Category: Summer 2022

Now in its 24^th season, Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! is NPR’s Peabody Award-winning quiz show. Host Peter Sagal leads a rotating panel of comedians, humorists, journalists, listener contestants, and celebrity guests through a comic review of the week’s news. The fast-paced program boasts a weekly audience of four million listeners on more than 700 NPR stations nationwide and surpasses a million podcast downloads monthly. Impressively, the show’s audience has grown nearly every ratings period since its January 1998 premiere. Contestants vie for the quirkiest and most coveted prize in all of public radio—a custom-recorded greeting by any of the show’s cast members for their voicemail.

Peter Sagal is, has been, and perhaps someday will be again, a husband, father, playwright, screenwriter, author, journalist, columnist, marathoner, Jeopardy contestant, dramaturg, podcast host, documentary host, foreign correspondent, wedding officiant, and magician’s assistant.

As a playwright, his work has been produced or commissioned by the Long Wharf Theater, Seattle Rep, Actor’s Theater of Louisville, Florida Stage, and many others here and abroad, and he’s won awards from the Lannan Foundation, the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, and fellowships from the Camargo and Jerome Foundations. His screenwriting career began and pretty much ended with Dirty Dancing 2: Havana Nights, which he wrote without meaning to.

In 1997, Sagal got a call from a friend telling him about a new show at NPR, which was looking for “funny people who read a lot of newspapers.” He auditioned and appeared as a panelist on the first broadcast of Wait, Wait… Don’t Tell Me! in January of 1998, and moved with his family to Chicago to become the host in May, alongside the original judge and scorekeeper, Carl Kasell.

In 2008, he accepted a Peabody Award on behalf of the panelists, crew, and producers of this show. He’s also won the Kurt Vonnegut Award for Humor from the Kurt Vonnegut Library. He’s the author of The Book of Vice: Naughty Things and How To Do Them and The Incomplete Book of Running, a memoir about the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing and other adventures while running long distances. He’s contributed essays to Opera News, Saveur, Finesse, The New York Times Magazine, and was the “Road Scholar” columnist for Runner’s World.

On TV, Sagal has made appearances on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and other shows, and hosted Constitution USA with Peter Sagal for PBS and National Geographic Explorer for the NatGeo Channel. He also appeared on a narrowly popular podcast, Nerdette Recaps Game of Thrones with Peter Sagal, because he is a giant nerd.

Biography provided by artist management.

Bill Kurtis is the judge and scorekeeper for NPR’s Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me!

For many, Kurtis was the face, the voice, and the hair of the news in Chicago. Along with his co-anchor, Walter Jacobson, Kurt brought authority and integrity to CBS-affiliate WBBM. Since then, he’s produced and hosted such shows as Investigative Reports, American Justice, and Cold Case Files. He was also the narrator of Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy. Essentially, if you hear Kurtis saying your name, you’ve either committed a terrible crime, or you’re Will Ferrell. Kurtis is also the founder of Tallgrass Beef Company, where, every night, he lulls his grass-fed cows to sleep by reading them a bed time story.

Biography provided by artist management.

Tom Bodett used to do interesting things—log, fish, build houses. Drink. Now he does this. He left a promising career doing interesting things in Alaska to become a writer and subsequently a commentator on All Things Considered beginning in 1984. He is the author of seven books and a boatload of audio programs. His voice has been heard on Saturday Night Live, National Geographic Explorer, and Steven Spielberg’s Animaniacs, and he can still be heard saying “We’ll leave the light on for you” about 110 times a day. He lives in Vermont with his wife and sons in the middle of a hay field near a fore

Roxanne Roberts has been a feature writer at The Washington Post for three decades and was featured on the very first broadcast of Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! She spoils her son and cats, and fritters away her remaining free time baking, playing poker, and building gingerbread houses.

Alzo Slade is an Emmy-winning correspondent for VICE News. Since joining VICE News in 2018, his coverage has spanned a wide range of topics from President Trump’s border wall, to hair weaves for men. Slade recently won an Emmy for his reporting in “Moment of Truth,” VICE News Tonight’s special episode following the historic testimony from Christine Blasey Ford and Judge Brett Kavanaugh. In addition to his work for VICE News, Alzo Slade is a professional documentary/fashion photographer and stand-up comedian. He’s also a former professor at The College of New Rochelle in New York where he taught philosophy.

Biography provided by artist management.

Luke Burbank grew up as one of seven kids, learning early on how to vie for attention. Those profound childhood issues have propelled him to various media projects including This American Life, Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, CBS Sunday Morning, Live Wire, and the daily podcast Too Beautiful To Live. Burbank keeps telling himself you’re chanting Luuuuuuuuuke and not saying Booooooooo because you’re not doing that, right? Wait, seriously, you were booing? At a public radio show? This would never happen to Ira Glass.

Karen Chee is an Emmy and WGA award-nominated comedian, writer, and actor. She’s currently writing/performing for Late Night with Seth Meyers, developing a movie, and working on a book, among other projects. She likes doing multiple jobs at once because the crushing weight of work distracts her from the crushing weight of everything else. Previously, she’s written for the Golden Globes and Yearly Departed (Amazon), helped develop pilots for Netflix and Comedy Central, acted in HBO’s High Maintenance, and contributed regularly to The New Yorker. She’s also been published in places like The New York Times, The Washington Post, and McSweeney’s, which was very nice of them. Before the Apocalypse, she spent most evenings doing stand-up comedy and would like to do that again someday. She was equal parts honored and mortified to be on Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2022.

Peter Grosz began his improv training at iO Chicago and wrote and performed in four reviews on The Second City’s ETC stage. Films include Stranger Than Fiction, Slow Learners, Aardvark, and Rough Night. TV credits include Key and Peele, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Inside Amy Schumer, Vinyl, and a recurring role on Veep. He wrote for Late Night with Seth Meyers, received two Emmys for his writing on The Colbert Report, and was an executive producer and plays Mike Pence on The President Show.

Biography provided by artist management.

You can capsulize most pop music acts by reciting how many hits they’ve had or how many millions of albums they’ve sold. But these conventional measurements fall short when you’re assessing the impact of The Beach Boys. This band has birthed a torrent of hit singles and sold albums by the tens of millions, but its greater significance lies in the fact that The Beach Boys’ songs have forever changed the musical landscape, profoundly influencing countless performing artists to follow.

The band is led by Mike Love, who, along with longtime member Bruce Johnston, musical director Scott Totten, Brian Eichenberger, Christian Love, Tim Bonhomme, John Cowsill, Keith Hubacher, and Randy Leago, continue the legacy of the iconic group. Grammy-winning songwriter Bruce Johnston joined The Beach Boys in 1965, replacing Glenn Campbell, who filled-in for Brian Wilson on vocals/bass when he retired from touring. Highly regarded in his field, Johnston’s vocal work with such legendary artists as Elton John and Pink Floyd firmly established him among rock’s elite artists.

Captained by Mike Love, The Beach Boys play an astoundingly busy schedule of concerts, averaging 150 shows a year, ranging from sundrenched amphitheaters to intimate performing arts centers and special events across the globe.

The band continues to create and perform with the same bold imagination and style that marked their explosive debut over 50 years ago. In 2013, their Capitol Records release Sounds of Summer (RIAA certified triple platinum with over three million in sales and climbing) and its companion The Warmth of the Sun (2007) marked a resurgence in The Beach Boys interest that again rocked the world.

The Beach Boys found through their music the key to unfading youth, and they made copies for everyone. To these guys, the beach isn’t just a place where the surf comes to play, it’s where life is renewed and made whole again.

Had this remarkable band been less committed to its art and its fans, it could have retired from the field with honor at dozens of points along the way, confident that it had made a lasting contribution to world culture. It could have rested on the success of the epoch-shifting Pet Sounds masterpiece in 1966; or after Mike Love’s concept album Endless Summer (1974) ignited a second generation of The Beach Boys’ fans and stirred a tempest that rocked the music world; or after recording Love’s co-written Golden Globe nominated “Kokomo” in 1988 and seeing it become its best-selling single ever; or after being inducted that same year into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; or after watching its worldwide album sales blow past l00 million; or after winning the NARAS Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001 (along with The Who, Bob Marley, Tony Bennett, Sammy Davis Jr. and Les Paul). And still, The Beach Boys continue to have fun, fun, fun, with no end in sight.

In 2012, The Beach Boys scheduled a 74 concert date limited 50^th Anniversary Reunion Tour in which the original members reunited and released That’s Why God Made the Radio (2012). The album debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard charts, their highest chart position in 37 years and an unprecedented milestone.

In 2016, The Beach Boys celebrated the 50^th anniversary of the hit “Good Vibrations”—which is widely considered one of the greatest masterpieces in the history of rock and roll—with a 50 Years of Good Vibrations tour. Additionally, to commemorate this prolific time in the band’s life, Love released his highly-anticipated memoir titled Good Vibrations: My Life as a Beach Boy, which made its way to The New York Times bestseller list immediately following its release.
Few, if any, acts can match The Beach Boys’ concert presence, spirit, and performance. They were centerstage at Live Aid, multiple Farm Aids, the Statue of Liberty’s 100^th Anniversary Salute, the Super Bowl, and the White House. On one day alone—July 4, 1985—they played to nearly two million fans at shows in Philadelphia and Washington, DC.

Love’s role as the band’s front man sometimes overshadows his stature as one of rock’s foremost songwriters. “Surfin’,” The Beach Boys’ first hit, came from his pen. With his cousin Brian Wilson, Love wrote the classics “Fun, Fun, Fun,” “I Get Around,” “Help Me Rhonda,” “California Girls,” and the Grammy-nominated “Good Vibrations.” Years later, he showed he still had the lyrical chops by co-writing the irresistible and chart-topping “Kokomo.”

Presently, he continues to bring new, creative projects to his dedicated fans year after year. In 2020, he debuted his latest single “This Too Shall Pass,” featuring special guest John Stamos. Released at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, he wrote the song to remind everyone that better days are yet to come. In 2019, Love released 12 Sides of Summer, a collection of original songs, covers, and fresh takes on hits including George Harrison’s “Here Comes the Sun,” The Dave Clark Five’s “Over and Over and Over Again,” as well as updated renditions of The Beach Boys’ “Surfin,” “Surfin’ Safari,” and “It’s Ok,” featuring Hanson. The song marked Love’s second recording with Hanson, after previously collaborating on “Finally it’s Christmas” for Love’s 2018 holiday album Reason For The Season, which also features vocals from Love’s children: Ambha, Brian, Christian, and Hayleigh Love. In 2017, Love released a special double album entitled Unleash the Love, featuring 13 previously unreleased songs and 14 re-recordings of The Beach Boys’ classics to positive acclaim.

Biography provided by artist management.

For over 20 years, The Decemberists have been one of the most original, daring, and thrilling American rock bands. Founded in the year 2000 when singer, songwriter, and guitarist Colin Meloy moved from Montana to Portland, Oregon and met bassist Nate Query, keyboardist Jenny Conlee, and guitarist Chris Funk, The Decemberists’ distinctive brand of hyperliterate folk-rock set them apart from the start with the release of their debut EP 5 Songs in 2001. After making their full-length debut with Castaways and Cutouts in 2002, the band signed with Kill Rock Stars for the release of the acclaimed albums Her Majesty the Decemberists (2003) and Picaresque (2005), which was produced by Chris Walla. The 2004 EP The Tain—an 18-minute single-track epic—made the band’s grand creative ambitions clear.

Around this time the band’s permanent line-up fell into place with the arrival of drummer John Moen, and they made the unexpected leap to Capitol Records for their first major label album in 2006. Fans’ concerns of whether the band would alter their trademark sound quickly vanished when they delivered their most ambitious and audacious record to date in The Crane Wife, a song cycle produced by Walla and Tucker Martine (who would become a longtime creative partner) that added elements of ‘70s progressive hard rock, and even quasi-disco to their palette. The album was met by wide acclaim from The New York Times, Rolling Stone, SPIN, Stereogum, and was named “Best New Music” by Pitchfork.

Three years later, The Hazards of Love—a full-length concept album based on Meloy’s idea for a stage musical—was a Top 20 hit. In 2011, they topped themselves yet again with their first No. 1 album The King Is Dead, which featured the Grammy-nominated song “Down By The Water.” After their 2015 album What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World, which included the No. 1 AAA radio hit “Make You Better,” The Decemberists changed up their sound and explored new approaches to making music on their eighth studio album I’ll Be Your Girl (2018) with producer John Congleton. NPR Music wrote “Every band needs to refresh and reconsider its sound sooner or later, no matter how sharp it’s gotten over the course of a long career—even The Decemberists, a band whose records have always come bursting with verve… I’ll Be Your Girl captures a collaborative spirit that keeps the band sounding vibrant and alive.”

Over the past 20 years The Decemberists have toured the world, performed at countless major festivals, and even founded Travelers’ Rest, a festival of their own curation in Missoula, Montana. The band has appeared on The Simpsons, collaborated with Hamilton’s Lin-Manuel Miranda, and released their own crowd-funded board game Illimat.

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Durham, NC singer, guitarist, and folksong interpreter Jake Xerxes Fussell (yes, that’s his real middle name, after GA potter D.X. Gordy) has distinguished himself as one of his generation’s preeminent interpreters of traditional (and not so traditional) “folk” songs, a practice which he approaches with a refreshingly unfussy lack of nostalgia and preciousness. By re-contextualizing ancient vernacular songs and sources of the American South, he allows them to breathe and speak for themselves and for himself; he alternately inhabits them and allows them to inhabit him. In all his work, Fussell humanizes his material with his own profound curatorial and interpretive gifts, unmooring stories and melodies from their specific eras and origins and setting them adrift in our own waterways. The robust burr of his voice, which periodically melts and catches at a particularly tender turn of phrase, and the swung rhythmic undertow of exquisite, seemingly effortless guitar-playing pull new valences of meaning from ostensibly antique songs and subjects.

Fussell grew up in Columbus, GA, son of Fred C. Fussell, a folklorist, curator, and photographer who hails from across the river in Phenix City, AL (once known as “The Wickedest City in America” for its rampant vice, corruption, and crime). Fred Fussell’s fieldwork took him, often with young Jake Fussell in tow, across the Southeast documenting traditional vernacular culture, which included recording blues and old-time musicians with fellow folklorists and recordists George Mitchell and Art Rosenbaum (which led him to music) and collaborating with American Indian artists (which led to his graduate research on Choctaw fiddlers). As a teenager, Fussell began playing and studying with elder musicians in the Chattahoochee Valley; apprenticing with Piedmont blues legend Precious Bryant, with whom he toured and recorded; and riding wild with AL bluesman, black rodeo rider, rye whiskey distiller, and master dowser George Daniel. He joined a Phenix City country band who were students of Jimmie Tarlton of Darby and Tarlton; accompanied Etta Baker in North Carolina; moved to Berkeley, where he hung with genius documentary filmmaker Les Blank and learned from Haight folkies like Will Scarlett (Jefferson Airplane, Hot Tuna, Brownie McGhee) and cult fingerstyle guitarist Steve Mann; and he appeared on A Prairie Home Companion. He did a whole lot of listening, gradually honing his prodigious guitar skills, singing, and repertoire. In 2005 he moved to Oxford, MS, where he enrolled in the southern studies department at Ole Miss, recorded and toured with Rev. John Wilkins, and in 2014, began recording his first solo album.

Fussell’s 2015 self-titled debut record, produced by and featuring William Tyler, transmutes 10 arcane folk and blues tunes into vibey cosmic laments and crooked riverine rambles. Collaborating with Tyler and engineer Mark Nevers in Nashville was a conscious decision to depart cloistered trad scenes and sonics for broader, more oblique horizons. Tyler, a guitar virtuoso known for his own compositions that untether and reframe traditional six-string forms and techniques, helmed the push boat in inimitable fashion, enlisting crack(ed) Nashville session vets Chris Scruggs (lap steel, bass, mandolin: Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Marty Stuart), Brian Kotzur (drums: Silver Jews), and Hoot Hester (fiddle; Bill Monroe, Ray Charles) to crew.

In 2017, Fussell followed his celebrated self-titled debut with the moving new album What in the Natural World, written in the form of reimagined folk/blues koans. This time, these radiant ancient tunes tone several shades darker while amplifying their absurdist humor, illuminating our national and psychic predicaments. What in the Natural World features art by iconic painter Roger Brown and contributions from three notable Nathans—Nathan Bowles (Steve Gunn), Nathan Salsburg (Alan Lomax Archive), and Nathan Golub (Mountain Goats)—as well as Joan Shelley and Casey Toll (Mt. Moriah).

On Out of Sight (2019), his third and most finely wrought album yet, Fussell is joined for the first time by a full band featuring Nathan Bowles (drums), Casey Toll (bass), Nathan Golub (pedal steel), Libby Rodenbough (violin, vocals), and James Anthony Wallace (piano, organ). An utterly transporting selection of traditional narrative folksongs addressing the troubles and delights of love, work, and wine and deftly metamorphosed from a myriad of obscure sources, Out of Sight contains, among other moving curiosities: a fishmonger’s cry that sounds like an astral lament (“The River St. Johns”); a cotton mill tune that humorously explores the unknown terrain of death and memory (“Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues”); and a fishermen’s shanty/gospel song equally concerned with terrestrial boozing and heavenly transcendence (“Drinking of the Wine”).

Fussell’s fourth album Good and Green Again (2022) finds the acclaimed folksong interpreter, guitarist, and singer navigating fresh sonic and compositional landscapes on the most conceptually focused, breathtakingly rendered, and enigmatically poignant record of his wondrous catalog. Produced by James Elkington and featuring formidable players both familiar (Casey Toll, Libby Rodenbough) and new (Joe Westerlund, Bonnie “Prince” Billy), it includes Fussell’s first original compositions; atmospheric arrangements with pedal steel, horns, and strings; and cover art by Art Rosenbaum.

Biography provided by artist management.

Steve Martin is one of the most well-known talents in entertainment. His work has earned him an Academy Award, five Grammy awards, an Emmy, the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, and the Kennedy Center Honors.

Martin began his career on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (1967-1969), for which he earned his first Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing Achievement in Comedy, Variety, or Music in 1969. In the mid-1970s, Martin shone as a stand-up on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and NBC’s Saturday Night Live. Martin’s films are widely popular successes and are the kind of movies that are viewed again and again: The Jerk (1979), Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987), Roxanne (1987), Parenthood (1989), L.A. Story (1991), Father of the Bride (1991), and Bowfinger (1999).

Martin is also an accomplished, Grammy Award-winning, boundary-pushing bluegrass banjoist and composer. The song “California” is Martin’s newest collaboration with the Grammy-winning, North Carolina-based Steep Canyon Rangers following the release of their albums The Long-Awaited Album in 2017 and Rare Bird Alert in 2011. Martin, who has released five albums of original American roots music since 2009, also collaborated with Edie Brickell on So Familiar in 2015 and Love Has Come For You in 2013, which won a Grammy for Best American Roots Song for the title track and inspired their Tony Award nominated musical Bright Star.

As an author, Martin’s work includes the novel An Object of Beauty, the play Picasso at the Lapin Agile, his collection of comic pieces Pure Drivel, his bestselling novella Shopgirl, and his memoir Born Standing Up. His play Meteor Shower premiered on Broadway in 2017 in a production starring Emmy Award-winner Amy Schumer, Keegan-Michael Key, Tony Award- winner Laura Benanti, and Alan Tudyk, and it was directed by four-time Tony Award-winner Jerry Zaks.

Martin’s 2018 Netflix special with Martin Short titled Steve Martin and Martin Short: An Evening You Will Forget for the Rest of Your Life received four Emmy nominations in 2018. In 2019, Martin and Short launched the Now You See Them, Soon You Won’t tour, which visited major venues across the US and Australia for the first time, and they launched a new comedy tour in 2020 called The Funniest Show in Town at the Moment.

Martin and Short also star together in the true crime comedy series on Hulu Only Murders in the Building. Selena Gomez co-stars in the series, which was co-created by Martin and John Hoffman (Grace & Frankie), who served as executive producers along with Gomez, This Is Us creator Dan Fogelman, Rhode Island Ave’s Jess Rosenthal, and Short.

Martin’s A Wealth of Pigeons: A Cartoon Collection was released this past November on Celadon. The No. 1 The New York Times best-selling book is a collection of cartoons written by Martin and drawn by The New Yorker cartoonist Harry Bliss.

Biography provided by artist management.

Martin Short, a celebrated comedian and actor, has won fans and accolades in television, film, and theater since his breakout season on Saturday Night Live (SNL) over 30 years ago.

Short won his first Emmy in 1982 while working on Canada’s SCTV Comedy Network, which brought him to the attention of the producers of SNL. He became an SNL fan-favorite for his portrayal of characters such as Ed Grimley, lawyer Nathan Thurm, and “legendary songwriter” Irving Cohen.

His popularity and exposure on SNL led Short to cross over quickly into feature films. He made his debut in Three Amigos! and followed with Innerspace, Three Fugitives, Clifford, Pure Luck, and Tim Burton’s Mars Attacks! One of Short’s most memorable roles was in the remake of Father of the Bride as Franck the wedding planner, a role he reprised a few years later in Father of the Bride Part II. Short lent his voice to the animated film Madagascar 3 and Tim Burton’s Oscar-nominated Frankenweenie.

An accomplished stage actor, Short won a Tony, Theatre World Award, and an Outer Critics Circle Award for his role in the revival of Little Me. He was also nominated for a Tony and took home an Outer Critics Circle Award for the musical version of Neil Simon’s The Goodbye Girl. Short co-wrote and starred in Fame Becomes Me, prompting The New York Times to describe Short as “a natural for live musicals, a limber singer and dancer who exudes a fiery energy that makes you want to reach for your sunglasses.” Short recently appeared on Broadway in Terrence McNally’s It’s Only a Play.

A two-time primetime Emmy winner and multi-nominated for both primetime and daytime Emmys, Short returned to television in 1998 for the miniseries Merlin and host of The Martin Short Show. In 2001, he launched the popular comedy Primetime Glick and in 2010, received critical acclaim for his role in FX’s drama series Damages.

Short has also returned to SNL as host three times and performed in the series’ landmark 40^th anniversary special in February 2015. Other recent television credits include Big Mouth, The Morning Show, Hairspray Live!, Maya & Marty, Mulaney, How I Met Your Mother, and the critically acclaimed PBS series Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That.

Short’s The New York Times bestselling memoir I Must Say: My Life as a Humble Comedy Legend was published in 2014.

In 1994, Short was awarded the Order of Canada—the Canadian equivalent to British knighthood. He was also inducted into the Canadian Walk of Fame in June 2000. In 2017, he received a Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award from the Governor-General of Canada.

Short is receiving high critical acclaim for his performance in Hulu’s television comedy series Only Murders in the Building which premiered in 2021. He is also an executive producer on the series which stars Steve Martin and Selena Gomez.

Biography provided by artist management.

North Carolina native Fantasia broke onto the scene in 2004 as the season three winner of Fox’s American Idol. Later that year, she released her platinum-selling debut album Free Yourself and became the first artist in the history of the Billboard Hot 100 chart to debut at No. 1 with her first single, “I Believe.” Fantasia’s 2006 eponymous second album featured the No. 1 R&B single, “When I See U” and reached gold status. In 2010, Fantasia released the critically acclaimed Back To Me, which featured the hit single “Bittersweet” that earned her first ever Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance and a NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Song. In 2013, Fantasia released her fourth studio album Side Effects of You, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard R&B Albums Chart and No. 2 on the Billboard Top 200. On July 29, 2016, Fantasia released her fifth studio album, The Definition Of…. The album debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s R&B chart, No. 2 on the Overall Albums and R&B/Hip-­Hop Albums chart, and No. 6 on the Billboard 200 chart. The high chart entries mark Fantasia’s third consecutive No. 1 R&B album debut, her fourth Top 10 debut on the Billboard 200, and earned her another Grammy nomination for Best Traditional R&B Performance.

In an effort to show her fans love and thank them for their constant support, Fantasia has toured non-­stop since the beginning of her career. In addition to selling out headline tours across the country, the Grammy Award-winner has shared the stage with the likes of Anthony Hamilton, Maxwell, and Andrea Bocelli.

In addition to being a mainstay in music, Fantasia adds author and actress to her growing list of accomplishments. In 2006, she released The New York Times bestselling memoir, Life Is Not a Fairytale, and starred as herself in the Lifetime movie of the same name. In 2007, Fantasia landed the coveted role of Celie in Broadway’s The Color Purple for which she won a Theater World Award. Fantasia returned to Broadway in 2013 as the first celebrity engagement in After Midnight, a dance-­focused musical that celebrated Harlem’s iconic Cotton Club during the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s and 1930s. After receiving rave reviews, Fantasia joined the cast of After Midnight for a second run in May 2014.

Fantasia released her first holiday album Christmas After Midnight in 2017 via her own imprint Rock Soul Entertainment, in partnership with Concord Records. Produced by Ron Fair, the 12­-track album features covers of holiday favorites including “This Christmas,” “Silent Night,” “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas,” “Santa Claus Go Straight To The Ghetto,” and “Jingle Bell Rock.”

Most recently, Fantasia and her husband Kendall Taylor published the book No Crown in this Castle in 2022, and she will reprise her role as Celie in the new The Color Purple film to be released in 2023.

Biography provided by artist management.

R&B powerhouse singer/songwriter Leela James first burst onto the scene with her 2006 debut album A Change is Gonna Come, introducing audiences to her soaring, sultry vocal dexterity. She quickly garnered nominations for Outstanding New Artist at the NAACP Image Awards and Best R&B/Soul or Rap New Artist of 2008 at the Soul Train Music Awards. James has gone on to record five more albums including My Soul, which reached No. 7 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip Hop Albums Chart and the song “Don’t Want You Back” which rose to No. 1 on the Billboard Adult R&B chart. James has earned much acclaim from critics for her performance and songwriting skills. Her latest single “Complicated” is a catchy, mid-tempo story that reflects James’ lyrical journey and musical excellence. James’ recent album See Me was released in 2021, featuring some of her most personal and daring songwriting and production yet.

Biography provided by artist management.

Elvis Costello began writing songs at the age of 13 and has since enjoyed a decades long career as one of the best songwriters of his generation. 2017 marked the 40^th anniversary of the release his first studio album, My Aim Is True (1977).

He is perhaps best known for the songs, “Alison,” “Pump It Up,” “Everyday I Write The Book,” and his  rendition of the Nick Lowe song, “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding.”

His record catalogue of more than 30 albums includes the contrasting pop and rock ’n’ roll albums, This Year’s Model (1978), Armed Forces (1979), Imperial Bedroom (1982), Blood & Chocolate (1986), and King of America (1986),along with an album of country covers, Almost Blue (1981), and two collections of orchestrally accompanied piano ballads, Painted From Memory (1998), with Burt Bacharach and North (2003).

He has performed worldwide with his bands, The Attractions, His Confederates (which featured two  members of Elvis Presley’s T.C.B. band) and his current group, The Imposters—Steve Nieve, Pete Thomas, and Davey Faragher—as well as solo concerts, most recently his acclaimed solo show, Detour.

Costello has entered into songwriting collaborations with Paul McCartney, Burt Bacharach, the Brodsky Quartet, and with Allen Toussaint for the album The River In Reverse (2006), the first major label recording project to visit New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and completed there while the city was still under curfew.

In 2003, Costello acted as lyrical editor of six songs written with his wife—the jazz pianist and singer  Diana Krall—for her album The Girl in the Other Room (2004). He has written lyrics for compositions by Charles Mingus, Billy Strayhorn, and Oscar Peterson and musical settings for words by W.B. Yeats and Bob Dylan.

Costello’s songs have been recorded by a great number of artists, including George Jones, Linda Ronstadt, Georgie Fame, Chet Baker, Johnny Cash, June Tabor, Roy Orbison, Dusty Springfield, Robert Wyatt, Anne Sofie von Otter, Solomon Burke, and Darlene Love.

During his career, Costello has received numerous prestigious honors, including two Ivor Novello Awards for songwriting, a Dutch Edison Award with The Brodsky Quartet for The Juliet Letters (1993), the Nordoff-Robbins Silver Clef Award, a BAFTA for the music written with Richard Harvey for Alan Bleasdale’s television drama series G.B.H., and a Grammy for “I Still Have That Other Girl” from his 1998 collaboration with Burt Bacharach, Painted From Memory.

Costello and The Attractions were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003, and in the same year, Costello was awarded ASCAP’s prestigious Founder’s Award.

In 2004, Costello was nominated for an Oscar for Best Song—“The Scarlet Tide,” co-written with T Bone Burnett and sung by Alison Krauss in the motion picture Cold Mountain. In 2016, Costello was inducted into the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame in the company of Chip Taylor and Tom Petty.

Costello’s first full-length orchestral work Il Sogno was commissioned in 2000 by the Italian dance company Aterballetto for their adaptation of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The score was subsequently recorded by The London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Michael Tilson-Thomas, and released by Deutsche Grammophon, staying at the top of Billboard’s Contemporary Classical Charts for 14 weeks in 2004. This release led to a series of orchestral concert performances with a number of the world’s great symphonic orchestras, opening with a suite from Il Sogno conducted by Alan Broadbent and closing with a selection of Costello songs arranged for voice, the piano of Steve Nieve, and orchestra.

Nevertheless, Costello closed out 2007 by appearing solo as the middle act on The Bob Dylan Show for 28 dates.

In December 2008, Sundance Channel and CTV launched Costello’s internationally renowned music television series Spectacle which ran for 20 episodes over two seasons, offering intimate conversations and unique musical performances with guests, including Sir Elton John, President Bill Clinton, Tony Bennett, Lou Reed, Smokey Robinson, The Police, Herbie Hancock, Bono & The Edge, Levon Helm, John Prine, James Taylor, Jesse Winchester, and Bruce Springsteen.

Through 2009 and 2010, Costello toured with the largely acoustic ensemble The Sugarcanes, featuring Jerry Douglas, Jim Lauderdale, Stuart Duncan, Mike Compton, Jeff Taylor, and Dennis Crouch, all of whom had appeared on Secret, Profane & Sugarcane (2009), recorded by T Bone Burnett during a three-day session at Nashville’s Sound Emporium Studio. The Sugarcanes also appeared on the 2010 album, National Ransom alongside the Imposters, Marc Ribot, and guest stars Vince Gill and Leon Russell. The album featured the enduring spiritual narratives “Jimmie Standing In The Rain,” “Church Underground,” and “A Voice In The Dark.”

In September 2013, Blue Note Records released the album Wise Up Ghost, written by Costello with Questlove and producer Steven Mandel and recorded with The Roots and the orchestral arranger Brent Fischer.

From 2011-2014 having recorded the albums When I Was Cruel (2002), The Delivery Man (2004), and Momofuku (2008) together since 2002, Elvis Costello and The Imposters—Steve Nieve, Pete Thomas, and Davey Faragher—toured for four years with “The Spectacular Spinning Songbook,” employing a 20- foot game-show wheel with which audience members selected the next song to be performed.

In 2014, Elvis was also part of the New Basement Tapes ensemble with Marcus Mumford, Jim James, Rhiannon Giddens, and Taylor Goldsmith for the T Bone Burnett produced album Lost on the River (2014), offering the participant’s newly composed musical settings of previously undiscovered Bob Dylan lyrics from 1967.

In 2015, the Penguin/Blue Rider imprint published Costello’s nuanced and evocative memoir, Unfaithful Music and Disappearing Ink while he was appearing in Detour, a largely solo performance—although frequently augmented by Rebecca and Megan Lovell of Larkin Poe—in which anecdotes were connected to songs on the cue of archival photographs, cartoons, and other visual oddities projected onto a giant vintage-style television set. This presentation recently concluded after 106 shows in 20 countries.

March 2017 marked the release of a special edition of Paul McCartney’s Flowers in the Dirt, the 1989 album which included four from the 15 songs written by the McCartney/MacManus partnership, including the hit single “My Brave Face” and Costello’s contemporaneous chart success, “Veronica” from his album Spike (1989). The re-issue also includes a dozen demo recordings on which McCartney and Costello accompany themselves on guitar and piano, often performing in the two-part vocal harmony in which the songs were originally composed. Both writers have noted in recent interviews that the original demos may have contained some magic that later renditions failed to match.

Also in 2017, Costello wrote “You Shouldn’t Look At Me That Way,” the end title track for the major motion picture, Film Stars Don’t Die In Liverpool. The film was produced by EON Production’s Barbara Broccoli and stars Annette Bening and Jamie Bell. The video for “You Shouldn’t Look At Me That Way” was produced and directed by Mary McCartney. The song appeared on the deluxe edition of Costello’s 2018 album, Look Now.

Look Now, released in October 2018 by Concord Records, was Costello’s first collection of new material in five years and his first with The Imposters in a decade. Costello worked with co-producer Sebastian Krys at studios in Hollywood, New York City, and Vancouver, British Columbia, to create an “uptown pop record.”  In addition to the songs Costello wrote, the album included a collaboration with Carole King and three with Burt Bacharach, who plays piano on two, “Don’t Look Now” and “Photographs Can Lie.”

In 2019, Costello released the Purse EP, consisting of four songs containing songwriting collaborations with Burt Bacharach and Paul McCartney, as well as musical settings of lyrics by Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan. In the same year, Costello was: presented a Lifetime Achievement Award for songwriting in Nashville by the Americana Music Association; awarded an O.B.E. (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) for his services to music on the Queen’s Birthday Honours List; and announced as a recipient of a Hollywood Walk of Fame star for the class of 2020.

Biography provided by artist management.

Nick Lowe has made his mark as a producer (Elvis Costello, Graham Parker, Pretenders, The Damned), songwriter of at least three songs you know by heart, short-lived pop star, and longtime musicians’ musician. But in his current “second act” as a silver-haired, tender-hearted but sharp-tongued singer/songwriter, he has no equal.

Starting with 1995′s The Impossible Bird through to 2011′s The Old Magic, Lowe has turned out a fantastic string of albums, each one devised in his West London home and recorded with a core of musicians who possess the same veteran savvy. Lowe brings wit and understated excellence to every performance, leading Ben Ratliff of The New York Times to describe his live show as “elegant and nearly devastating.”

Los Straitjackets are the leading practitioners of the lost art of the guitar instrumental. Using the music of the Ventures, The Shadows—and with Link Wray and Dick Dale as a jumping off point—the band has taken their unique, high energy brand of original rock ’n’ roll around the world. Clad in their trademark Lucha Libre Mexican wrestling masks, the “Jackets” have delivered their trademark guitar licks to 16 albums, thousands of concerts, and dozens of films and TV shows.

Together Nick Lowe & Los Straitjackets have toured extensively around Europe and the United States and have released a series of EP’s together—the latest being Lay It On Me in 2019.

Biography provided by artist management.

Multi-platinum and Grammy-nominated, British singer/songwriter David Gray released White Ladder: The 20^th Anniversary deluxe edition (IHT Records/ AWAL) to celebrate the trailblazing album’s 20-year anniversary.

White Ladder was born of difficult circumstances. Gray had been struggling, a lonely figure with an acoustic guitar swimming against the tide of Britpop, grunge, hip-hop, and electro. Written and recorded on minimal budget in the bedroom of a tiny house in the U.K., Gray experimented with drum machines and electronic elements, creating a blend of folktronica that has since become a familiar part of the musical landscape. White Ladder slowly found an audience—it took a year to creep into the British charts, then worked its way up to No. 1. The album eventually spent three years in the UK Top 100, spawning classic hit singles “Babylon,” “Please Forgive Me,” and “Sail Away.” It remains in the top best-selling British albums of all time and the best-selling album ever in Ireland.

Gray has gone on to establish himself as one of the UK’s leading music artists both at home and overseas. Following 10 album releases, Gray’s commercial success is also backed up by a critical consensus and numerous accolades.

Biography provided by artist management.

Formed in Buffalo, NY in 1986 by John Rzeznik and Robby Takac, Goo Goo Dolls quietly broke records, contributed a string of staples to the American songbook, connected to millions of fans, and indelibly impacted popular music for three-plus decades. Beyond selling 15 million records worldwide, the group garnered four Grammy Award nominations and seized a page in the history books by achieving 16 No. 1 and Top 10 hits. As a result, they hold the all-time radio record for Most Top 10 Singles. Among a string of hits, “Iris” clutched No. 1 on the Hot 100 for 18 straight weeks and would be named a No. 1 Top 40 Song. Thus far, A Boy Named Goo (1995) went double-platinum, Dizzy Up The Girl (1998) went quadruple-platinum, and Gutterflower (2002) and Let Love In (2006) both went gold as Something for the Rest of Us (2010) and Magnetic (2013) bowed in the Top 10 of the Billboard Top 200. 2016’s Boxes attracted the praise of People and Huffington Post as Noisey, Consequence of Sound, and more featured them. Their music has been covered by everyone from Taylor Swift to Leona Lewis. Among many accolades, Rzeznik received the prestigious Hal David Starlight Award in 2008 as well.

Following a sold-out 2018 20^th anniversary tour in celebration of Dizzy Up The Girl, Goo Goo Dolls wrote and recorded their 12^th full-length album Miracle Pill (2019), igniting a bold and bright new era in the process. In fall 2020, the band began a new chapter with the debut of their first-ever holiday LP It’s Christmas All Over, and most recently released their brand new compilation record Rarities (2021), a double album filled with rare and never-before-heard songs from the band’s career spanning 1995 to 2007. With over 30 years together as a group, over 15 million albums sold, and 16 No. 1 and Top 10 hits, Goo Goo Dolls remain at the top of their game and in a league of their own among rock bands as they release their highly anticipated 13^th album Chaos in Bloom in August 2022.

Biography provided by artist management.

“These songs should make you want to fall in love with somebody, or miss somebody, or want to do something outrageous with your life,” says Justin Furstenfeld, vocalist and lyricist for the unstoppable alt-rock band Blue October. He’s talking about the tracks on the quintet’s 10th studio album, This Is What I Live For, released in 2020.

How does it feel to have a Top 10 single with “Oh My My,” the band’s first Top 10 single since 2009?

“Honestly, I’m blown away,” says Furstenfeld. “We started releasing our albums independently several years ago. It’s good to see that it doesn’t matter what label you’re on. As long as you’re writing good songs ,you have chance to be heard. Hopefully that inspires others.”

The San Marcos, Texas-based band (vocalist Justin Furstenfeld, multi-instrumentalist Ryan Delahoussaye, guitarist Will Knaak, bassist Matt Noveskey, and drummer Jeremy Furstenfeld) have earned a reputation for being remarkably dynamic, consistently delivering anthemic songs filled with rousing melodies and precision playing. And with their latest release, This Is What I Live For (2020), the members are even more in sync than ever. They wrote much of the material while they were on the road supporting their last album, 2018’s I Hope You’re Happy (debuted No. 1 on the Billboard Alternative Album Chart and No. 1 on the Billboard Independent Album Chart), often fine-tuning songs in front of live audiences. In this way, the song “I Will Follow You” had already become a favorite even before it was recorded for the new album.

“This album is going to catch some people off-guard,” Noveskey says. “A lot of it is about interpersonal relationships—years and years of marriage, growing older, and some of the issues that you may run into with that. I know that other albums are about that, but we get into some corners of life that we haven’t explored before.”

This determination to always speak the truth, even if it’s difficult, is the way Blue October has operated from the very start, since Justin and Jeremy Furstenfeld and Delahoussaye formed the band in 1995 when they were still in high school. When Noveskey joined three years later, Blue October really coalesced as the members found inspiration in bands like A Perfect Circle, Jimmy Eat World, Radiohead, and The Cure, reworking those disparate influences into an epic yet introspective sound that is entirely their own.

Blue October members themselves have admitted in characteristically candid fashion, things certainly haven’t always been easy. Their struggles over the years with substance abuse, and their subsequent treatment and recovery, have been well-documented in their songs. They also allowed themselves to be filmed over the course of seven tumultuous years for a documentary, Get Back Up, which was released in 2020. The film takes an unwavering look at the band—Justin Furstenfeld, in particular—as they grapple with the fallout from addiction and the resulting damage done to their families, professional relationships, and each other. It is ultimately a redemptive story, with all members now sober and mending their relationships, but not without going over some harrowing ground first.

“We made it out the other side, and it was hard,” Noveskey says. “There were times where we weren’t sure we would. But when you go through a lot together, you grow together, and you realize

what’s important. Then you realize, maybe there are things I’ve taken for granted over the years, including each other. We’re not going to let that happen anymore.”

Delahoussaye, who joined the band two years ago, agrees: “When a lifestyle change occurs, it filters in on all levels. Their positivity feeds mine, and I think it’s been really serendipitous that we met at a good time in all of our lives. I’m gaining a lot from their wisdom, and maybe they’re getting a little kick from my fresh perspective.”

After struggling with being incorrectly categorized because there was no easy label to apply to a group that is so musically powerful yet lyrically sensitive, it is particularly gratifying for the members to finally gain recognition for being distinctive.

“As much as people wanted to change me into something else, I always said no,” Justin Furstenfeld says. “I’m always a reality writer. I write bluntly, for the people that want to talk about things that aren’t dinner conversation pieces.”

This unswerving belief in Blue October’s music and message—and fans’ unusually strong connection as a result—has carried this band through many good and bad times.

Biography provided by artist management.

A. R. Rahman is popularly known as the man who has redefined contemporary Indian music. Rahman has scored for more than 150 projects, comprising of music in multiple languages, including landmark scores such as Roja, Bombay, Dil Se, Taal, Lagaan, Vandemataram, Jodhaa Akbar, Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours, Rockstar, and many more. Rahman pursued music as a career at a very young age, taking after his father who was a composer and arranger in South India. After assisting leading musicians in India, Rahman went on to compose jingles and scores for popular Indian television features. He also obtained a degree in western classical music from the Trinity College of Music, London. In 1991, noted filmmaker Mani Ratnam offered Rahman a movie called Roja, which was a run-away success and brought nationwide fame and acclaim to the composer. The composer is a six-time recipient of the Indian National Award and has bagged 32 Filmfare awards to his credit.

Rahman wrote the music for Bombay Dreams, produced by Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber, grossing remarkable numbers at London’s West End and Broadway. Notably, he also composed for the stage musical Lord of The Rings along with the Finnish band Varttina.

In 2008, Rahman’s work gained global prominence with the extraordinary success of his score for Slumdog Millionaire, which won Rahman two Academy Awards for Best Score and Best Song. Rahman won more than 15 awards for this score including two Grammys, a Golden Globe, and a BAFTA Award.

Rahman also marked his entry as a writer and producer, setting up his YM Studios Soundstage and working on 99 Songs, his maiden film venture. He is exploring new ways of storytelling through Le Musk, a cinematic multi-sensory project in progress, directed and written by him. He is in the process of setting up India’s native Symphony Orchestra through the AR Rahman Foundation and KMMC, nurturing young musicians to excel in music.

He is currently experimenting and researching on undisclosed projects based on Indian Classical music, finding ways to pass it on to the future generations. The KM Music Conservatory, under the able administration of his sister, Fathima Rafiq, imparts holistic education in western and Indian music and music technology.

His ongoing efforts with Intel have resulted in path breaking performance tools like “Curie.” He is noted for collaborating with numerous international artists like Coldplay, Mick Jagger, Dave Stewart, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Sami Yusuf, U2 (his latest collaboration), and his daughters, Khatija Rahman and Raheema Rahman. With his daughters, Rahman recorded ancient Tamil Couplets from Thirukural, resulting in the globally acclaimed single “Ahimsa,” commemorating 150 years of Mahatma Gandhi.

Biography provided by artist management.

Since their 2000 formation in Kalamazoo, MI, the quintet Greensky Bluegrass have unassumingly progressed into a phenomenon on their own terms with the undying support of a devoted audience. Rolling back and forth across North America on successive tours, they now sell out multiple nights at Red Rocks Amphitheatre and other premier venues across the country.

As always, the band embraces tradition, while ushering bluegrass forward on their eighth studio offering Stress Dreams (2022). After touring ceased in the face of the global pandemic, the band got together and dedicated rehearsals to development of new material. Once circumstances safely permitted, they recorded what would become Stress Dreams during a session in Guilford, VT and two sessions in Asheville, NC. The band co-produced with frequent collaborator and “old friend” Dominic John Davis (Jack White’s touring and studio bassist) and “wizard engineer” and Grammy-winning producer Glenn Brown. They preserved the hallmarks of their sound, while widening its expanse. Greensky Bluegrass is Dave Bruzza (guitar), Michael Bont (banjo), Michael Devol (bass), Anders Beck (dobro), and Paul Hoffman (mandolin).

Biography provided by artist management.

“Everyone has these little kingdoms in their minds,” says Chris Wood, “and the songs on this album all explore the ways we find peace in them. They look at how we deal with our dreams and our regrets and our fears and our loves. They look at the stories we tell ourselves and the ways we balance the darkness and the light.”

That balance of darkness and light is at the heart of Kingdom In My Mind (2020), The Wood Brothers’ seventh studio release and their most spontaneous and experimental collection yet. Recorded over a series of freewheeling, improvised sessions, the record is a reckoning with circumstance, mortality, and human nature, one that finds strength in accepting what lies beyond our control. Thoughtfully homing in on the bittersweet beauty that underlies our doubt and pain, the songs grapple with the power of our external surroundings to shape our internal worlds (and vice versa) through vivid character studies and unflinching self-examination. The lyrics dig deep here, but the arrangements always manage to remain buoyant, drawing from a broad sonic spectrum to create a transportive, effervescent listening experience that’s indicative of the trio’s unique place in the modern musical landscape.

“My brother came to this band from the blues and gospel world, and my history was all over the map with jazz and R&B,” explains Chris Wood, who first rose to fame with the pioneering trio Medeski Martin & Wood. “The idea for this group has always been to marry our backgrounds, to imagine what might happen if Robert Johnson and Charles Mingus had started a band.”

Kingdom In My Mind follows The Wood Brothers’ most recent studio release, 2018’s One Drop Of Truth, which hit No. 1 on the Billboard Heatseekers Chart and garnered the band their first Grammy Award nomination for Best Americana Album. NPR praised the record’s “unexpected changes and kaleidoscopic array of influences,” while Uncut hailed its “virtuosic performances and subtly evocative lyrics,” and Blurt proclaimed it “a career-defining album.” Tracks from the record have racked up roughly eight million streams on Spotify alone, and the band took the album on the road for extensive tour dates in the US and Europe, including their first-ever headline performance at Red Rocks Amphitheatre, two nights at San Francisco’s legendary Fillmore (captured on their 2019 release, Live At The Fillmore), and festival appearances everywhere from Bonnaroo to XPoNential.

On past records, the band—brothers Oliver and Chris Wood, and Jano Rix—would often write a large batch of songs and then deliberately capture them all at once, but when it came to making Kingdom In My Mind, The Wood Brothers began recording without even realizing it. At the time, the trio thought they were simply breaking in their new Nashville recording studio/rehearsal space, laying down a series of extended instrumental jam sessions with engineer Brook Sutton as a way to learn the lay of the land. Some rooms, they found, were spacious with natural reverb, others were tight and dry; some recording setups required a gentle touch, others encouraged blistering energy.

“We weren’t performing songs,” explains Oliver Wood. “We were just improvising and letting the music dictate everything. Normally when you’re recording, you’re thinking about your parts and your performances, but with these sessions, we were just reacting to each other and having fun in the moment.”

There was something undeniably alive and uninhibited about those performances, and after listening back, the band realized they’d never be able to recreate such spontaneous magic. So, like a sculptor chipping away at a block of marble, Chris Wood took the band’s sprawling improvisations and carefully chiseled out verses, choruses, bridges, and solos until distinctive songs began to take shape; songs that reflected influences and elements of the band (like Rix’s smoldering piano work and Chris Wood’s affinity for Latin and African music) that had never shone through in quite the same way before. From there, the brothers divvied up the material that spoke to them most, penning lyrics both separately and together as they pondered what it takes to know contentment in our chaotic and confusing world.

The jaunty “Little Bit Sweet,” which was born from the band’s very first session, learns to appreciate the ups and downs in the circle of life, while the soulful “Cry Over Nothing” and hypnotic “Little Blue” playfully meditate on ego and perspective, and the funky “Little Bit Broken” celebrates the imperfections that make us human. Tracks like the bluesy “A Dream’s A Dream” and hypnotic “Don’t Think About My Death,” meanwhile, grapple with separating truth from fiction, ultimately coming to terms with the fact that our brains will always find new ways to blur those lines. Though the album advocates for acceptance, it’s not a passive brand the brothers sing about, but rather one rooted in strength and empowerment. To understand exactly what that means, look no further than album opener “Alabaster,” which paints a deeply empathetic portrait of a woman who’s broken free from the shackles of her old life and started over fresh.

“At the same time we were making this album, we were looking for some sort of philanthropic organization we could support with our music, and in a bit of synchronicity, we came across this great group called Thistle Farms, which was based just down the street from our studio,” says Oliver Wood. “Their goal is to help women who have been victims of sex trafficking or prostitution or addiction to get off the street and into safe housing where they can participate in therapy and job training. The work they were doing was so inspiring and it felt like such a fit with the kind of album we were writing that we teamed up with them to donate a portion of ticket sales from all our shows. It’s our way of using what we’ve got to do whatever good we can in the world.” More than anything, it’s that mindset, that recognition that we’ve all been dealt our own particular hand of cards and life is in the way we play them, that defines Kingdom In My Mind. As Oliver Wood sings on the captivating “Satisfied,” which finds its narrator wondering about the glories of the afterlife before ultimately deciding to make the most of his time on Earth, “I’ve got nothing left to be afraid of / Because I will be satisfied.” With an album this remarkable, The Wood Brothers have plenty to be satisfied about.

Biography provided by artist management.