Dallas Ponce is a renowned Argentine Country Blues duo, bringing pre-war American Country Blues to audiences in Buenos Aires and worldwide. They have participated in various international festivals worldwide, including Ecuador Jazz Festival, Arts International Festival” in South Carolina, as well as ‘Blues al Río,’ and the ‘Quito Blues Festival.
www.instagram.com/dallas.ponce
Carolina Mendoza is a singer and songwriter from Mountain View, Arkansas, mentored by generations of traditional folk music performers. Her nickname “Voice of the Mountain”, “Songbird of the Ozarks” was bestowed on her
for her rich tones and flute-like whistles.
Carolina’s signature sound combines her traditional Mexican roots and a deep influence of country, Americana, bluegrass, Nordic folk, and old-time Ozark music
Hubby Jenkins is an American multi-instrumentalist who studies and performs old-time American music. He is a former member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops and the Rhiannon Giddens band, and has been nominated for Grammy and Americana awards. https://www.hubbyjenkins.com
Nick Nichols first found an interest in the distilling world through coppersmithing and a natural fondness for whiskey. As a hobby distiller, he is interested in both the tradition and history of distilling as well as its growth and continuation in the modern Ozarks.
Matthew Sloan is a hobby distiller, focusing on keeping the tradition alive with an appreciation for the time when moonshine wasn’t just a way of life but a necessity for many. https://festival.si.edu/blog/moonshine-ozarks
Jimmy “Duck” Holmes is an American blues musician and proprietor of the Blue Front Cafe on the Mississippi Blues Trail, the oldest surviving juke joint in Mississippi. Holmes is known as the last of the Bentonia bluesmen, as he is the last blues musician to play the Bentonia School. https://concord.com/artist/jimmy-duck-holmes/
Big Cricket String Band brings irreverent Old Time Appalachian traditional music to the stage. A rollicking 5-piece String Band from Baltimore, MD, Big Cricket leads with an upfront, double-fiddle sound and a driving rhythm section that knows no rules. High energy is a hallmark of this young dance band that is quickly taking over scene in the Mid-Atlantic. https://www.instagram.com/bigcricketstringband/
“Wolf Hunter” is the debut CD by The Creek Rocks from Springfield, Missouri. The title is an amalgam of the names of the two folklorists whose collections provided the raw materials for the songs on the album — John Quincy Wolf of Batesville, Arkansas and Max Hunter of Springfield, Missouri. Cindy Woolf was raised in Batesville, along the southern foothills of the Ozarks Mountain region, and Mark Bilyeu hails from Springfield, located atop the Ozarks Plateau. https://www.thecreekrocks.com
The Ozark Highballers are a three to four piece string band from Fayetteville, Arkansas. Since 2014 the Ozark Highballers have brought their music to square dances, farmers markets, festivals, workshops, as well as plain old street corners and front porches. Their music reflects the spirit and drive of the rural Ozark string bands of the 1920s and ’30s. https://avivazoe.wixsite.com/ozarkhighballers
Essie Neal, who was inducted into the National Blues Hall of Fame in 2008, performs as “Essie the Blues Lady” in festivals, schools, and numerous venues across Arkansas. She grew up in a musical family and learned to play the guitar at twelve years of age. She formed an all-girl blues band and toured the state during the 1970s, and she has played throughout Arkansas and the surrounding states. Essie the Blues Lady now usually performs as a solo act.
Steve Green grew up on a hill country farm in the Arkansas Ozark Mountains, with memories of old time American square dances alongside German Polkas and Schottisches in his grandfather’s front room. Southern mountain music, square dance calling, ballad singing, storytelling, and old time flatfoot dancing are a big part of his life. In 2015 he won first at the US National Buck Dance senior competition, as well as the open flatfoot dance competitions at Clifftophttps://www.facebook.com/ozarksteve
Joe Batterton and Mark Edwards have been performing together for nearly two decades in several different incarnations. Over the years they have developed their own unique style of Bluesy Americana. They both come from musical backgrounds that have been influenced by rock, blues, bluegrass, traditional country and old time folk music. Since becoming a duo, they have opened the doors of all of those influences and let that shine in their music selections as well as the original music they write and perform. Both men are vocalists and multi instrumentalist. https://battertonandedwards.com
Seth Shumate is an Arkansas native whose grandfather and great-grandmother played the harmonica or “french harp” in the Ozarks. Shumate said he acquired the habit in the seventh grade. Since then he has played and studied the history of old-time harmonica and specializes in the fiddle-tune, country blues, and jug band styles of the harmonica masters of the 1920s-30s. Seth also inherited blowing the quills from his Great Grandmother, Ella Ballentine Fletcher.
Primarily performing as a solo artist since the early 2000’s, Brian Martin released his debut album “No Rider” in 2011, a self described bare bones collection of intimate folk songs. He is also a founding member of Sad Daddy, a critically and commercially heralded string band based in the Ozark region and gaining traction well beyond. Since their 2010 inception, the band has released three studio albums and a live album, their most recent, “Way Up In The Hills,” debuting in 2022. https://brianmartinmusic.com/home
Alex Martinez, performing as Alex Sanchez, grew up in Mexico City and now resides in Russellville, Arkansas. He comes from a family of singers. His grandmother passed her love of singing to his mother and aunt who shared their tradition with him from a young age. He cultivated his love of singing in high school as a part of a musical band, as the main singer, playing Rock, Pop, Alternativo, and with my family always singing Mariachi and Rancheras. His principal influences are his grandma, mom, and aunt who performed as “Las hermanitas Sánchez” as well as artists such as Beatriz Adriana, Chelo Vicente Fernandez , and Juan Gabriel.
https://www.instagram.com/alexsanchez.oficial?igsh=MXM3OGxsYXdwYXoxbA==
“The McCarthys” are a husband and wife duo, who play old square dance and folk music from the Ozarks and Appalachia. Grace was raised to sing traditional ballads and play the old time banjo and fiddle, while Joseph has spent most his time playing in Stringband and fiddler conventions. https://www.instagram.com/gracestormontmusic
The White River Warblers – Pete, Carole Anne and Steven – coalesced from a large group of friends playing for dances and potlucks in Northwest Arkansas in the last 20 years, their main focus being old time dance tunes of the Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma Ozarks.