Community Calendar

Patty Griffin is among the most consequential singer-songwriters of her generation, a quintessentially American artist whose wide-ranging canon incisively explores the intimate moments and universal emotions that bind us together. Over the course of two decades, the GRAMMY® Award winner – and 7x nominee – has crafted a remarkable body of work in progress that prompted the New York Times to hail her for “writing cameo-carved songs that create complete emotional portraits of specific people…her songs have independent lives that continue in your head when the music ends.”

Peter Mulvey has been a songwriter, road-dog, raconteur and almost-poet since before he can remember. Raised working-class Catholic on the Northwest side of Milwaukee, he took a semester in Ireland, and immediately began cutting classes to busk on Grafton Street in Dublin and hitchhike through the country, finding whatever gigs he could. Back stateside, he spent a couple years gigging in the Midwest before lighting out for Boston, where he returned to busking (this time in the subway) and coffeehouses. Small shows led to larger shows, which eventually led to regional and then national and international touring. The wheels have not stopped since.

Nineteen records, an illustrated book, thousands of live performances, a TEDx talk, a decades-long association with the National Youth Science Camp, opening for luminaries such as Ani DiFranco, Emmylou Harris, and Chuck Prophet, appearances on NPR, an annual autumn tour by bicycle, emceeing festivals, hosting his own boutique festival (the Lamplighter Sessions, in Boston and Wisconsin)… Mulvey never stops. He has built his life’s work on collaboration and an instinct for the eclectic and the vital. He folds everything he encounters into his work: poetry, social justice, scientific literacy, & a deeply abiding humanism are all on plain display in his art.

"Born to a musical family, Kath moved through an early life absorbed and in love with the 60s sea change of musical expression, into a development of her own singular voice that would age to cast a wide net of influence. Her prolific relationship with Loren Mazzacane Connors in the 80s produced a body of work held sacrosanct by generations of avant-folk luminaries. In 2007 Chapter Music released a tribute album to her songs from that time recorded by Bill Callahan, Meg Baird, Devendra Banhart and others, and her song “Come Here” was featured memorably in Richard Linklater’s 1995 film “Before Sunrise”, in a scene which Ethan Hawke claims was “my favorite scene I ever filmed”. Two lovers listen hanging on the edge of a kiss, tense and present for a moment just out of reach.

Although performing this strange and yearning body of work at the time made her nervous and withdrawn, she continued to write and perform quietly all the while. She developed happy careers in music therapy for children and horse training, learning new forms of connection that channeled back into her music and healed her relationship with performing.
In recent years she has toured regionally from her home in Connecticut and has been invited several times to tour internationally, honing her current musical partnerships with David Shapiro (guitar, vocals) and Flow Ness (percussion, vocals). While she has been encouraged to release new music for her new generation of fans, “Bye Bye These Are the Days” is the first to document her current band’s sound, which harkens back to the avant leanings of her work with Mazzacane, but the tension now is joyful and expert. This is the sound of a practiced life, learned in all stages of love and loss, and resolute to keep going."

Austin, Texas-based singer-songwriter and former frontman of The Ugly Americans and The Scabs, Bob Schneider has become one of the most celebrated musicians in the live music capital. Drawing from a range of diverse musicals styles, Schneider’s talent has defied genres.

Combining elements of funk, country, rock, and folk with the more traditional singer/songwriter aesthetic, Schneider draws inspiration from the ’70s with a modern twist, reminiscent of contemporaries such as Beck. His catalogue is both uplifting and sober, unafraid to tackle powerful subjects like alienation, drug addiction, and lost romance in addition to celebrating life’s joys.

Schneider has won more than 59 Austin Music Awards including Best Album, Best Songwriter, Best Musician, and Best Male Vocals making him the most decorated artist in Austin music history. Schneider’s fan base reaches far beyond the city limits of Austin. He has released more than a dozen albums, written over 1,000 songs, is a published author, and is also an avid painter and collage artist – and doesn’t plan on slowing down anytime soon.

Jay and Molly are musicians of enormous talent who draw their repertoire and inspiration from a wide range of American musical styles: 19th century classics, lively Appalachian, Cajun and Celtic fiddle tunes and favorites from the golden age of country and swing, along with their own songs, fiddle tunes and orchestral compositions. In recent years, Jay and Molly have reached an ever widening audience through their appearances on Great Performances and A Prairie Home Companion.