americana

Freedy Johnston (born 1961) is a New York City-based singer-songwriter originally from Kinsley, Kansas. Johnston's first album, "The Trouble Tree" was released in 1990, and features the guitar playing of the roots musician and author, David Hamburger. Johnston sold some of his family's farmland to finance the recording of his second album, Can You Fly (an event he wrote about in a song on that album, "Trying to Tell You I Don't Know").

Howe Gelb is an American artist who fronted Giant Sand, and was a member of "OP8". THIS IS EROSION ROCK: Inaccurately yet affectionately dubbed “the Godfather of Alt. Country” by the British press, Tucson, Arizona-based musician Howe Gelb has remained the sole epicenter and creative force behind the ever-fluid configurations of Giant Sand for over a quarter century, giving birth along the way to an extended musical family tree that fostered the likes of The Band of…Blacky Ranchette, The Friends of Dean Martinez, OP8, and Calexico.

Los Lobos is a mexican-american rock band from East Los Angeles, heavily influenced by rock and roll, tex-mex, country music, folk, blues, and traditional spanish / mexican music such as boleros and norteños. Formed in the late 1970's, band members Dave Hidalgo, Cesar Rojas, Steve Berlin, Louie Pérez and Conrad Lozano became the bellwether for Mexican-American music in the U.S. when they recorded the music for "La Bamba" in 1987, which added popular acclaim to the critical praise they had received for their 1984 album "How Will the Wolf Survive?".

Cuff the Duke is a Canadian band from Oshawa, Ontario, that has been active from 2001. They play a blend of traditional country and folk music with indie rock influences, and can be categorized as an alt-country group. The line-up of the band has evolved, with the consistent members thus far being Wayne Petti (vocals, guitar, keyboards, harmonica, bass) and Paul Lowman (bass, piano, backing vocals, fiddle, guitar, lap steel). Petti and Murray have also released solo albums.