The Lineup.
Rich Hall
Rich Hall shot to prominence as a cast member of Saturday Night Live. He also gained fame in the US with numerous appearances on Not Necessarily the News, The David Letterman Show, Fridays, Sniglets and the Johnny Carson Show. Hall’s brand of humor spread across the pond making him a top selling and in demand comedian in England, regularly performing to sold out crowds.
Critics have hailed Hall as one of the best acts in comedy and David Letterman says, “Rich Hall is the real thing.” No target is safe, from religion to politics to Tom Cruise movies.
Ben Rice Band
Ben Rice is a Brooklyn based songwriter and former frontman for critically acclaimed rock bands Blackbells and Surefire, which have drawn comparisons to artists ranging from Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers to Oasis. As a writer, Rice's songs have been featured on HBO and on the War Child benefit compilation, "Help! A Day In The Life," alongside Coldplay, Radiohead and Gorillaz. As a performer, Rice has toured the US and Canada making appearances at SXSW and CMJ music conferences and Deluna Music Festival, and sharing stages with Arctic Monkeys, The Bravery, Marcy Playground and Weezer.
Rice got an early start in rock and roll with his first band Surefire inking a record deal with Lizard King/Warner Music Group while he was still a teenager and going on to record and co-produce an album with Eddie Kramer (Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix and The Rolling Stones). As Rice progressed musically, he formed Blackbells whose EP charted Top 20 on CMJ college radio, leading to features in Italian Vogue while their second single "One By One" was chosen as the AOL Spinner Song of the Day and featured on NBC’s Last Call With Carson Daly.
Rice is joined by longtime collaborators Seth Bulkin on bass and Gian Stone on drums. Bulkin, who played bass for both Surefire and Blackbells, is currently writing and recording with a new project that he founded called The Core. Stone is the drummer and songwriter for New York City buzz band Viva Mayday, as well as being an in demand session drummer and producer.
Rice's debut solo album is slated for a 2013 release.
More info at www.benricemusic.com
Jesse Macht & The Buffalo Fight
Jesse Macht is a new buzz and up 'n' coming singer/songwriter born and raised in Los Angeles. Piano player, guitarist, vocalist and actor, Macht has a passion for performing and writing that likens him to some of his idols: Billy Joel, Jon Brion, Glenn Phillips, John Lennon, Glen Hansard, Neil Young and Gram Parsons. Jesse knows how to take his audience on a great ride suffusing his live performances with unbridled energy.
As the former co-writer and guitarist of the lauded band Burn Down the Mission, Jesse - also known as composer Jimmy Phoenix - has currently been producing and co-writing with artists in his Beverly Hills studio. He has synced much of his catalog for a myriad of national campaigns including spots for tv's ELLEN, CYMBALTA, MTV, STYLE NETWORK, NICKELODEON, NINTENDO, A+E, FOX and many a web promos.
Jesse is the younger brother of actor Gabriel Macht (SUITS-USA) and the son of veteran actor Stephen Macht.
More info at www.jessemachtmusic.com
Katie Boeck
Katie grew up on the central coast of California. Her parents divorced when she was young, so she spent summers and a lot of vacation time in central Montana with her dad. Her dad wrote and sang country songs like his heroes Steve Earl and Hank Williams, Jr, and her mom loved folk. Her childhood home had an old upright piano, and she attributes the presence of this instrument in her house as a main reason for starting to write songs. As time went on, she picked up the guitar and taught herself the basic chords and progressions and started crafting songs and melodies. Someone saw her playing and told her about a friend of theirs down in LA who might be interested in recording some of her originals. Her first record, Average Jane, was recorded in her parents living room when she was 15. She was later accepted into UCLA's Ray Bolger Program for musical theater. There, she won best solo and best overall performance three years in a row at the student-produced Spring Sing, an annual event drawing an audience of 10,000. She played in the LA music scene for a bit, living in a dilapidated castle in Laurel Canyon, and, after a time, decided to quit her job as a waitress and created a new goal for herself: make money making music. No matter what. Soon she landed her first real paying tour gig as a musician, hired to be the lead singer of an all-female pop group for a three month tour in India. Suddenly, she went from being a poor struggling musician, to a paid, international lead singer and was having the time of her life. When her visa expired and she had to come home, it was back to life in LA, but her perspective was totally different and so was her music. With some great live shows under their belts, her new band is preparing now to get in the studio.
More info at www.katieboeck.com
Keegan Smith
Portland-based Keegan Smith is the charismatic front man of an extremely talented rotating group of veteran musical heavyweights, producers, and bandleaders from the Northwest's thriving music scene. He creates an energetic and entertaining sound that captivates audiences of every age. Orlando Sentinel's music critic again says, “this is a band of monster players.” Portland's Willamette Week reviews the Fam saying, “[their] stuff is like musical summer” and “life's a little sunnier when listening to them.”
In addition to regular tours, festivals and appearances across the country, Keegan recently licensed songs for Nike and gDiapers, both for international ad campaigns, as well as licensing songs for many other companies, tv commercials, movies and online campaigns. He has also been commissioned to create the entire soundtrack for a documentary called "Green Light: The Sustainable Oroville Project". "Special Delivery", Keegan Smith's 2009 studio album release, documents the hardships, physical struggles, and pure, unabashed joy associated with being a new parent. The album displays Smith's art form poetically, while stylistically flowing between the genres of acoustic pop, disco-funk, and reggae-blues, all while infusing an electronic backdrop to create an ethereal, ear-pleasing experience. "Special Delivery" has won three different categories in the World Wide Effigy Awards: Best Adult Contemporary Song ("Morning Comes"), Best Reggae Song ("Just Fine") and Best Adult Contemporary Artist. He was nominated for Best Adult Contemporary Song ("Smile") in the 2009 Hollywood Music in Media Awards and Keegan and the band walked their first red carpet at LA's famous Kodak Theater in November. The song "Smile" was also a finalist in this year's Pop and Adult Contemporary categories for the Great American Song contest.
More info at www.keegansmith.com
Suzi Ragsdale
Suzi Ragsdale has co-written, sung, and toured with countless legends of the craft including Grammy nominees and winners alike; her father Ray Stevens, Randy Travis, Guy Clark, Darrell Scott, Pam Tillis, Verlon Thompson, Hank Williams Jr., and Tom Paxton just to name a few. Her love for Americana music has brought her all over the world to hone her craft and play with the best.
Suzi has since become her own force in the last couple of years and has released two studio albums with a third on the way and set for January release that showcases her kind soul and free spirit with beautifully written originals. Suzi’s newest Album “Less of the Same” is a natural progression for her and there is definitely a lot to look forward to.
More info at www.suziragsdale.com
Kristi Neumann
Born in Kalispell, Montana, and following in the footsteps of many transplanted Nashville songwriters, Kristi has successfully carved out a place for herself in a town that doesn’t forgive mediocrity. And armed with a growing catalog of self-penned tunes, her prowess as a writer, performer, and band leader is definitely turning heads.
Kristi’s music is original and provocative. Her songs weave through themes that embrace both a wandering past and an optimistic hope for things to come. With perfect sensibility, her introspective lyrics leave just enough room for well-crafted, pop-friendly hooks.
More info at www.kristineumann.com
Marshall McLean
Only a hand full of musicians have received the Gibson Acoustic guitar New Musician award, and Marshall Mclean is counted among these elite performers. Having his beginnings in Montana, Marshall soon set out with his guitar in hand to Italy where he met a girl by accident who was also far from home, followed her to washington state and got married. As with all singer-songwriters, Marshall is a storyteller and at times he borders on the prophetic as he weaves in and out of song and word, speaking from the potent experiences of joy, sorrow, and pursuit of love and perspective. Marshall has a way of creating music that feels timeless, as if it was written long ago carved into stone somewhere. This is what caught the attention of Gibson Acoustic in September of 2006 as they awarded Marshall with the prestigious New Musician Award. Although the tools he uses are much the same as many artists in the genre, what sets him apart is not his instrument or his voice, although many have said so, but the seamless nature of his life being his story and this story being his song, and as with all our experiences and the voices we use to tell them, they are uniquely our own.
More info at Marshall McLean on MySpace
Alaska Reid
Alaska Reid is a singer/songwriter who moved from a small town in Montana to Los Angeles.
More info at www.alaskareid.com
Sean Devine
Sean Devine independently released two CDs of original songs – 'Walking Down The Road' in 1997, and 'After The Big Parade' in 2004, and toured across the US playing venues from The Bitter End in New York City to The Bluebird in Nashville. Sean's songs received airplay on college radio, NPR affiliates and locally owned commercial stations, and appeared in television commercials, documentaries and independent feature films. A Montana native, Sean is based in Paradise Valley near his hometown of Livingston, where he continues to write, record, perform and raise three children with his wife Angela, a dog, a horse, two cats and a rabbit.
Jeremy Morton
Jeremy Morton is a singer/songwriter/acoustic guitarist from Bozeman, Montana. His soulful vocals, original lyrics, and unique acoustic sound are reminiscent of Greg Brown with subtle, but discernible influences of Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, and Townes Van Zant. Jeremy was recently featured on 11th and Grant with Eric Funk on Montana PBS. His debut self-titled album features eleven original songs written or co-written by him and is available online at www.jeremymortonmusic.com. This album is a melding of Morton's acoustical stylings, depth, and range with a full band accompanying him.