Many a bluesman paid backbreaking dues chopping cotton in the flat Delta fields of Mississippi and Arkansas. There was no cotton crop to tend to in the grimy rust belt town of Youngstown, Ohio in the 1960’s, but there was grinding, dirty work for some, as human grist in the mills of U.S. and Republic Steels. It was this dismal blue-collar legacy that Nick Vigarino was born to.

Vigarino had his way out of this existence before he even knew it. Nick fell into possession of a battered guitar, feebly equipped with one string. As fate would have it, he learned to play the guitar in the exact same way as a hundred seminal blues musicians had two generations before him, on a homemade one-string diddley bo. With a poet’s fierce commitment to birthing his own music, he continued to play on ever-improving instruments the angry and mournful melodies in his head, carrying his music into the bars and roadhouses of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.

Impressed with the Northwest’s clean air and unspoiled mountain vistas, Nick drifted to Seattle, where he quickly won respect for his refreshingly original songs. Encouraged by the interest in his cutting-edge approach to the blues, he formed Meantown Blues. Now, thankfully, there is an audience for Nick’s clearheaded music as he finds himself rushing back and forth across the Northwest and beyond, serving up solo and ensemble music on the stages of bar rooms, concert halls, festivals, and regional television.” - Ray Varner - (Blues Historian, Ethno-musicologist, critic, and writer for Living Blues Magazine, Jefferson - Sweden, and Caledonia).

Vigarino has released three recordings of original material, several collaborations, has performed in 11 countries on 7 different European tours, and has garnered numerous music awards.

Source: NickVigarino.com

Mia Borders has captured the attention of both local and national audiences with her energetic blend of funk, soul, and contemporary songwriting. Offbeat Magazine's Alex Rawls writes, "Note to self: Pay more attention to Mia Borders," and USA today named Mia one of the 2010 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival's “hidden surprises.” The April 2010 release of her second full-length album, "Magnolia Blue,” earned her a nomination for Best Emerging Artist at the Big Easy Music Awards, as well as a nationally broadcast performance at N.O. Jazz Fest '10. She hit the road and performed at Mount Helena Music Fest, San Jose Jazz Fest, Taos Mountain Music Fest, Voodoo Fest, Bonnaroo (VIP pre-party with Big Sam's Funky Nation), the Kennedy Center, VOW Festival, and Gretna Fest, among other notable venues. When she opened for Corinne Bailey Rae at the House of Blues New Orleans in September 2010, "Borders drew the crowd in and had them cheering for more" (NewOrleans.com). With this and much more ahead, Mia Borders has secured her role as one of the fastest rising artists from New Orleans.

Her collection of albums – 2007’s “the ep,” 2008’s “The Nashville Cuts,” 2009’s “Southern Fried Soul,” and 2010’s “Magnolia Blue” and “Live at House of Blues New Orleans” – all feature original music and are available at miaborders.com and wherever digital music is sold. Her latest album - "Wherever There Is" - was released on April 18, 2012 and features Mia's most ambitious collection of original material thus far.

Source: MiaBorders.com

Born in Sydney, Australia into a family of singers, Anne McCue's fate was sealed from the word "go." Despite everything from the Beatles to Nat King Cole filling the air of her childhood, McCue attended the University of Technology in Sydney, earning a degree in film production and studies. With diploma in hand, she began freelancing as a theater and film reviewer for local newspapers. A move to Melbourne launched her musical career as she joined the hard rock band Girl Monstar. They topped Australia's indie charts and were nominated for two ARIAs (the Grammy equivalent). Four years later, McCue departed the band to focus on her own work. To up the ante, she accepted an offer to play in Vietnam for three months. Those months became 12 with performances almost every night. Once home in Melbourne, McCue finished recording her first solo project, a six-song disc titled Laughing. Australian alternative radio embraced her work, helping the single "Always" receive widespread airplay and a slot in the independent film This Space Between Us. McCue decided to join another band in 1997, Eden a.k.a., only to find herself touring the U.S. and Canada as part of Lilith Fair for two years in a row before signing a deal with Columbia Records.

The turn of the century saw McCue's exit from Eden a.k.a. and the relaunching of her solo career. She was quickly snapped up by Relentless Records and dove into the making of Amazing Ordinary Things. With material drawn from Laughing alongside newer compositions, McCue guided her artistic vision into reality with a little help from Larry Klein where necessary. The disc was released in Canada and the U.S. in early 2001. In addition to performing all over the world, standing next to the likes of Emmylou Harris, Joan Armatrading, and more, the tune "More Than This" was featured on Dawson's Creek, garnering some great exposure for McCue. She followed up Things with the 2004 release of Roll, which was received with widespread praise. She toured the follow-up, Koala Motel, around the world, and also moved to Nashville. East of Electric, release in 2008, found McCue herself in the production chair at her own studio, Flying Machine. (She later produced records by Tracey Bunn and Denise DeSimone.) Broken Promise Land appeared in 2010, followed one year later by the concert DVD Live in Nashville. McCue also founded a band, Yeah No Yeah, with Simon Kerr.

Source: AnneMccue.com

With a keen eye of observation and a wise man’s knowledge, Ray Wylie Hubbard composes and performs a dozen songs that couldn’t spring from anywhere else but out of his fertile rock and roll bluesy poet-in-the-blistering-heat southern noggin. ”I like to look at both enlightenment and endarkenment,” he declares. “I feel comfortable observing each.” A. Enlightenment B. Endarkenment demonstrates the kind of talent that every great songwriter yearns for. Throughout the album, his focus remains on the song- constructing and performing stories set to music that resonate in a way that is completely his own.

Hubbard recruits an ensemble of accomplished musicians to make the album’s larger than life outlaw tunes echo from track to track. Among the musicians featured on the album are Kevin Russell (The Gourds), Gurf Morlix (Lucinda Williams, Robert Earl Keen), Bukka Allen (Ian Moore, Jack Ingram), Billy Cassis (Bob Schneider,Double Trouble, Soulhat), Ray Bonneville (B.B. King, JJ Cale, Muddy Waters), Seth James (Percy Sledge, Delbert McClinton), David Abeyta (Reckless Kelly) and The Trishas as well as his own son, Lucas Hubbard.

"I like to look at both enlightenment and endarkenment. I feel comfortable observing each"

The writing and recording of A. Enlightenment B. Endarkenment came on the heels of Hubbard’s first screenplay endeavor, which was funded and filmed with a cast of icons including Kris Kristofferson, Dwight Yoakam and Lizzy Caplan. A weekly radio show, constant touring, and producing kept him busy, but didn’t manage to steal the Texan singer-songwriters focus. The outcome of the album is a juxtaposition of songs like “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse,” a fundamental gospel piece, and “Drunken Poet’s Dream,” a cowritten with Hayes Carll.

Source: Sonicbids.com