- Almost “A” Quartet - Almost “A”, combines strong backgrounds in classical, contemporary art music and jazz with folk, gypsy, gypsy jazz, tango, and klezmer. All have experience working with many styles of dance. Their music
- Amasong Performance and Community Sing - An AmaSong Circle – Come listen to and sing with Amasong: Champaign-Urbana’s Premier Lesbian/Feminist Chorus. We will perform a few of our most beloved pieces from over the 24 years
- Anne Feeney - Pittsburgh-based agitator Anne Feeney performs music that she says is designed to “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.” Not many women have chosen to walk the path of Woody
- Big Bluestem - Big Bluestem performs an eclectic mix of fiddle tunes, old-time string band music, bluegrass and historic tunes, with an occasional sprinkling of swing and the blues. BBSB features Kathleen Everingham on
- Billy Strings and Don Julin - Billy Strings and Don Julin play traditional American string band music with energy levels usually associated with extreme sports. A typical set includes haunting Appalachian songs, righteous gospel standards, and
- Blue Mafia - Blue Mafia is a band based in Muncie, Indiana, whose distinctive modern sound is centered around the muscular guitar playing of Tony Wray and the strong songwriting of his wife,
- Bones, Jugs ‘n Harmony Family Show - Bones Jugs ‘N Harmony can only be described as a cascading menagerie of novelty knick-knacks and catchy hooks, floating over rock solid rhythms and tempered with silly feel-good lyrics. Yes,
- Bucky Halker - Fusing elements of folk, blues, honky-tonk country, straight ahead rock, and jazz, Bucky Halker has recorded a dozen albums since the 1980s, including his recent double-CD, The Ghost of Woody
- Cajun Strangers - From Madison, Wisconsin, The Cajun Strangers have twice won the French Cajun Music Association of America’s Prix D’hors de Nous (2007, 2010), which is awarded annually for the best Cajun
- Church Street Ramblers - Specializing in jazz music from early in the 20th century, the Church Street Ramblers perform songs by Louis Armstrong, Clarence Williams, Mamie Smith, Louis Jordan, Fats Waller, and a host of other legendary
- Dan Keding and Mama Edie Armstrong, Featured Storyteller Performances - Dan Keding grew up with his Croatian grandmother filling him with the stories of the old country. He has pursued this passion for over forty years, telling at some of
Continue readingDan Keding and Mama Edie Armstrong, Featured Storyteller Performances
- Dana Sipos - Currently living aboard an experimental theatre and circus tall ship sailing and performing along the eastern seaboard of the United States, Dana Sipos plays folk, roots and Canadiana-nuanced songs that
- Dom Flemons - Dom Flemons is the “American Songster,” pulling from traditions of old-time folk music to create new sounds. A multi-instrumentalist, he plays banjo, guitar, harmonica, fife, bones, bass drum, snare drum and
- Don’t Ask - Don’t Ask plays Klezmer music in the spirit of early Eastern Europe’s Jewish village string bands, with Middle Eastern and Balkan influences and other surprises thrown in the mix. Members
- Dysfunctionells - As middle-age crisis vanity projects go, this takes the biscuit for sheer quixotic misguided willfulness. The Dysfunctionells, struggling mightily to play above their skill level, will challenge today’s youthful audience’s
- Firetones - The Firetones is the juxtaposition of the songwriting, rhythm guitar and lead vocals of John McMahon with the guitar virtuosity and backing vocals of Frank Horger. John and Frank’s musical friendship
- Frank Fairfield - Frank Fairfield is a native of Fresno, California who now resides in Los Angeles. TMR calls Frank’s performance, “A dark and delirious slice of new American Primitive by the modern
- Jiggy and the Source - Originally from a small planet orbiting Messier Object 78 between Betelgeuse and Alnitak in the Orion Constellation and now found in Champaign, Illinois, Jiggy & the Source is not a
- Justin Rondon - Justin Rondon is a Champaign native who is a lover of all kinds of music. His original songs are influenced by a mixture of folk, jazz, and rock. Not only
- Kathleen Everingham and José Agusti - Catch Kathleen Everingham and José Agusti of Big Bluestem warming up the festival in the Busey Bank lobby on Friday from 4:00pm to 5:00pm! Big Bluestem performs an eclectic mix of fiddle tunes, old-time
- Laura Cortese and the Dance Cards - Propelled by inspired fiddle and cello playing, warm vocals, and arresting original songs, Laura Cortese and the Dance Cards (Valerie Thompson on cello and Mariel Vandersteel on fiddle and hardingfele)
- Local Storyteller Showcase - The Local Teller Showcase features some of Champaign-Urbana’s favorite tellers: Kim Sheahan, Linda Dust, Elaine Bearden, and Sue Searing. All are members of the C-U Storytelling Guild and enjoy telling
- Maja & David - Maja & David creates an intense hybrid of traditional music, built on great distances but without borders. With two fiddles, two voices and the percussion of feet, Maja Kjær Jacobsen
- Mama Edie Armstrong - Mama Edie Armstrong is a bilingual storyteller (Spanish/English), published writer, percussionist, speech/language pathologist, and voice-over artist who has provided international storytelling performances and workshops to parents, teachers, children, social workers,
- Michael Meadows - Philosophical fish, confused cows and lovesick cicadas are some of the creatures that populate Michael Meadows’s hysterical, disturbing, and often thought-provoking songs. He offers skewed satirical commentary on evolution, income
- Mo’ Betta Jazz Band - The Banks Bridgewater Lewis Fine Arts Academy consists of the BBL Fine Arts Academy and the Mo’ Betta Music performance bands. Well known around town, the premier ensemble plays for
- Mother Banjo - Featuring Ellen Stanley on banjo and vocals, Mother Banjo is a New England-raised, Minneapolis-based songwriter. Called “an outstanding poet” (Inside Bluegrass), she was a Midwest Finalist for the prestigious Mountain
- Mr. Stephens Family Show - Mr. Stephens is still playing goofy songs for kids even after some of them have grown up. He saw one of them driving away from Urbana High School the other
- Old Salt Union - Old Salt Union’s loose, yet no nonsense style lends way to an original sound—something caught between old fashioned and twenty-fifteen. The band stretches the boundaries of traditional bluegrass music by incorporating
- Orpheus Mandolin Orchestra - The Orpheus Mandolin Orchestra comes to us from Bloomington, Illinois, where it grew out of old-time jam session that attracted a remarkable number of mandolin players. The Orchestra’s repertoire includes
- Paul Hinson - Paul Hinson taught himself bagpipe basics shortly after college and has been playing in pipe bands since 1982, often for competitions. He has studied with internationally known master pipers and participated
- Pop Wagner - Pop Wagner has quite the reputation as a singer, picker, fiddler, lasso twirler, poet and downright funny guy. He appeared quite frequently on Public Radio’s A Prairie Home Companion during the
- Pop Wagner Family Show - Special family show with Pop Wagner! Pop Wagner has quite the reputation as a singer, picker, fiddler, lasso twirler, poet and downright funny guy. He appeared quite frequently on Public Radio’s
- Reverend Robert Jones - Reverend Robert Jones, Sr. is a singer, storyteller and self taught multi-instrumentalist. He uses folk, blues, spirituals and other American Roots music to champion the beauty and power of our
- Spudhunters - The Spudhunters specialize in the traditional dance music of rural Ireland–jigs, reels, hornpipes, polkas, waltzes, marches, and more–with a few songs thrown in for good measure. The band features Leandra Baker
- Tillers - Musically, The Tillers never fails to surprise. Their music has proven to be an appropriate fit with a wide range of musical styles- traditional folk, bluegrass, jazz, punk rock and anything
- Traditional Jazz Orchestra - The Traditional Jazz Orchestra plays hot music from the early 20th century when jazz was young — the music of King Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Fats Waller, and other
- Volo Bogtrotters - The Volo Bogtrotters are have been a Midwestern favorite since their first gig at the actual Volo Bog in Lake County, Illinois in 1985. Their music is inspired by the
- Woody Pines - Woody Pines brings that low-key street corner style of performance to his stage show, but with all the polish and seasoned professionalism of a tour-bus-and-green-room rock stardom. If Pines’ elegantly-disheveled