Tim is one of “those” McKenzies. His great-grandfather walked all the way to Montreal to meet his bride at the dock only to learn she perished on the boat from Ireland. He walked back and married a local girl. His grandfather was a dedicated man. Made the best pork sausage in all the land. His mother and father played the violin and fiddle, respectively (…and respectably, he’s told). They also cut a mean rug. His brother (the dancer) can, too. By the time Tim came along (he’s one of 11) the fiddles were gone, but there was a piano on the unheated porch. He struggled with Chopsticks, but got Heart and Soul at 20 below.

Singer/songwriter Myra Flynn spends her career embracing dichotomy. Half Irish and half African American, her original indie/soul/folk songs blend soulful vocals with a lyrical delivery that doesn’t let one get too comfortable.
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Two brothers reunite after years of geographical separation by a fortified collaboration in music. Sam and Zack Dupont are best friends, siblings and now co-conspirators in a shared passion that runs deep in their family.

Onra (Arnaud Bernard) is a music producer from Paris, France. Mostly from a Hip-Hop background, his inspirations vary from genres such as Soul, Funk, Jazz, Reggae, Boogie, Modern Soul, RnB, Dub, World, Prog Rock, to name a few. He first appeared on the collab-album Tribute in 2006 with French producer and friend, Quetzal, a Hip-Hop tribute to Soul music which was played several times by Gilles Peterson, Benji B and received critical praise on Okayplayer.com.

Several years ago musician and naturalist Sean Rowe walked out into the wilderness alone. He spent the next 24 days constructing shelter and foraging for food to eat. He would come away from the experience with the songs that would eventually comprise his dazzling debut album Magic. The San Francisco Chronicle described the record as “beautiful and haunting.”

Hess Is More is the brainchild of New York based danish musician Mikkel Hess. Ultimately a musical integration project: Indie Pop Folkloric Disco Beats Punk Jazz Electronica. Hess Is More has 3 releases out on Nublu Records, NYC. Album “Hits” 2009 + EP’s “Democracy” & “Remixes” 2010. Hess Is More was selected for “Time Out Magazine – Top 10 – Best Music of 2009″.

Think they don’t make soul like they used to? Lee Fields has been cutting gut-busting soul ballads and James Brown-styled funk gems since 1969, back when R&B was first beginning to give the drummer some. With a career spanning 43 years, the North Carolina soul stirrer has toured and played with such legends as Kool and the Gang, Sammy Gordon and the Hip-Huggers, O.V Wright, Darrell Banks, and Little Royal. Backed by the funky house band of Truth & Soul Records, The Expressions, Fields pours every ounce of himself into his songs and chooses just the right moments to unleash the spine-chilling scream that earned him the nicknames Little J.B. and Soul Brother No. 2.

“!!!, which can be pronounced by repeating any one-syllable percussive sound three times (e.g., “chk chk chk”), formed in 1996 after the demise of the Yah Mos; while on tour, members of that post-hardcore act envisioned forming a band oriented toward danceable music, and once they returned to their native Sacramento, CA, they turned the concept into an actual group. The band quickly became an eight-member ensemble: Nic Offer on vocals, Mario Andreoni on guitar, Justin van der Volgen on bass, Dan Gorman on trumpet and percussion, Tyler Pope on guitar, Allan Wilson on saxophone and percussion, Mikel Gius on drums, and Jason Racine on percussion.

Driving gypsy jazz rhythms, acoustic guitars, upright bass and violin lay the foundation for mesmerizing vocal harmonies and fantastic stories. It’s theatrical and humorous. It’s musical and intense. It entertains, dazzles and defies classification while welcoming the spectator to join the band throughout the performance in momentary fits of claps, snaps and sing-alongs.

Houndmouth is a collaborative folk/rock band from the lowland plains and farmlands of Indiana and Kentucky. Their poetry emphasizes foolhardiness, and their soulful harmonies carry far. Once a folk duo, Katie Toupin and Matt Myers (of the Saint James Hotel) joined up with Shane Cody (Riffraff Revival) and Zak Appleby to create a colossal electric sound with bouncy half-time beats, punchy guitar riffs, and a bit of facial hair.

Nearly three years on from his breakthrough album Here’s To Taking It Easy, Phosphorescent returns to the fray with his most stunning record yet: Muchacho . During the last album’s ‘cycle’, one could almost hear jaws hitting the floor witnessing a live band of such infinite verve. Not only did the album draw high praise in the form of Mojo’s ‘Album of the Month’ (#8 End of Year), Sunday Times & The Independent ‘Albums of the Week’, hit Rough Trade’s Top 5 Best of the Year, but the band also supported The National over the course of three sold out nights at Brixton Academy, a show that The Independent gave 5/5 and called “a sublime, joyous gig”.

While the core sound of Woods will always be Earl’s strikingly pure falsetto voice spilling dark secrets and twisted images, the group has never been content to coast on established formulas or sonic habits. With the recent addition of Aaron Neveu on drums to the live band, freeing up Taveniere to focus solely on guitar, the ever-evolving group has extensive touring plans for the Fall of 2012 to coincide with the release of Bend Beyond.
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Though made up of Texan transplants, Parquet Courts are a New York band. Throw out the countless shallow Brooklyn bands of the blasé 2000′s: Light Up Gold is a conscious effort to draw from the rich culture of the city – the bands like Sonic Youth, Bob Dylan, and the Velvet Underground that are not from New York, but of it. A panoramic landscape of dilapidated corner-stores and crowded apartments is superimposed over bare-bones Americana, leaving little room for romance or sentiment. It’s punk, it’s American, it’s New York… it’s the color of something you were looking for.

Born in the heartland of America and now just 26 years old, Pokey LaFarge has been hitching through the countryside and whisking off to faraway lands ever since he was a teenager. He is a perpetual traveler, constantly in motion and drawing musical inspiration from the heroes and misfits of yesterday; the long lost troubadours of country, the kings of swamp-drenched ragtime, and all the legendary bluesmen of the Cotton Kingdom. Sharing that inspiration has been a mission of sorts for LaFarge, making sure that people remember that there’s more to music than just the sounds that manufactured pop stars are making today.

Emotion is what drives the psychedelic catchy pop rock tunes crafted by the ofteffervescent Brad Oberhofer. Drawing on influences ranging from Brian Wilson to Descartes, the 21 year old is fixated on the idea of making philosophically minded, energetic melodies that just make people smile.

American musical legend Stanley “Buckwheat” Dural Jr. – along with his band, Buckwheat Zydeco – is the preeminent ambassador of Louisiana Zydeco music. If you’ve gotten into Zydeco music, or felt its influence, or watched the world celebrate this great aspect of Louisiana culture over the past 30 years it’s likely been because of Buckwheat Zydeco. Bringing the unique sound of Zydeco into the musical mainstream, they released the first-ever major label Zydeco album in 1987, and claim the three largest selling Zydeco albums of all time. No other Zydeco artist has come close to selling as many records or exposing the music to more people around the world.