JPR Music

Brett Dennen’s music career began humbly around the camps of the Sierra Nevada mountain range – a retreat to which he would eventually return for inspiration on 2013's Smoke and Mirrors. “Being in the mountains, aside from the inspiration, was so crucial to me, because as a kid I used to spend so much time in the mountains. And just being there helped me regain that self-confidence. I remembered who I was.”

ZZ Ward burst onto the scene with her fiery Eleven Roses mixtape in early 2012 – sparking a media frenzy and showcasing her soulful take on a blues/hip hop blend, which ultimately led to her critically-acclaimed debut album Til The Casket Drops. Her debut single off the album, the foot-stomping “Put The Gun Down,” broke into the Top 10 on the AAA radio chart – staying there for 10 weeks and was followed by two more Top 10 singles, her anthemic "365 Days" and her gut-wrenching ballad "Last Love Song."

A founding member of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (now in their 50th year!) John McEuen has continually performed since 1964 - 8,500 concerts and 300 television shows throughout more than 3 million miles - with the band and as a solo performer. Beyond performing, he has a rich history of creating, producing and preserving original and traditional folk and acoustic music, and taking it to new audiences.

Allen Stone started working his dazzling vocals as a kid, thanks largely to his parents’ influence. “My father was a minister so I spent about half my childhood in church, watching my mom and dad sing together and lead the congregation in song,” he recalls. By the time he was 11 he’d picked up a guitar and written his first song, and soon began self-recording demo tapes to pass along to classmates. Although Stone enrolled in bible college after high school, he quickly dropped out to move to Seattle and kickstart his music career. “I had an ’87 Buick and I’d drive up and down the west coast, playing any gig I could get just to try to put my music out there,” he says.

Hailing from Detroit, Michigan, Empty Houses is an indie pop band with a strong retro flavor that borrows from the iconic sounds of Motown and Phil Spector. The band was formed by multi-instrumentalists Dave Mackinder and Adam Mercer, both of pop-punkers Fireworks, and singer Ali Shea.

Over the decade and a half that Rogue Wave has made music, Zach Rogue has continued to expand his band’s emotional spectrum. Drawing inspiration from the inevitable delusions of everyday American life, Rogue, his longtime bandmate Pat Spurgeon, and their fellow members have returned reinvigorated, and with a fresh sound founded on the art of patience, the fearlessness of experimenting, and the unbridled joy of creating something meaningful to help us navigate through these vacant times.

Having written his most personal collection of songs to date, Mark Charles Heidinger initially planned to strip the recording process of Vandaveer's new album down to as few elements as possible, pursuing a more direct, minimalist approach. But after huddling with vocalist, Rose Guerin, and long-time producer, Duane Lundy, they charted a new course, enveloping these autobiographical vignettes with a full spectrum of sound. And with more than a little help from their friends. The trio called in brothers-in-arms, J. Tom Hnatow, Robby Cosenza and Justin Craig, for a prolonged session of sonic wayfinding.

Folk powerhouse pair The Small Glories are Cara Luft & JD Edwards, a dynamic new duo planted on the Canadian Prairies. They are a study in contrasts; Cara, all earth mother on her 21-speed bike, helmet and backpack, environmentally friendly and wholesome, ebullient and engaging; and burly JD, looking like a cross between a biker and long-haul trucker in scruffy beard, ball cap, t-shirt and jean jacket, slightly intimidating (until you meet him).

Ben Abraham's honest songwriting and disarming stage presence have seen him grow in the last two years from a well-kept hometown secret into an independent artist with a passionate international following. His distinctive soulful voice and developing reputation as a songwriter have led to recent collaborations with artists including Gotye and Sara Bareilles, and he was recently hand-picked by Emmylou Harris to support her on a national tour of Australia.

Alex Jackson was born and raised in Melbourne, Australia, started playing the guitar at age 7, and spent most of the time locked in her bedroom jumping around with a guitar practicing to AC/DC records. Alex had her first live show at age 11 at The Cherry Bar - a pub on the aptly named AC/DC Lane (which is a real street in Melbourne Australia) and has been gigging, playing, and writing songs ever since.

Multi-instrumentalist Sean Watkins has long been known for his work as one-third of the Grammy Award-winning Nickel Creek and, more recently, for helming, with sister Sara, the itinerant, genre-hopping Watkins Family Hour ensemble. But in the last year he has more assertively – and impressively – taken on the role of solo artist. What To Fear is a follow-up to 2014’s acclaimed All I Do Is Lie, which had been Watkins’ first solo effort in nearly a decade, ten years that had been jammed with collaborative projects and a herculean amount of touring.

The artist formerly known as Aaron Livingston knows his nation well. The pastiche and reach of his music is literally all over the map, and he can hear a map in his music. In it, he can recognize the places he's lived, traveled, and played to, places explored and discovered. "I hear places in the songs without trying to evoke them while writing. I can trace where a lot of my music came from, as my life and my family touch so many different places. I can hear the Gulf Coast of Louisiana in my voice, the way I say some of the words; I hear New York, definitely in my lyrics. Detroit is a place I haven't spent a ton of time in, but if I explore the music of Detroit, I can hear myself in there, too."

Futureman is an inventor, scientist, musician, composer and five time Grammy Award winning performer with Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, a band that also featured his bass virtuoso brother Victor. At the heart of the Flecktones' music is Futureman's ground breaking percussion technique performed on his first invention he calls the Drumitar. The guitar shaped instrument allows him to replicate sounds of an entire contemporary drum kit with just a few fingers.

Honesty, confidence, and respect permeate Eilen Jewell’s (pronounced: EE-len) music, dating back to her self-released Boundary County album in 2006. Since then, the Boise native has recorded five studio albums with her road-tested touring band, and two more as a member of the Boston-based gospel-charged Sacred Shakers, which includes that well-oiled band at its core. Her latest, Sundown Over Ghost Town, is a culmination of Jewell’s work to date.

Entranced by the sound of her grandfather’s violin, Anna Tivel started learning in the first grade and never put it down. In 2006, she moved to Portland, muddled through college, and started waiting tables and playing some fiddle on the side. Jeffrey Martin was born in San Antonio, Texas. While he’s been writing songs since he was in high school, he didn’t begin touring until 2010 when a few chance opening gigs fell his way. Before he ever slept out of his car for music, he enjoyed sleeping out of his car all over the country just for the sake of traveling— so the anti-glamourous lifestyle of a touring singer-songwriter suited him well. 

When Indianapolis sisters Lily and Madeleine first started making music together, it didn’t cross their minds that they could make a living at it. Although they now find themselves in an acclaimed full-fledged career, what got them here has nothing to do with money, and everything to do with the spirit.

Mike Edel couldn’t have named his sophomore release more poetically. Even the title, India, Seattle feels like a story on its own. Two polarized locations on opposite ends of the earth, one crawling with colors and noise and the other lying silent and blue in the corner of America. Part of growing a little bit older, a little bit wiser is the awareness that comes inside growing spaces.