American Roots Music Festival

An award-winning guitarist and songwriter, native Californian Molly Tuttle continues to push her songwriting in new directions and transcend musical boundaries. Since moving to Nashville in 2015, she has worked with many of her peers and heroes in the Americana, folk, and bluegrass communities, winning Instrumentalist of the Year at the 2018 Americana Music Awards. Tuttle’s 2019 debut album, When You’re Ready, received critical acclaim, with NPR Music praising its “handsomely crafted melodies that gently insinuate themselves into the memory,” and The Wall Street Journal lauding Tuttle’s “genre-boundary-crossing comfort and emotional preparedness,” calling the record an “invigorating, mature and attention-grabbing first album.” 

Tuttle’s accolades also include Folk Alliance International’s honor for Song of the Year for “You Didn’t Call My Name,” from her 2017 Rise EP, and consecutive trophies for the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Guitar Player of the Year; she was the first woman in the history of the IBMA to win that honor. 

During the pandemic, Tuttle recorded a covers album, … but i’d rather be with you, which was released in August 2020. The record, which features guest vocals from Dawes’ Taylor Goldsmith and Old Crow Medicine Show’s Ketch Secor, includes songs by musicians ranging from FKA Twigs to Cat Stevens, Rancid to Karen Dalton, and The National to The Rolling Stones. The New Yorker’s Jay Ruttenberg, in praising her rendition of the Stones’ “She’s a Rainbow,” says: “In Tuttle’s reading, the song uses a bluegrass spirit to look to the past — and a feminist allegiance to peek at the future.” 

Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway — Molly Tuttle’s brand-new band of bluegrass virtuosos featuring mandolinist Dominick Leslie, banjoist Kyle Tuttle, fiddle player Bronwyn Keith-Hynes, and bassist Shelby Means — tour the United States in 2022 in support of their Nonesuch Records debut. 

To learn more about Molly Tuttle, please visit her website. 

Featuring Tae Lewis, Leon Timbo, Riki Stevens, and Roberta Lea

Black Opry Revue is a home for Black artists and Black fans of country, blues, folk, and Americana music. While the country music industry has historically overlooked Black artists, Black Opry is committed to changing that by inviting audiences to discover, support, and enjoy the genre’s versatility and diversity. The organization’s goal is to provide support and resources for Black artists in country music and related genres so that the industry is truly inclusive. 

To learn more about Black Opry Revue, please visit its website. 

Pursuing music at 35 may seem like it’s a late start for some, but for Roberta Lea, it’s ideal. She’s been slowly marinating and soaking in LIFE. Now that she’s ready to do music, she has a buffet of songs that are sure to appease any listener’s
palate. Her single Sweet Baby Ray hit the spot in the hearts of fellow artists and music lovers alike and drove her to record her very first country project Just A Taste. Now, she’s been nominated for six music awards including Song of the Year and Best E.P.! Just A Taste showcases the different flavors of country she infuses in her songwriting. She goes from classic country, to country soul, country rock, pop country, and country folk. As a songwriter, she has no limits when it comes to expressing herself through song and telling a good story.

Riki Stevens is a singer-songwriter and guitarist from Norwalk, CT. She is also the 2018 Winner of the first Connecticut’s Got Talent! Her music is soothing, draws you in, and tells you a beautiful story. Her sound is soulful, airy, dynamic, and expressive. Riki’s warm voice, is sensational, and when she sings you recognize it comes from a deep well of life within. Stevens is currently working on an EP with Connecticut’s up-and-coming Underground Factory Studio. She will also be starring in Dreamgirls at the Wall Street Theater in Norwalk, CT July 11 – 21. Riki will be returning to RAW Artist for their NY showcase this August.

Tae Lewis is a singer-songwriter from North Carolina. Raised in his grandfather’s church he grew to love music and that experience heavily influences his music today. Lewis says that he “never wants to stray away from his background.” He released his first EP, The Introduction… in 2020. The same year, he released the popular single Good Luvin. His most recent single Good Friend Jack was released in April of 2020.

Leon Timbo has a unique, rootsy sound that incorporates equal measures of vintage soul, gospel, folk, R&B, funk, dance music, and even modern blues in a style referred to by his producer as “transparent soul.” A seasoned, well-traveled musician, he is widely regarded as a protege of Tyrese Gibson and Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds. Timbo counts Bill Withers, James Taylor, Andre Crouch, and Donny Hathaway among his influences.

Called “one of the most exceptional violinists and fiddlers of his generation” by WGBH, Grammy Award-nominated violinist and composer Jeremy Kittel’s music inhabits the space between classical and acoustic roots, Celtic and bluegrass aesthetics, and folk and jazz sensibilities. According to Bluegrass Situation, Kittel & Co. has “accomplished a feat of new acoustic, string band-rooted chamber music.” Kittel & Co. includes mandolin phenom Josh Pinkham, named “the future of the mandolin” by Mandolin Magazine; genre-bending guitarist Quinn Bachand, a former presidential scholar at Berklee College of Music; transcendent bassist Ethan Jodziewicz, as heard with Sierra Hull; and hammer-dulcimer wizard Simon Chrisman, acclaimed for bringing a new tonal flexibility to the instrument. 
 
Kittel & Co’s most recent album, Whorls, premiered as #1 on the Billboard bluegrass charts and was called “a gentle, genre-bending masterpiece” by EarMilk. As well as creating his own projects, Kittel composes and arranges for artists such as Abigail Washburn, Aoife O’Donovan, My Morning Jacket, Camera Obscura, Jars of Clay, Yo-Yo Ma and the Silkroad Ensemble, Laura Veirs, and the Grammy Award-winning Turtle Island Quartet, of which he was a member for five years. He has also recorded with artists such as Edgar Meyer, Chris Thile, Mark O’Connor, and Mike Marshall. 

For more information about Jeremy Kittel, please visit his website. 

Rebecca Haviland and Whiskey Heart, a roots rock Americana band based in New York, consists of Rebecca Haviland on lead vocals and guitar, bassist Chris Anderson (Martin Sexton), drummer Kenny Shaw (Dispatch), B3 player Todd Caldwell (Crosby Stills and Nash) and electric guitarist Nicky Barbato. Haviland’s big vocals and intimate songwriting accompanied by her soulful band break new barriers with their unique form of Americana. Her album Bright City Lights, released in 2018, was called “hauntingly beautiful” by Paste Magazine, and “the rare seven song disc that deserves to be stretched to a full length” by Chronogram. After completing a tour opening for Martin Sexton in 2018, Haviland and her band released two live albums, Sun Studio Sessions Volume 1 and Volume 2, tracked across two late- night recording sessions at the famous Sun Studio in Memphis, TN where artists like Elvis and Johnny Cash made their first recordings. Their episode of Sun Studio Sessions Live taped for PBS and other public television stations is airing now nationwide. The new singles, Hide Away and Stone Cold Lonesome, inspired by a collection of late-night memories, were released in 2019, and the holiday themed EP, “A Holiday To Remember,” was released in December 2020, featuring two original Christmas songs and a cover of Jingle Bells. 

To learn more about Rebecca Haviland, please visit her website.

Matt Lorenz’s vision, manifest in The Suitcase Junket, developed in the tension between the grand and the solitary. Grand in its imagery, sound, and staging. Solitary in its thrift and self-reliance. What instruments he requires, Lorenz builds from scratch and salvage. What parts five players would perform, he performs alone. The spectacle of his one-man set bears constant comparison to legends of showmanship, brilliance, madness, and invention. While audiences are captivated by his solitary form and the show itself, Lorenz, who homesteads with rescue dogs and chickens in rural Western Massachusetts, is most serious about the songs. He has been building a catalog, writing a world into existence. Solitary on stage and on the road, his mind is crowded with characters, narratives, voices, imagery, sounds as wide and varied as mountain throat singers and roadhouse juke boxes, plus newsreels of the planet’s destruction and salvage. With his most recent release, The End is New [Renew Records/BMG] Lorenz’s grand vision for the song overrides the how of it. 

Sonia De Los Santos was born with a smile on her face (that’s what her mom says) in Monterrey, Mexico, and in 2007 started touring the world, singing in English and Spanish, playing guitar and jarana and lighting up the stage with Grammy Award winning group Dan Zanes And Friends.  

In 2015, she released her first solo family music album titled Mi Viaje: De Nuevo León to the New York Island  (Parents’ Choice Foundation Gold Award Winner), a collection of songs that reflect her experiences growing up in Mexico, moving to another country, learning about other cultures, and in the process, feeling closer to her own heritage. 

De Los Santos was nominated in 2019 for a Latin Grammy with her second family music album titled ¡Alegría!  and has been hailed by Billboard as “one of the Latin Children’s music artists you should know” and “Best Latin Children’s Music”.

In 2020, she launched En Casa con Sonia an online musical series recorded from her home, and in 2021, she debuted ¿Qué Pasa, Sonia? a new radio segment featuring some of her favorite songs at Sirius XM’s Kids Place Live. 

She recently released her third album titled Esperanza, a bilingual collection of songs that explore hope; looking back at our own journey, cherishing our cities and homes, being grateful to one another, dreaming of a better future, marveling at nature, and finding light within ourselves.

For more information about Sonia De Los Santos, please visit her website.

Deva Mahal was born with blues in her blood. Beginning from her upbringing in Kaua’i, Hawaii to discovering her voice in New Zealand, it’s there where she solidified her vision of becoming an artist. Deva’s star continued to rise and in 2018, she released her aptly named debut album, Run Deep, followed by a series of singles released in 2019 by Motéma Music.

During this time Deva toured the world, gracing the stages of the Hollywood Bowl, Carnegie Hall, Bonnaroo, the Montreal Jazz Festival, Byron Bay Blues Festival, North Sea Jazz Festival, London Jazz Festival, along with many other esteemed events and venues. She has had the pleasure of collaborating with a number of musicians; Jaleel Bunton of TV on the Radio, Binky Griptite of Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, Living Color, and the New York Pops Orchestra, and has performed on stage alongside such legends as Etta James, Dianne Reeves, Maceo Parker, Bettye Lavette, The Roots, and Cyndi Lauper.

At the start of 2020, Mahal returned to New Zealand where she was struck with devastating medical news, then the pandemic hit which lead her rediscover her roots and to reimagine her future. Through this hugely confronting experience that challenged her identity as a woman and the pain that was hidden inside of her body, lyrics emerged and songs developed. Her songwriting was transformed by her desire to holistically heal those influential traumas and wounds. It’s through this time that Deva has become renewed and inspired. Released August 28, ‘Stand In’ is the first of many songs sharing her chronicles; she can’t wait to share more with you.
For more information about Deva Mahal, please visit her website.