With a nod to the past and glance to the future the Dirty Grass Players are keeping alive the long history of bluegrass while pushing the traditional genre into the next generation.

The Dirty Grass Players are an energetic explosion of old-time pickin’, coloured with an inventive, newgrass hand, that is given lyrical life by their soaring vocal harmonies that exist on an ethereal plain. They live at the crossroads between the traditional, which is the backbone of what they do, and the progressive with their innovative forward-thinking approach. The Dirty Grass Players, with their steady, workman-like precision and loose adventurous spirit are a band that can both confound Bill Monroe and cause him to smile uncontrollably. Their music is progressive, traditional, experimental, imaginative, and at its core, Dirty.

The Dirty Grass Players formed in 2015 with guitarist Ben Kolakowski and mandolinist Ryan Rogers at a series of informal picking sessions in the Baltimore area. The band quickly started to garner attention in the area, culminating in them winning the competitive Charm City Bluegrass Festival Battle of the Bands in 2017. The band’s original bassist and fiddler left shortly after and they solidified around the addition of bassist Connor Murray. In 2024, Sam Guthridge joined on banjo and the band reemerged as a powerful four-piece.

Since then they have released two albums, 2020’s Beneath the Woodpile and 2023 Shiny Side Up and established themselves as one of the most exciting young bluegrass bands around. With their high-octane shows they have become a mainstay on the festival circuit, being invited to play at some of the the most prestigious gatherings from coast to coast including Delfest, Grey Fox, Kingman Island, Hot August Music Festival, Dark Star Jubilee, Ramble Fest, First Class Music Fest, and many others.

Their latest album Shiny Side Up, produced by The Travelin’ McCourys’ Coldy Kilby, continues to further the evolution of bluegrass with its hard-driving sound that showcases the progressive, darkside of bluegrass with its forward-looking, non-traditional playing and songwriting. In its praise of the album, Bluegrass Unlimited says, “Shiny Side Up validates the arrival of the Dirty Grass Players onto the scene and shows bluegrass is in good hands going forward.

Jim Donovan and The Sun King Warriors are best described as a blend of rhythm heavy roots rock, with a strong dose of big barreling drums. Think bluesy Zeppelin-esqe bombast, Santana style percussion with wild Avett Brothers energy.

At a Sun King show, you can expect to dance, sweat and have the time of your life.

The band’s music has garnered radio airplay throughout the US and Canada, and has appeared on Billboard’s Americana chart multiple times.

The band plays regionally at festivals and clubs throughout the mid-atlantic and have opened for 10,000 Maniacs, Donovan’s former band Rusted Root and many others.

Jim Donovan, the band’s founder and writer brings almost three decades of experience to the Sun King Warriors. As a member of the popular 90’s band Rusted Root, he helped shaped the group’s sound and toured with legendary including The Grateful Dead, members of Led Zeppelin, Carlos Santana and the Allman Brothers.

He also co-authored the band’s biggest hit, “Send Me on My Way,” which has been streamed over 100 million times on Spotify and used as the wakeup music for NASA’s Mars rover.

Press quotes:

“Jim Donovan and Sun King Warriors are one of the most eclectic and exciting bands to come out in some time…” -The Washington Times
“Sun King Warriors channel unabashed enthusiasm into a series of songs that are both rowdy and rejuvenating…” -Relix Magazine

When music is given the benefit of instinct, imagination and inspiration, the results are guaranteed to be good. So it ought to come as no surprise that the critically-acclaimed Annapolis Maryland-based trio, appropriately dubbed Pressing Strings, has infused those elements within their musical mantra the beginning. The band —Jordan Sokel (Guitar/Vocals), Nick Welker (Bass, Vocals), Justin Kruger (Drums, Vocals) and Austin Day(Keys, Guitar) can trace its origins to Sokel’s initial fascination with some iconic influences, among them, the usual suspects — Dylan, Marley, Simon, Withers, Al Green, Marvin Gaye, Led Zeppelin, etc., as well as some more under the radar artists like Taj Mahal, R.L. Burnside, Junior Kimbrough, and Nick Drake.

Fascination became fulfillment once he picked up the guitar and started writing songs. That’s when his course became clear. After growing up in New Jersey and Arizona, he eventually moved to Arnold, Maryland to attend high school and eventually university at Salisbury University. However once there, he found he began having doubts about his career choice. That’s when he made it his mission to pursue his musical muse. Still in college, he formed Pressing Strings with one of his buddies. Those early efforts, beginning in 2006, found Sokel’s desire and determination taking hold, eventually coalescing into a career that now spans seven albums — Where We Are (2008), Episodes (2010), Pressing Strings (2012), Life of a Tree (2013), Owe the Source (2015), Settle In (2020) — and two EPs — Most of Us (2016) and Morning Takes (2021), and they moist recent “…And I for You.”

Kindred Valley is a band toeing the line between Americana, Indie Folk, and Folk Rock. Hailing from West Virginia they combine their appalachian culture and roots with personal stories and experiences to create sounds and lyrics that grip the listener and bring them into the artists’ inner worlds.

Music has guided Driftwood to hallowed ground many times since its founding members, Joe Kollar and Dan Forsyth, started making music as high schoolers in Joe’s parents’ basement. Whether the Upstate New York folk rock group—which today also includes violinist Claire Byrne, bassist Joey Arcuri, and drummer Sam Fishman—are converting new fans on a hardscrabble tour across the country or playing to a devoted crowd at hero Levon Helm’s Woodstock barn, the band’s shapeshifting approach to folk music continues to break new ground. And yet in many ways Driftwood’s latest work, the transformative December Last Call, finds the group coming home. 

Recorded in that very same basement where the Driftwood dream began, December Last Call lyrically reflects on the recent past, musing on the ways the group grew up, together and apart, through curveballs like new parenthood or pandemic shutdowns. But sonically, the band’s sixth album looks confidently to the future, experimenting with new sounds while staying true to the bluegrass roots that built them. Across the album’s nine tracks, the band often leans into hard-rocking electric guitars and driving percussion: On “Every Which Way But Loose,” we get a foot-tapping beat and a sweeping chorus, and on “Up All Night Blues,” the band shines with an ambling, sing-along-able reflection on the challenges of new motherhood. But other tracks, like standout closer “Stardust,” take a simpler route, allowing bare-bones vocals and acoustic instrumentals to underpin a deeper emotional message.

One of Driftwood’s biggest differentiators—and perhaps its biggest strength—is the sheer breadth of talent in its lineup, with Claire, Joe, and Dan all contributing as songwriters and vocalists. This creative push-pull, where each selects songs to share with the group and record together, bakes vulnerability and collaborative spirit into every recording. “It’s at the heart of what we do,” says Dan. “Everybody has a strong love for songs, for songwriting, and we each appreciate everybody else and the way that they contribute to that.” 

While 2019’s acclaimed Tree of Shade tapped Simon Felice as producer, the band opted to self-produce this latest effort, leaning into their creative impulses and striving to capture their distinctive live energy. Figuring out how to channel that on-stage intensity into a recording has actually, in many ways, been a lesson in restraint. “When I look back at the things we were writing and playing, oh, I don’t know, 10, 12 years ago, they were really arranged: a lot of you do this here, we’re going to do this there, we’re going to break down, we’re going to do a big build,” Claire explains. “These days, it’s more like, ‘Let’s play the song and just see what happens.’”

This approach makes all the more sense when you consider Driftwood’s live shows, which operate not only as effervescent, twang-studded musical parties, but also as reunions for their throng of devoted listeners—folks who have started to feel less like fans and more like something bigger. “They’re supporters. They’re friends,” explains Joe. “It’s crazy how much love we’ve got and how many wild situations on the road we’ve gotten out of because of those people.” Many of them are quite literally invested in the band’s future: December Last Call was a crowd-funded effort, and it wasn’t the band’s first. It’s as if every listener, ticketbuyer, album backer, and general band evangelist is in on Driftwood’s biggest secret: this whole band thing has endured for nearly two decades because it offers a kind of community you can’t get just anywhere.

“Driftwood is basically a beautiful friendship that happens to play music together,” says Joe. “I know it’s rare. I know I’m lucky to know these people and lean on them and go through these massive life changes together.” For Driftwood, each song is like a journal entry: cathartic to create, yes, but capable of unlocking new lessons—and when shared—forging new bonds. “We’re communal, right? Humans need to be connected,” Joe says. “And we get to have this special thing.”