WALTER EGAN is one of the VOICES UNITED

Nashville, TN: performed at The Belcourt  

Walter Egan is an American rock musician, best known for his 1978 gold status hit single "Magnet and Steel" from his album Not Shy, produced by Lindsey Buckingham and Richard Dashut. Egan used several well known L.A. players for his sessions and tours; John Selk (bass); Michael Huey (drums). Walter Egan performed at the first Texxas Jam on July 4 weekend in 1978 in Dallas, Texas, at the Cotton Bowl in front of 100,000 people with musical acts like Aerosmith, Van Halen, Ted Nugent, Journey, Frank Marino, and close friends of Walter's, Eddie Money and Heart (www.TexxasJam78.com). The song reached #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #32 on the Australian Singles Chart (Kent Music Report).

Buckingham also co-produced Egan's first album, Fundamental Roll, with Stevie Nicks. "Magnet and Steel", inspired by Nicks, was featured in the 1997 film Boogie Nights, as well as in the 1998 film Overnight Delivery and the 1999 film Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo. Egan also wrote "Hearts on Fire", which was covered by Gram Parsons on his album Grievous Angel, and "Hot Summer Nights", which was the first hit for the band Night, which included such session musicians as Nicky Hopkins (who played piano with Egan on later albums) and Robbie McIntosh. Egan scored minor hits with his own version of "Hot Summer Nights,” as well as "Only the Lucky" and "Fool Moon Fire".

Egan later toured as a member of a latter-day version of Spirit, as well as having been a full member of both The Brooklyn Cowboys and The Malibooz.

Egan once appeared as a contestant on the television game show Scrabble. During his introduction segment, Egan identified himself as a singer and songwriter. Chuck Woolery asked him if we would know any of his songs, at which point he sang the main hook from "Magnet and Steel". Unfortunately, Egan was not the champion that day.

Egan currently resides in Franklin, Tennessee, where he is working on his latest album. His new album "Raw Elegant" is said to be released on Spectra Records in 2012. One notable show was in Hollywood, Florida, in August 2009. Billed as a survivor, he debuted two new songs. Egan is listed as co-writer on the Eminem hit "We Made You". The song's producer, Dr. Dre, believed he was inspired by the bassline from (and used samples of) Egan's "Hot Summer Nights". Egan headlined the 13th annual "Gram Parsons Guitar Pull and Tribute Festival" in Waycross, Georgia, on September 16–18, 2010.

walternative.com

DIANA JONES is one of the VOICES UNITED

Nashville, TN: performed at The Belcourt

High Atmosphere, the third album in the remarkable career arc of singer-songwriter Diana Jones, hits with the force of a revelation, further deepening an unprecedented body of work that began in 2006 with My Remembrance of You and continued with 2009’s Better Times Will Come. On her new release, recorded entirely live with simpatico musicians at Quad studios in Nashville, this single-minded artist continues to hew to an austere, plainspoken aesthetic, yet its timelessly homespun frameworks are embedded with distinctly topical subject matter. As Bill Friskics-Warren so aptly pointed out in his New York Times profile, Jones “approaches the mountain-ballad tradition not as a curiosity or antique but as a renewable vernacular that’s just as capable of speaking to the human condition now as it was 80 years ago.”

“The songs I write,” says Jones, who has a second career as a portrait artist, “are informed by my experiences within a certain time frame, so they become a sort of world within themselves. For this new record, I was on the road a lot, trying to catch up to myself and the things that were happening in my life. This was very different from my previous experiences. For example, I wrote most of the songs on My Remembrance of You in a cabin in Massachusetts by myself. Then I was mining really old things, focusing on the traditional, whereas these songs happened to me as life happened to me.”

In 2009, Jones previewed another linchpin song, “Funeral Singer,” for English journalist Alfred Hickling during an interview for The Guardian. His piece ended with this anecdote about the song, fully realized on High Atmosphere as a duet with Jim Lauderdale:

She opens a bulging exercise book full of lyrics and offers to play me a new song that she is considering for the title track of her next album.

“It’s called ‘The Funeral Singer,’” she says, “because I’m of an age where every week I seem to get asked to play at someone’s funeral.” She picks up Rosebud, her tiny, Depression-era, four-stringed tenor guitar, and strums a quiet lament about the pain of not being able to grieve properly, which is so exquisitely personal it is difficult to hold back tears.

While the cover portraits on her last two albums reveal Jones at her most serious, she appears on the cover of the new record with hand over heart and eyes closed in a smile of apparent contentment. That image “speaks to the internal process of writing for me,” she offers. “That the High Atmosphere is as internal as it is up there in the sky. Maybe even a spiritual place. That’s the place I write from.”

dianajonesmusic.com

MIKE MULDOON is one of the VOICES UNITED

Nashville, TN: performed at First Unitarian Universalist Church of Nashville

New York native Mike Muldoon is a singer-songwriter whose music defies simple definition. His music incorporates the many styles he grew up with, from pop to jazz, through classical, folk and rock. Muldoon's appreciation of artists and music across the spectrum is evident in his work throughout his career. He has been awarded the ASCAP Songwriter's Award, 1999; Billboard Magazine Songwriter's Award.

Some of his performance highlights include the Kerrville Folk Festival (1989, 1992); Mississippi River Music Festival; Nashville New Music Conference (with mfg); Birmingham City Stages; Southeastern Music Conference; NEA Showcase; Catch A Rising Star; The Improv; Folk City; The Other End; The Bluebird Cafe; American Magazine "New Artists Series", TNN; Acoustic Woods (syndicated radio).

Mike is also proud of his title track on Chris LeDoux's Capitol Records release "One Road Man"; the fact that he built Radio Free Nashville, Nashville's community radio station (www.radiofreenashville.org); his service as a featured writer for Country Music Foundation "The Words & Music" Program; his position as former producer and host, "Sunday Jazz", WRLT-FM, Nashville, TN.

myspace.com/mikemuldoonmusic

ROSS FALZONE is one of the VOICES UNITED

Nashville, TN: performed at First Unitarian Universalist Church of Nashville

Ross Falzone is an activist trapped in a musician’s body.

On his newest CD, Life Here on Earth, Ross offers a sometimes humorous, sometimes cynical view of the human experience. On this offering he brings together, a cast of world class musicians, for a mix of roots-rock, R&B, gospel, funk and tackles the tough issues of war, religion, oppression, power, death and love.

A veteran club musician and studio engineer, Ross has gotten rave reviews and airplay on four continents, and been compared to Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, John Hiatt, Bruce Springsteen, Dave Alvin and Randy Newman.

Reviewer Frank DeBlaze (Rochester City Newspaper) says of Ross’s Radical Heart project: “These are classic American strains steeped in soul, politically charged and romantically optimistic, where truth rings loudest of all.”

And Ross puts his money where his mouth is; this former army reservist, firefighter, and homeless shelter worker has directed all Life Here On Earth CD proceeds go to, not for profit, LPFM Radio Stations. His mission now is to promote the diversity and free flow of ideas that these community stations provide and to bring awareness to the issue of runaway media consolidation and its negative impact on the democratic process.

His first CD, Radical Heart, was and continues to be a success by raising money and awareness to the mission and work of the award winning Oasis Center of Nashville. The Oasis Center is the premier advocacy for teens and their families in Middle Tennessee and a model for rest of the nation.

rossfalzone.com

KATE KLIM is one of the VOICES UNITED

Nashville, TN performed at house concert

Kate Klim was five years old when her family inherited a piano, nine years old when she received her first lesson, and 11 years old when an unsuccessful audition for the film "Life with Mikey" caused her to rethink her career as a movie star. This was fortunate, because the singer/songwriter the Boston Herald has called a "best bet for folk-pop stardom" then turned to music.

With roots in Palatine, Illinois and Downingtown, Pennsylvania, Kate was raised on a steady diet of Carole King , Paul Simon, Billy Joel and John Lennon. Later on, her influences grew to include Patty Griffin, Jonatha Brooke, Chris Trapper and Garrison Starr.

Kate's musical success in her hometown led her to Berklee College of Music in Boston. It was here that Kate worked on her skills as a writer and performer, and became involved with the music community that had produced icons like Bob Dylan years before, and Tracy Chapman and Patty Griffin in the recent past. Within a few years of her debut as a singer/songwriter, she was opening for artists like Shawn Colvin, Lucy Kaplansky, Richard Shindell and Ollabelle.

In addition, Kate has been recognized by some of the country's premier songwriting contests. She won the 2010 Kerrville New Folk competition, and was a finalist in the 2005 and 2006 Mountain Stage Newsong Contests, 2006 Mid-Atlantic Song Contest, 2007 Kerrville Newfolk Competition, and 2007 Solarfest Competition.

Many of the songs that received recognition ended up comprising her first release, and first fully-produced venture, "Up and Down and Up Again." The project was created with the help of renowned producer Crit Harmon (Martin Sexton, Susan Werner, Lori McKenna), and features some of the country's most talented musicians. Collectively, they've worked with Paul McCartney, Elton John, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Jonathan Brooke, Suzanne Vega, Paula Cole and the Boston Symphony. The album was dubbed a "gem" by Performing Songwriter Magazine, and its release prompted Kate to assume the role of full-time musician, leading her to her current home of Nashville, TN.

Her newest release, "Kamikaze Love" contains her strongest songs yet, including the two than won her the New Folk competition. Produced by friend, band mate and promising new producer Brian Packer, the album is a sign that Kate is no longer trying to conform to the folk community, but rather embracing the indie-pop songwriter she has always been. The product is an honest collection of songs that Kate considers her best work yet.

kateklim.com

ROBBY HECHT is one of the VOICES UNITED

Nashville, TN  performed at house concert

Robby Hecht is a romantic realist. He writes melodic and captivating songs that don’t shy away from the complexity of human relationships and delivers them with a smooth tenor that evokes both sorrow and hope. His new record, and second solo effort, takes the listener through a broad spectrum of emotions touching on forgiveness, love, indifference, joy, self-doubt and more. He writes with an honesty that captures the truth of a sentiment, building allegorical themes that allow anyone to relate the songs to the experiences of his or her own life.

Growing up in Knoxville, Tennessee, Hecht was exposed to his parents’ collection of 70s acoustic pop albums and his dad’s mandolin playing. “My mom loved Paul Simon, Jim Croce, Dan Fogelberg and other classic singer/songwriters. When I started writing songs, I was listening to their modern counterparts, artists like Tracy Chapman, Sarah McLachlan and David Gray. That combination was a big influence on my writing.”

The summer before he started college at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Hecht made a conscious decision to become a singer/songwriter. “Playing music just never seemed like work, so I knew that was what I was meant to do. I used the Internet to teach myself guitar. I discovered I had an affinity for fingerpicking and went from there.”

After graduation, Hecht moved to Paris with a friend and busked on the streets to make money. “A guy who played bagpipes used to set up across the street from me; he’d drown me out and make all the money. It wasn’t an incredibly lucrative gig to be an American folksinger in Paris, but still was an amazing experience I’ll never forget.”

After returning to the states, Hecht moved to San Francisco where he fronted the folk/swing band “AllDay Radio” and then settled in Nashville to pursue his songwriting career. He toured and wrote relentlessly over the next several years, winning the Great Waters Music Festival Songwriter Competition in 2006, the Kerrville Folk Festival New Folk Competition in 2008 and the Telluride Bluegrass Festival Troubadour Contest in 2010—along the way garnering comparisons to early James Taylor, Paul Simon, and Amos Lee. Like these celebrated artists, Robby Hecht is a unique voice—one that is stirring, instantly recognizable and truly original.

robbyhecht.com

GONZALO BERGARA QUARTET is part of the VOICES UNITED

Santa Rosa, CA performed at house concert

The all-acoustic Gonzalo Bergara Quartet plays a modern variant of 1930s Django Reinhardt-inspired gypsy jazz. Composer and lead guitarist Gonzalo Bergara mixes a cascade of arpeggios with the sounds of Paris and his native Argentina. His first CD, Porteña Soledad, was Editor’s Pick in Guitar Player Magazine, and Vintage Guitar Magazine called it a "masterpiece." The Gonzalo Bergara Quartet consists of Gonzalo Bergara on lead guitar, Jeffrey Radaich on rhythm guitar, Leah Zeger on violin, and Brian Netzley on upright bass. The music is heavily influenced by Django Reinhardt and the Hot Club of France, as well as the traditional jazz and music of Bergara's true home, Buenos Aires. "Gonzalo Bergara’s music exists in a way that very little music does. He has lavished such care on every phrase, built each arrangement with such lapidary precision and pared away anything extraneous, the music becomes sculpture. It has weight, density, gravity. This is serious….and deeply moving. 

gonzalobergara.com/index.html

KENT AGEE is one of the VOICES UNITED

Nashville, TN: performed at First Unitarian Universalist Church of Nashville 

Kent Agee’s father was a jazz guitar player who settled for Honky Tonks. His grandfather was a banjo and bass man who mc'd his own live stage/radio show, “Ray Agees Home Folks Party”, through the forties. His great-grandfather was an Appalachian fiddle player who moved from Kentucky to Indiana because he killed a man with a knife in a bar fight...he was cutting records in the 30s, no pun intended. Kent guesses that it’s natural that his music has an element of murder, honky-tonk smoke and Midwestern confusion. In his words, “I write about human frailty. My own fascinates me, if it didn’t it would scare me to death. These days, the words seem to fit most comfortably into music that sounds like it was written on an old flat-top Gibson with rusty strings and a hole scratched through the pick-guard. Kent fronted a rock band here in Nashville through the late 80's and early 90's called "Jane, His Wife". Kind of Pearl Jam meets Peter Gabriel. It was a good band. They were on the verge of four record deals for three years...or was it the other way around? Kent considers himself very lucky to be making a living in Nashville as a songwriter. He’s had cuts by people as diverse as Barbra Streisand, Rodney Atkins, Vanessa Williams, Claire Lynch, Tom Kiefer, Evan and Jaron and Joy Lynn White among others.  On his current work, “I still write rock..pop..and some stuff they call country. But when left on my own lately I write songs that get called Americana. Mostly celebrations of, and testaments to, humans just trying to do their inadequate best.”

hisspace.com/kentagee

VANCE GILBERT is one of the VOICES UNITED

Putnam, CT: performed at the Complex Performing Arts Center

Vance Gilbert burst onto the singer/songwriter scene in the early 90's when buzz started spreading in the folk clubs of Boston about an ex-multicultural arts teacher who was knocking 'em dead at open mics. Once word got to New York about this Philadelphia-area born and raised performer, Shawn Colvin invited Gilbert to be a special guest on her Fat City tour. Gilbert took audiences across the country by storm. "With the voice of an angel, the wit of a devil, and the guitar playing of a god, it was enough to earn him that rarity: an encore for an opener" wrote the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in its review of a show from that tour. Gilbert's three albums for the Rounder/Philo label - Edgewise (1994), Fugitives (1995), and the celebrated, arrestingly sparse Shaking Off Gravity (1998) - are all essential additions to the American singer-songwriter collection. With guests as varied as Tuck and Patti, Jonatha Brooke, Patty Larkin, Vinx, and Jane Siberry, all three albums found significant niches on NAC (New Adult Contemporary) and Non-Commercial A3 (Adult Album Alternative) radio.

These discs were followed by the self-released Somerville Live (2000), lionized by the Boston Globe as the disc "young songwriters should study the way law students cram for bar exams," and One Thru Fourteen (2002), a stylistically varied offering that New York's Town and Village called "lively, eclectic, electrifying and transcending." Gilbert followed with Side Of The Road (2003), a duo album with Ellis Paul, lauded as "haunting, artful, and lovely" by Boston Magazine and nominated for a 2004 Boston Music Award. Unfamiliar Moon (2005) came as an impressive continuation to this mostly original composition discography. "The songwriter's most compelling work; literate, heartfelt, rippling…emotionally resonant songs" raved the Boston Globe, placing the album in its Top 10 CDs of the year (#4). On Angels, Castles, Covers, "Gilbert's choice of an album of covers seems both fitting and fearless. …he displays his vocal virtuosity with some unexpected choices from the late 20th century songbook. From the sounds of Motown, through the R&B of Al Green to classic Joni Mitchell and Shawn Colvin…He makes each and every tune sound fresh and new." writes Roberta Schwartz of FAME.

Gilbert then launched into a year and a half as support for George Carlin, leading up to the creation and recording of Up On Rockfield. Up On Rockfield is indeed Vance Gilbert's career-crowning achievement. This tour de force of borrowed styles is classic Vance Gilbert original songwriting at its most timeless, compelling best. Gilbert unflinchingly renders blame and absolution, trapped hearts and free-riders, class and station, uncertainty and resolution, the spiritual and the visceral, the forever and the now, all side by side in song. His is a presentation steeped in deep humanism and bravery, stunning artistry and soul, and unbridled joy. No great surprise to the learned acoustic listener.   

vancegilbert.com/index.php?page=homepage

ROSS ALTMAN is one of the VOICES UNITED

Garden Grove, CA performed at house concert

In Ross’s own words:

Call me a Singer-Songfighter. I sing "to comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable." I sing old labor songs, antiwar songs, civil rights songs, topical/protest songs, traditional songs, love songs, Jewish songs in Yiddish and English, and original songs that carry on that tradition.

I have a Ph.D. in English and an M.A. in Speech. For the last twenty years I have made my living in the Los Angeles area singing for old folks homes, schools, labor unions, political gatherings, folk festivals, libraries, book stores, churches, synagogues, and peace demonstrations.

I have sung for the home bound and homeless, for disabled children and Fullbright scholars, for benefits and fundraisers funerals and memorial services, retirement parties and birthday celebrations. I have sung for countless political, social, and environmental groups, including left-wing causes of every kind. As Woody Guthrie said, "Left wing or chicken wing, if there are people there I'll sing."

Additionally, I've sung for a myriad of religious denominations: Methodists, Unitarians, Mormons, Baptists, Catholics, Holy Rollers, Jews, Agnostics, Atheists, Humanists, Comunists, and FBI agents (usually at the same event).

I play both six and twelve-string acoustic guitars, a long-neck five-string banjo, and enough harmonicas to fill the tool box in my guitar case, which carries a 1965 Guild D-50.

My recording and music publishing compnay is called Grey Goose Music, after Leadbelly's children's song about an indestructible goose. During the 80's and 90's I produced nine tape cassettes -- eight of my own songs and one of classic labor songs, performed in concert at the University of California at Riverside, called Live at The Barn.

aprilwayland.com/other-invisible/ross-altman

ASHLEY JO FARMER is one of the VOICES UNITED

Durham, NC: performed at The Casbah

Ashley Jo Farmer, a singer/songwriter rooted in the heart of North Carolina, has a voice that is smooth and strong, with rich undertones. She has always been a fan of music, and pulls inspiration from many well-known singer/songwriters including the likes of Karen Carpenter, James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, Beth Wood, and the Indigo Girls. Farmer is currently best known for her work as a touring background vocalist for the Billy Jonas Band.

It’s no secret that Ashley Jo Farmer loves to sing. If you ask anyone that knows her, they’ll tell you that she was born to be in the spotlight. Early on in her life, there were a few signs of what was soon to come! Her parents love to tell stories of how, before she could even talk, she attracted attention to herself by singing and dancing in her high chair while they dined out. On one occasion, a man celebrating his birthday across the dining room approached their table and proclaimed his joy at having witnessed her “performance” -- and handed her a $20 bill! At that moment, it became apparent that this little girl was destined to entertain.

Ashley Jo was born in Dallas, Texas in March of 1977 to Tom and Jo Campbell. She is the eldest of their four children. After living for short periods of time in several different cities (including Atlanta GA, Charlotte NC, and Durham, NC) her parents settled in Raleigh, NC in 1983. As a child, Ashley received piano lessons from Tom Mann of Mann Music Studios. At Trinity Baptist Church, Ashley Jo joined the Youth Choir, her first exposure to choral and public performance. She sang her first solo “No Man Is An Island” at age eleven, under the direction of Reverend Bob Shaver. Each summer the Youth Choir went on a mini-tour, performing up and down the East Coast and acting as singing missionaries. During this time she also was a member of the show choir at Daniels Middle School, performing “Where The Boys Are” in the school’s Spring Show.

In 2005 Ashley Jo was introduced to Billy Jonas, a world-renowned Folk artist. He invited her to become a permanent fixture in his band, and she began touring with him. In the last six years she has traveled with the Billy Jonas Band across the United States playing at many notable venues, and along the way rubbing shoulders with a few of the country’s finest musicians, including the likes of Peter Yarrow, Bela Fleck, Roger Day, River Guerguerian, Beth Wood, Claudia Schmidt, Allison Krauss, Chris & Meredith Thompson and Canadian folk band Tanglefoot. Notably, during Easter of 2010, the Billy Jonas Band was invited to play at the White House Easter Egg Roll where Ashley Jo had the privilege of meeting and taking a photo with First Lady Michelle Obama as well as many other celebrities. The touring Billy Jonas Band is Billy Jonas and Ashley Jo Farmer, Sherman Hoover and Juan Holladay.

ashleyjofarmer.com

PAUL SVENSON is one of the VOICES UNITED

Garden Grove, CA  performed at house concert

Paul Svenson is a songleader, songwriter, multi-instrument musician, record producer, and audio engineer. He plays guitar, bass, banjo, mandolin, acoustic steel guitar, harmonica, piano, Hammond organ, ukulele and percussion. Since the age of 9 he’s been playing folk music with the expressed goal of encouraging people to join in. His musical mentors were Pete Seeger, Jim Strathdee, Mahalia Jackson and so many others from folk, gospel, pop and rock. Anybody who could get a group of folks to sing along got his attention.

Paul has lead music around campfires, and for crowds of 10,000 in convention centers. His audiences are as young as preschool age children all the way up to seniors of all ages.

The music he loves are songs that tell stories with a chorus we can all sing. Folk songs, protest songs, love songs, novelty songs, songs with fast talking and lots of words, controversial songs and songs with a story. He has made a career of leading music in progressive protestant churches with a social conscience for over 40 years.

When Paul shows up, you’ll never know what instruments he’ll bring from his collection or what songs he’ll sing from his reperatoire . Whatever he brings, he’ll get you singing, make you smile with his stories, and leave you wondering when you’ve had so much fun!

site.dadsongbook.com

CHUCK PERKINS is one of the VOICES UNITED

New Orleans, LA: performed at Cafe Istanbul

Chuck Perkins' poetry comes from the heart. Part charisma, part street, part working man's voice, part everyman reaching for the stars, Perkins' voice signifies American history in the making with fresh memories won from the civil rights movement, and hopes still to be fulfilled as America grows into its future.

Perkins is a native of New Orleans, a former U.S. Marine, and was at one time a transplantee to the industrial north of Illinois and Wisconsin where he began raising his young family. But he also kept strong ties to New Orleans, and eventually returned there, bringing his family to live near his blood relatives.

Long a favorite of audiences at Chicago's renowned Green Mill Lounge, Perkins has consistently been featured at equally respected poetry venues across the city and the region. He even MC'd the 1999 National Poetry Slams at the Chicago Theater before thousands of guests.

Perkins' engagement with poetry was not at first by design. He explains some of this progress in a brief autobiography included in this chapter. Perkins shares a particular, important quality with other performance poets in his generation: the passion to discover, learn, improve, and come back better than before. He has taken the path from open mic to the open road, and he's won the path.

Follow the links to Chuck's written, recorded, and performed poetry, and feel the determination of this charismatic poet.

ChuckPerkinsVoices.com

FRED WILHELM is one of the VOICES UNITED

Nashville, TN performed at house concert

Fred Wilhelm is a songwriter/singer originally from North Granby, CT.  He grew up on a family farm where his duties included feeding the chickens and carting out a wheelbarrow of cow manure every day before school.  The latter experience has proved extremely helpful in the music business.  He attended NYU in Manhattan only to put his degree aside and pursue a career in music.  After eight years of bands, tours, managers and various deals including a brief stint on Elektra /Asylum Records, Fred moved from New York City to Nashville to concentrate on his two loves—songwriting and himself.

His work has been recorded by a number of multi-platinum country superstars including Faith Hill, Rascal Flatts, Trace Adkins, Little Big Town, Randy Travis, The Oak Ridge Boys and American Idol’s Josh Gracin.

A number of quirkier, but much beloved Americana artists have also recorded songs written with Fred including Mindy Smith, Lori McKenna, Mary Gauthier, Mountain Heart and Catie Curtis. His song “Big Sky,” as recorded by the gospel Bluegrass group The Isaacs, was the #1 inspirational country song in October 2007.

As a performing artist, he has received critical acclaim in Billboard, Cashbox, The Village Voice and Performing Songwriter, which called his most recent album “a midlife crisis set to music.”  He is the winner of a New York Music Award, a BMI Songwriter Award, a Billboard Songwriting Contest Award and a Fifth Grade Fire Prevention Poster Award. He lives deep in the woods outside Nashville along with his wife, writer Lindsay Kee, their sons, Oscar and August, as well as cat Chatter.

fredwilhelm.com

VANESSA TORRES is one of the VOICES UNITED

Portland, ME: performed at One Longfellow Square

Inspiring, tender and passionate, Torres’ songs and performance are soulful personal portraits rooted in universal themes of compassion and hope.   It is her unique blend of authenticity and grace that makes Torres' music both refreshing and inspiring.  Torres' songs draw you in by being both catchy and lyrically moving.

Such qualities as a songwriter have awarded her numerous honors such as winning this years "Best Folk Act" in the 2012 Portland Phoenix Best Music Poll. Torres was also selected for the prestigious Emerging Artist Showcase for the 2010 FalconRidge Folk Festival, received 3rd place in the 2010 Music to Life Songwriting Competition at the Kerrville Folk Festival (out of over 300 applicants) and received Honorable Mention in the Rocky Mountain Folks Festival and Telluride Troubador Songwriting Competitions.

In addition to these honors, Vanessa has toured nationally, sharing stages with numerous acclaimed artists from Kaki King to Erin Mckeown to Anais Mitchel. In 2008, Torres was asked to join Holly Near, Laura Love, John McCutcheon and Emmas Revolution in the ‘Sing out the Vote’ tour rallying voters for Barack Obama across the battleground state of Ohio.

Good Times Music Magazine describes Vanessa's songs as having"...a lighthearted yet serious contempt for social mores combined with a well of charisma and a smile that can still grab the attention of a society that worships the superficialities championed by prime-time t.v.."

Straddling the lyrical and the political folk music realms, Torres’ songs are full of raw emotion and a strong call to justice

 Chris Darling, host of WMPG radio says of Torres, "No stranger to community activism, her music is a testament to her belief that music, community and making a difference are all tied together." 

Torres’ latest album "Witness" was released in May 2008.  Featuring 13 original songs, Witness was produced by the critically acclaimedBoston producer David “Goody” Goodrich, best known for his work with roots legend Chris Smither and alternative contemporary folk artists Peter Mulvey and Jeffrey Foucault. Witness was recorded by Mark Thayer at the Signature Sounds Studio, one of contemporary folk’s premier record labels.

vanessatorresmusic.com