2023 Performers

Adeem the Artist leaning against a wall wearing a denim jumpsuit with flowers and their name, and wearing a brown wide-brimmed hat.
From their earliest self-released EPs to 2021’s Cast-Iron Pansexual—the album that earned praise from Rolling Stone and American Songwriter for its examination of faith, sexual identity, and self-acceptance—Adeem the Artist has continued to build a following by blending Appalachian musical influences and poetic flair with a healthy dose of comedic instinct. Adeem’s twang-studded gospel represents a worldview too often excluded from modern country music, one that converts shame into celebration. It turns out, folks like the sound of embracing the parts of ourselves we’re told to bury. Adeem’s new album White Trash Revelry delivers, tempering Adeem’s beloved comedic sensibilities with vulnerable moments and highly specific personal details.
As a resolute preservationist, storyteller, and instrumentalist, Dom Flemons has long set himself apart by finding forgotten folk songs and making them live again. His work has been recognized with a GRAMMY Award, Two-Time EMMY Nominee, and 2020 U.S. Artists Fellow. Dom Flemons is originally from Phoenix, Arizona and currently lives in the Chicago area with his family. He has branded the moniker The American Songster® since his repertoire of music covers over 100 years of early American popular music. Flemons is a songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, actor, slam poet, music scholar, historian, and record collector. He is considered an expert player on the banjo, guitar, harmonica, jug, percussion, quills, fife and rhythm bones. Flemons is the host of the American Songster Radio show on Nashville’s WSM Radio. In 2022, he was awarded a degree as a Doctor of Humane Letters from his alma mater Northern Arizona University.
Eddie Barbash plays American roots music on alto saxophone. A founding member of Jon Batiste Stay Human, the house band for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, he brings his horn and sensibility to Texas and Appalachian fiddle tunes, bluegrass, old time, R&B, soul, and classic New Orleans. 
KASA utilizes its fluency in multiple styles to curate fresh, innovative, genre-defying performances that harken the classical https://www.humbirdmusic.com/standard repertoire and fuse it with favorites of the jazz, musical theater, folk and pop standards.
Son Monarcas is a Latin Folk Fusion ensemble led by Mercedes Inez Martinez and Irekani Ferreyra. Like that of the Monarch Butterfly, they take you on a musical migration from the USA to Latin America by fusing indie soul with traditional son & cumbia. Son Monarcas is comprised of musicians who are well-versed in the Afro-Mestizo genres of folk music from Latin America and blend the traditional with the contemporary by creating original arrangements of “son” while retaining the foundation of the traditional style. Their original compositions include influences of Cumbia, Jazz and Experimental music in English and Spanish.
Tee Dee Young a native of Lexington Ky, has been performing and playing for audiences all around the world for years. Tee Dee is Lexington’s best kept secret. Tee Dee Young , a blues legend in his own time, has definitely got the blues and he loves “firing down on that guitar”. While playing his own unique style of the blues, his dynamic stage presence, exciting harmony and energy will put you in the mood for dancing! What makes Tee Dee Young unique is the style in which he plays the Blues. Tee Dee Young is the King of Beale Street in Memphis TN. Last year Tee Dee was inducted into The Kentucky Music Hall of Fame and Museum, Mt. Vernon, Ky. He recently won Best Blues Artist at the Appalachian Arts and Entertainment Awards.
  • Anika Emily – a singer/songwriter currently based in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois who describe her style as “acoustic pop,” although she pulls influences from many different genres including contemporary r&b, alternative rock and hip hop.
  • Allie Jean – a musician, teacher, and mom. She has taught public school, summer camps, music camps, and private lessons and performed on stages from Hawaii to France.
  • Arco & Aire –  a unique instrumentation of a cello/bandoneon duo that focuses on playing tangos not commonly played on the dance floor and tangos written by composers who are alive today. Their mission is to foster a sense of community and collaboration between tango musicians, organizers, and dancers.
  • Bandoneon Massacre – a tango orchestra collective based in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. We started in 2012 as a reading group made up of tango dancer-musicians who wanted to learn how to produce music in the style for dancing. The orchestra performs regularly at local and regional milongas.
  • Big Daddy Pride & the East Side Five – a psychedelic roots country R&B group from East Urbana Illinois. Weaving together Pink Floydian guitars and New Orleans era R&B fender Rhodes with the driving Tulsa Sound in the rhythm section, makes for a truly eclectic experience. 
  • Bill Kirby – a music teacher at Champaign School of Music and certified Music Together Worldwide teacher.
  • Black Eyed Lillies – Sprouted straight from a Midwestern corn field, Black Eyed Lillies bring together a classic mix of Americana, blues and folk.
  • Brian Krumm and His Barfly Friends – the first solo project from Brian Krumm, front man for Chicago’s Americana-noir group The Great Crusades. His debut album, Just Fade Away, was recorded with members of his regular band as well as a who’s who of Chicago music scene notables
  • Cajun Strangers – an award-winning band from Madison, Wisconsin, that plays traditional Cajun dance music, as you would hear down in Southwest Louisiana and East Texas. A Madison institution, they’ve been playing dances, festivals, events, and backyards for nearly 20 years.
  • Camellia Moon – a long distance folk trio based in three different towns across the state of Illinois. The three members met many moons ago while studying music at the University of Illinois, and have been singing together ever since. They perform their own renditions of traditional and modern folk tunes, as well as original music inspired by the solace they find in the natural world. The band’s namesake flowers, the Camellia and the Moonflower, represent a creative grounding in presence and appreciation for the small joys in life.
  • Cole Bridges
  • Congress of Starlings
  • Derrick Streibig
  • Fox Crossing Stringband – an all-female bluegrass group from Chicago, Illinois that has been winning hearts with their beautiful harmonies, original songwriting, and entertaining stage presence ever since forming in November 2016.
  • The Gospel of Qui
  • Hannah Rose and the Sweet Nothings – String band from Bloomington/Normal, IL playing popular tunes ranging from early jazz, folk, country and more.
  • Hooten Hallers – For the past sixteen years, The Hooten Hallers have been crisscrossing the country as inveterate road warriors, bringing their peculiar vision of Americana: a fiery, bluesy, rock and roll fever dream birthed in Missouri’s fertile musical heartland.
  • Hot Club of Urbana – Urbana’s local favorite tribute to the musical legacy of Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli.
  • Jaik Willis – a strumming & drumming One Man Band, a wild fire-breathing freakshow; playing an 11 piece drum set with his feet while playing guitars / bass / & harps; while sing and beatboxing simultaneously, live with no looping or electronics.
  • Jean René Balekita – specializes in music traditions from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He has toured extensively in Europe and the US with the band Bomoyi, performing his original compositions based on a blend of Congolese Rumba and Gospel styles.
  • John Coppess – a singer songwriter specializing in country, cowboy songs, and folk.
  • Kate Campbell – a southern singer-songwriter who writes and sings memorable folk songs infused with undercurrents of delta blues, folk, pop, and country that originate from a musical landscape spanning the less-travelled back roads from Nashville to Muscle Shoals to Memphis. 
  • Keith Hall and The Creepin’ Grass
  • Laurel Premo – Laurel Premo is known for her rhythmically deep and rapt delivery of roots music, voiced on finger-style electric guitar, lap steel, fiddle, and voice.
  • Los Texano’z – our own regional Tejano and Norteño band, mixing country polka, bluegrass, and rock roots into a sound that spreads good feelings.
  • Meadowhawk – plays traditional and original tunes for contra dances and other events.
  • Merry Travelers Duo – Soulful~bluesy~pop~rock with a groovy, psychedelic twist.
  • Mr. Dave
  • The Paw Paws – a family friendly collaboration between local musicians Emily McKown and Paul Kotheimer.
  • Sixth Street Brass Band – a New Orleans-influenced group with a unique sound. From traditional NOLA style, to in your ear power brass styles, to fun covers of modern pop tunes and classic funk, soul, and R&B music, Sixth Street gives a fun twist on live music with an 11 piece horn section!
  • Spencer and Rains – fiddlers, guitar-players, and singers who preserve and build upon the traditions of their home states of Texas and Kansas. The husband and wife duo are known for their distinct twin fiddling and close-knit vocal harmony. Both multi-instrumentalists, they are steeped in family musical tradition and are dedicated to the preservation, performance, and sharing of old time music. 
  • Tumbleweeds – Traditional Old School Country Music with a little Bluegrass, Western Swing and some Country Rock thrown in too. Led by local legend Dyke Corson.
  • Tyler Lance Walker Gill – a honky tonk evangelist, spreading the gospel of country music to any barroom that’ll have him. TLWG was born with a plastic spoon in his mouth in Bullitt County, KY. With the voice of a shit-faced angel, Gill writes and sings drinkin’ songs for drinkin’ people.
  • The Young and the Fretless – plays driving Appalachian Mtn fiddle tunes and love songs with Illinois influences.

Listen to 2023 Artists on Spotify