Eyelit is an Alternative/Folk band based out of Saint Joseph, Missouri. They formed in early 2008 after Austin and Dansare realized they enjoyed singing together; later adding trumpet (Sam Stephen), Banjo (Ryan Johnson), and percussion (Tyler Saxton). They released their first album (Elephant EP) in early 2010, which had some success and inspired them to create a full-length album (The Woe Dies - 2012).

More recently, they have been experimenting with effects, electric guitar, and keys, which ends up sounding a little more poppy/dreamy. They are in the process of making an EP. 

From the Midwest seed-bed of indie-rock, Carswell & Hope bring vintage rock sounds and sensibilities together with big harmonies, killer guitar hooks and rocking tunes. Songwriter Nick Carswell is originally from Ireland and has found a new home on the plains of Kansas. The tone is a blend of psychedelic, Pink Floyd interrupting Motown, channeling Glen Hansard and Wilco. Think Mumford & Sons meets Sigur Ros, and Josh Ritter shows them around town.

Never Records is a combination recording studio and record shop, setting up in locales throughout the world. The sole proprietor, interior decorator, and engineer is New York-based artist Ted Riederer. Inspired by his own redemptive education at a young age inside the walls of a local record store in Rockville, Maryland as well as the field recording projects of Alan Lomax, Riederer devised his unique community art installation in the early part of this century and has been replicating it with regional variations throughout the world since 2010.

Performers from a locale sign up for recording sessions ahead of time, with no auditions necessary. Riederer usually offers three hour sessions, during which he mixes on the fly and cuts vinyl right in front of the artist’s eyes once both are satisfied with a particular take. The recordings are free to the artist, the sessions are open to the public, and you can’t buy anything you see. Ted hasn’t lowered prices by cutting out the middleman. He is the middleman. He is not a vertical operation; he is an elliptical one, a constant feedback loop supplying its own demand. Still, everyone takes something home, even if it’s the barest speck of record shop camaraderie inadvertently inhaled.
-Ryan Sparks, New Orleans

They’re nice people who play folk music. One of them laughs a lot, and one of them is a bit mysterious.They’ve played a lot of places, won awards, and taught a lot of people. They have two great kids and a house in the woods.

Pharis and Jason have been quietly connecting with audiences  since their first record release in 2011.  They started out together playing mostly traditional music – banjo, guitar, and sometimes fiddle in an early old time trio The Haints, and backing up their favorite west coast old time fiddlers on a quirky and hard-to-find but well-loved release.  Over the years they’ve moved their original songwriting and nuanced singing into the forefront, and audiences have embraced their intelligent songs, the sounds of their instruments and their clear approach to being two people while singing like one.  Their newest record Tell ‘Em You Were Gold is a banjo-focused release out now on Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. It’s a sonic journey through the tones of seven of Jason’s hand-built banjos, original songs and traditional tunes, half stripped-down duo songs and half songscapes made with fiddle, mandolin, bass and pedal steel.

Three Juno awards and seven Canadian Folk Music Awards later, they continue to tour and teach with love and care and two adventurous kids.  

They make their home in Horsefly, BC, where they also build beautiful banjos as J. Romero Banjos.  At home they're building banjos, rejoicing in the outdoors, eating food they’ve raised, and playing music in the kitchen.

Discography
Tell ‘Em You Were Gold (2022 - Smithsonian Folkways Recordings)
Bet On Love (2020)
Sweet Old Religion (2018)
A Wanderer I’ll Stay (2015)
Long Gone Out West Blues (2013)
A Passing Glimpse (2011)
Back Up & Push - Jason & Pharis Romero and Friends (2010)
Shout Monah - The Haints Old Time Stringband (2009)

For as young as he is, Jordan Butler manages to draw from a lifetime of experience. The metaphors he uses and his ability to wear his heart on his sleeve is not what you would expect from a songwriter his age. Jordan’s many songs are the result of 24 years of growth, change, and exploration. His extraordinary sense of self-awareness allows him to take these experiences and turn them into beautiful songs. His journey so far has been long and hard, but there is no limit to how far this gift can take him. Kansas Native, Jordan Butler, is on the forefront of a new age of American Songwriters.

A creator living in Lawrence, Kansas by way of Limerick, Ireland. Music, video, multimedia and assorted oddities. More at www.nickcarswell.com

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