April Verch is a Canadian fiddle and stepdancing champion and singer. Though her musical roots lie deep in the fiddling of her native Ottawa Valley, her repertoire also features traditional and contemporary tunes ranging in source and inspiration from Quebecois to the Appalachians, from Bluegrass to Brazilian. She has toured with the group Bowfire but also has her own April Verch Band.
http://aprilverch.com/site/press/.
Born in Kolkata (Calcutta) in 1963, Debashish Bhattacharya began learning classical Indian music from his parents in his childhood, and went on to a groundbreaking career. His invention, the 24-string Hindustani slide guitar, was modified from the Western guitar to create an entirely new instrument that is nevertheless faithful to the classical Indian tradition. Bhattacharya has collaborated with the American slide guitarist Bob Brozman and the jazz-fusion artist John McLaughlin of Shakti.
Yair Dalal (born 1955) is a composer, violinist and oud player and is probably the most prolific Israeli ethnic musician today, with global recognition (WOMAD appearances from Seattle to Sydney).
Over the last decade he has put nine albums, covering wide and varied cultural territory. Much of Dalal's output reflects the strong affinity he has for the desert and its habitants. Dalal's family came to Israel from Baghdad and he has included much Iraqi material in his work to date.
Brain Drain is young punk/rock band from Czech Republic was started in September 2006. There is also an acoustic rock band from Germany named Brain Drain, founded in January 2005
and a bunch of bastards from Bratislava, Slovakia, playing grunge/metal shit, formed February 2007. The Brain Drain moniker is also used by an Australian one-man semi-improvised guitar based project.
Cordelia's Dad is a band from Northampton, Massachusetts that combines folk and punk rock influences and was instrumental in the creation of the genre later to be dubbed "No Depression". The band formed in 1987 and was active until 1998, when the members relocated to different parts of the country. After releasing an album of older material in 2002 the band has reunited in 2007 for their twentieth anniversary.
John Idris Jones (born December 12, 1957 of Welsh descent) is a musician and record producer who has worked with Duran Duran, Fleetwood Mac and many high-profile rock and pop musicians. Jones won a grammy for producing Celine-Dion's 'Seduces Me' and was one of the producers that helped launch MP3.com, and two of its top artists (Emily Richards, Jayson Haws) into internet cyber-stardom. In 1998, Jones produced a solo album of his own material called One Moment In Time. His second solo album, Horses for Courses, will be released on ArtisTech Records in summer '09.
Faiz Ali Faiz (born 1962 in Sharaqpur, Pakistan) is one of the main singers of qawwali, a devotional musical expression of the Sufis, a mystical offshoot of Islam. Faiz Ali Faiz comes from a family of qawwals from seven generations in Pakistan. He started his professional career in 1978, at age 16, creating at the same time his own qawwali ensemble. Though Faiz is from Lahore, he practices the doaba style from eastern Pakistan. He stated in recent interviews he has been influenced by Sham-Chaurasi, a famous Khayal singing school where Ustad Salamat Ali Khan belongs to.
Bruce Cockburn, (pronounced "CO-burn"), has had a long and distinguished career with much success in his native Canada. His first albums were fairly straight ahead folk music spotlighting his brilliant guitar playing. In fact, there were a good number of instrumental guitar numbers on those early recordings. A Christian element came into his music around the time of the album Salt, Sun And Time, and over time his writing has taken on a stronger and stronger political orientation.
"Hardcore fiddle music" is how the band describes their music. 6 young fiddle players have created a unique sound based on Norwegian traditional folk music. The band won a "Spellemannspris" for their first album "Majorstuen" and is currently in studio, recording their third album, which will have a Christmas theme and will be released in November. Three of the members of Majorstuen managed to get to the final round (securing 3 of 6 slots) at "Landskappleiken" (a tournament of sorts for folk musicians) 2006, attesting to their musicial abilities.