Cenzontles has pioneered revivals of Mexican roots music in California cultivating traditional rhythms to connect generations. Interpreting traditional, classic, and original songs in their own voices, Los Cenzontles captures the depth, clarity, and living spirit of our heritage with dignity and and care.

 

The band has performed across the United States, Mexico, Cuba, the UK, and the Dominican Republic, sharing the beauty of their Mexican roots all over the world through their media productions. The group’s members were trained at their Cultural Arts Academy and have worked with many Mexican folk musicians and diverse renowned artists as well.

MARGO CILKER

Margo Cilker is a woman who drinks deeply of life, and her debut record Pohorylle, released on Portland label Fluff and Gravy, is brimming with it. For the last seven years, the Eastern Oregon songwriter, who NPR called one of “11 Oregon Artists to Watch in 2021,” has split her time between the road and various outposts across the world, from Enterprise, OR to the Basque Country of Spain, forging a path that is at once deeply rooted and ever-changing.

 

As Pohorylle traverses through the geography of Cilker’s memories—a touring musician’s tapestry of dive bars and breathtaking natural beauty—love is apparent, as is its inevitable partner: loss. For what bigger heartbreak is there than to be a fervent lover who must always keep moving? Cilker seems keenly aware of the precarious footing upon which love stands, and at many turns, the record circles something that is staggeringly beautiful and slipping away. 

QIENSAVE

¿Qiensave? is a Cumbia Urbana group from Salinas California with roots stretching back to Michoacán, Mexico. They create high energy dance music that has fortunately blessed them with the opportunity to travel throughout California, Arizona, Mexico, and Colombia. 

 

¿Qiensave? has existed as a musical entity since 2009, but within the last few years the band has picked up steam by releasing their sophomore album “Mujer” via ONErpm Music, which includes singles produced by world-renowned and Latin Grammy-nominated musician Eric Canales and Platinum Producer Sam Pura, and touring which has given ¿Qiensave? the opportunity to share the stage with acts like Celso Piña, Grupo Kual, La Santa Cecilia, Fuerza de Tijuana, and La Septima Banda among others. Currently, the band is promoting the release of their new single “512-1433” which is the story of being given the same number by two different women.

THE COFFIS BROTHERS (ACOUSTIC TRIO)

"It's all-American music," says The Coffis Brothers’ co-frontman, Kellen, about the band's 2022 release, Turn My Radio Up. "There's rock, blues, acoustic folk, and country in there. As music fans, we go all the way back to the beginning — to pioneers like Buddy Holly and the Everly Brothers — but we also look to artists like the Eagles and Tom Petty for influence. That's our playbook."

 

Recorded at producer Tim Bluhm's home studio in Marin County and at 25th Street Recording in Oakland CA, Turn My Radio Up is an album for car stereos, hazy afternoons, and long highways. Jangling guitar leads and front-porch folk songs share equal space with heartland rock anthems and campfire-worthy Americana ballads, all dreamt into existence by a group of road warriors who wear their West Coast stripes proudly. This is honest, heartfelt roots-rock with an emphasis on the roots.

 

With the aptly-titled Turn My Radio Up, The Coffis Brothers salute the glory days of the FM dial while planting their flag firmly in the present. A loose, limber album that showcases the full range of the band's abilities, the record bounces between full-throttle anthems like "Find Out the Hard Way" and acoustic folk songs like "Every Day." Along the way, the Californians make room for soulful, piano-driven standouts ("It's So Easy"), atmospheric Americana ("Feel This Free"), and tongue-in-cheek twang ("Ramona"), with brothers Jamie and Kellen Coffis trading vocal and songwriting duties throughout.

ISMAY

There’s music you hear and there’s music you see, the best kind achieves both. ISMAY creates intimate folk/Americana songs that transport you straight to the land where they were  written - deeply rooted in the heart of Sonoma Mountain. Melding the experience of taming wild horses, escaping wildfires, and birthing lambs with warm guitars and delicately graceful vocals, it is an original soundscape that is a delight to the ears as well as the imagination.

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Driven by singer/songwriter Avery Hellman, ISMAY released their debut full length album Songs Of Sonoma Mountain in 2020, to widespread acclaim. It was named one of the 10 best Albums in the Bay Area and garnered features in American Songwriter, No Depression, Sonoma Magazine, and more. Blending field recordings and intricate melodies with live, guitar-based inventive composition, it is a proper introduction to the old-world charm of ISMAY.

JENNER FOX

There is something that happens inside a good song. A tootsie roll can take you back to your elementary school playground; a list of baby names becomes a prayer; the voice of a toothless refrigerator man reminds you to say “I love you.”  Jenner Fox tells the stories of people and places with unparalleled compassion and respect.  His artful tone, poetry, and fluency on his guitar do something only the brave ones do: let us in. 

 

 Jenner comes from a family of river guides. He followed the family river trade and recorded his debut album to make some extra money selling CDs on the boat ramp after rafting trips. Five albums later, a decade of cutting his teeth on the river and road, Jenner is a storyteller, a peanut butter purist, a cargo bike advocate, a Pacific NorthWesterner, and that rare kind of songwriter with the ability to, “Gather up what we see as common as crab apples and polish them into shiny orbs. To give himself and let us see ourselves.” (Sheridan Press)

WRECKLESS STRANGERS

Wreckless Strangers is a collective of six seasoned Bay Area musicians known for their collaborative songwriting and high-energy live shows, performing an infectious blend of music they call "California Americana Soul." The band features Amber Morris (Premier Bay Area vocalist and voice coach – members of Journey, Eric Martin Band) on vocals; David Noble (Poor Man's Whiskey, Pardon The Interruption) on lead guitar, vocals; Joshua Zucker (The Jones Gang, Rowan Brothers) on bass; Austin de Lone (Nick Lowe, Elvis Costello, The Fabulous Thunderbirds) on keys, vocals; Mick Hellman (The Go To Hell Man Band) on drums and vocals; and Rob Anderson (repeat world champion cyclist) on guitar.

 

Over the course of their six years together, the Wreckless Strangers have released two records and become fan favorites at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival. Their latest album, When the Sun and a Blue Star Collide, was produced by GRAMMY-winning artist/producer/guitarist Colin Linden (Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris, Keb' Mo’, Alison Krauss & Robert Plant).

THE LIVE OAKS

The Live Oaks are an Americana-Soul band of very close friends that was started way, way back in 2016 (originally Evan Lanam & the Live Oaks), and is led by drummer/lead singer, great ball of fire, Evan Lanam. An upbeat and ruckus crew of songwriters and versatile musicians who excel in putting on LIVE concerts and specialize in customizing a show based on the venue or event.

 

The Live Oaks have had the privilege to put on hundreds of shows and along the way share stages with with acts like: Norman Greenbaum, Larkin Poe, Ezra Bell, Jackie Greene, Rainbow Girls, Willy Tea Taylor,  Shinyribs, Lindi Ortega, Robert Jon & The Wreck, Red Wanting Blue, Pablo Dylan, just to name a few.

AGOUTI

Agouti is a psychedelic rock band that surfaced from songwriter and producer Carmen Caruso after a trip to Costa Rica’s cloud forests. Escaping from chronic fatigue and dysfunctional routine, she ruminated on what to do next. Caruso realized many of her musical facets - early experiences in choir, infatuation with 60s and 70s rock, forays into building new instruments, and making experimental music - all oscillated around psychedelic rock.

When Caruso returned home to San Francisco, she started down a path to produce her own brand of psychedelic music. She created a recording studio in her basement, gutting the entire room and rebuilding it into a soundproof space. She fixed up a 70s bass amp, a 4-track reel-to-reel, and a vintage mixer. Finally, she began writing a new set of songs. The end results, "Summertime" and "Chameleon", have been featured in Happy Mag, Brightest Young Things, The Bay Bridged, and included in KQED's Mixtape of up-and-coming psychedelic bands.

BEANS SOUSA (local music revue)

From 1980  to 2000, Beans Sousa toured as opening act and side musician for Lacy J. Dalton and is presently touring The West as a featured artist. As a studio musician, Duane "Beans" Sousa's name appears on many Vinyl and CD albums alongside such notables as George Harrison (of The Beatles), Charlie Daniels, Leon Russell, Charlie McCoy, Byron Berline and many more as well as opening act for such Country Stars as Merle Haggard, Jose Feliciano, David Crosby, Phoebe Snow, Toto, Jim Messina (of Loggins and Messina), Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, George Strait, The Oak Ridge Boys and has performed in 5 countries and 49 of the 50 US States.

ASH RELICS (local music revue)

Ash Relics is the moniker of Chris Seal, a musician based in the California Sierra Nevada mountains.  Chris decided to combine his love for hip hop with his love for blues guitar into a sound that puts blues rock over hip hop based beats.  The name he came up with for this project was Ash Relics.  However, he couldn’t leave behind the folk songs he had been writing for over a decade, and decided to include them under the same name as “another side” of Ash Relics. A new vision blending old sounds. Electric blues and folk with a psychedelic edge. Funky retro electro beats. Songs from the gut.