Beau Bow de Lune is the recent project from Val McCallum (featured as a solo artist elsewhere on this site), and his partners Bow Thayer and Greg Wells. These are ten absolutely timeless songs, created by barely three people, during a pandemic that kept them geographically separate.

And yet they come together with the same relaxed and natural vibe that you might associate with The Band during their Big Pink/Basement Tapes phase, but with modern clarity, thanks largely to Greg Wells’ skillful engineering and production (and drumming!). This is top-shelf songwriting across many styles, and of course, Val’s superb playing of anything with strings on it elevates this album to classic status.

Do not miss this one. For fans of Americana, these songs are keepers.

Guitarist Brian Ray’s extraordinary career has been a real-life rock & roll fantasy. Best known as a key member of Paul McCartney’s band for the past 15 years, Brian has the rare distinction of having worked at no other profession but music his entire adult life – and he has played alongside some legendary musicians in the process.

In 2002, Brian was hired to play one song with Paul McCartney at a Super Bowl pre-game show. That one-song gig never officially ended, and Brian has been a regular member of what has been hailed as “Paul’s best band since the Beatles” ever since. Brian can be heard on three of McCartney’s solo albums, including Chaos and Creation in the Backyard, Memory Almost Full, and New, which went Top 5 in several countries. He has also toured extensively with McCartney playing bass, rhythm guitar, and lead guitar, appearing at historic events like the Queen of England’s Diamond Jubilee; the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Summer Olympics; and the celebrated Desert Trip concert series featuring the Rolling Stones, The Who, Roger Waters, Bob Dylan, and Neil Young. Brian also played with Paul at the White House in 2010 for President Obama when McCartney received the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song.

When you talk about the tunes of Freedy Johnston, there’s only one little problem. After you’ve been blown away by his songs of suspicious circus carnies, shoplifters, unfaithful lovers, the drug-dependent and the truth-challenged, how do you tell people about this guy without worrying you’re overselling him. You don’t. Because you’re not. After twenty years of one great disc after another, the kid from Kansas is back. Bearing maybe the best record he’s ever made, Neon Repairman. And its songs will keep you up nights, just like those bright lights of the title track.

Like most of the general public, you probably first heard Freedy when his chiming, catchy single, Bad Reputation, full of his trademark tunefulness and street-level lyrics hit the airwaves. The song was the opening salvo of Johnston’s masterpiece, This Perfect World, superbly-produced by the legendary Butch Vig, of Nirvana fame. Vig kept the record radio-friendly, but brought enough clarity so that Freedy’s characters, the lost, criminal and crazy, all came through loud and clear. These desperate people caught not just the average listener, but filmmakers The Farrelly Brothers. Soon, several of Johnston’s tunes showed up in their comedy Kingpin. Topping that achievement, in 1995, Rolling Stone Magazine named Johnston Songwriter Of The Year. Enough to bring color to any man’s face. But when you saw that number two was Kurt Cobain, well, Johnston must’ve really blushed. Rolling Stone made the right decision, too.

Jason Berk is an award-winning singer/songwriter and producer. His music has been featured in films, video games and heard on radio stations worldwide. He has worked with Sondre Lerche, Tom Kenny, Noël Wells, members of The Beach Boys, The Monkees, The Lovin’ Spoonful, X, and The Muffs, as well as frequent performances with blue-eyed soul legend Evie Sands.

If you lock Jason in a room with a computer, his instruments, and a microphone, he’ll emerge a few weeks later with perfect, fully-formed, completely original and irresistable power-pop album. If that sounds like a tall order, “Strangers”, his latest, is all the proof you need.

Katie Skene is a blues and southern rock & soul singer, guitarist and songwriter based in Los Angeles, CA. Growing up in Tallahassee, FL, she was raised on the roots music of the South, playing shows and festivals around the Southeast before moving to L.A to study and pursue music. She has shared the stage with many prominent artists in the Jam Band and Americana scene including Bob Weir (Grateful Dead), Phil Lesh (Grateful Dead), Warren Haynes (Allman Brothers Band, Gov’t Mule), Col. Bruce Hampton (Aquarium Rescue Unit), and more.

Her music pays homage to vintage influences while capturing a fresh and modern sound. Her debut EP, ‘From the River’ was released in January 2016. She currently is recording and playing with her new project, California Kind, a jam-band super group feautring John Molo (Bruce Hornsby and the Range, Phil Lesh & Friends), Pete Sears (Jefferson Starship, Hot Tuna), Barry Sless (David Nelson Band, Phil Lesh & Friends) and Rob Barraco (Dark Star Orchestra, Phil Lesh & Friends).

Rob Laufer is a singer/songwriter who has written, sung and produced countless songs for movies, TV and commercials. He’s worked with Frank Black, George Martin, Fiona Apple, Johnny Cash, Cheap Trick, Dirk Hamilton, Shawn Colvin and many others. He serves as music director for Wild Honey, a nonprofit organization that produces concerts to benefit autism research. Rob has released 5 albums. He appeared as a member of the fabled “Wrecking Crew” in the recent Brian Wilson bio-pic “Love and Mercy”.

Brothers David and Daniel Landau are a cello-and-guitar duo who blend a wide range of musical influences to create new, catchy and cathartic indie pop that feels like being with good friends after a lousy week.

Over their decade of playing music throughout Europe, Brazil, and the U.S., the Brothers have refined their sound and hearts and connected with people of all ages and backgrounds. Their upcoming EP, Haven’t Got a Name, examines the struggle of trying to be a grounded, honest person in today’s world. They draw from their experiences to examine the beauty, pain, and uncertainty of working to find meaning and live a good life in the modern age.

When not touring or performing, the Brothers curate and host Sound & Sight Shows, a listening room-style concert series to promote local and rising artists from L.A. and abroad.

The planets have aligned for THE LICKERISH QUARTET – a supergroup of sought after songwriters and musicians, former members of the legendary band JELLYFISH. The musical journeys of Eric Dover, Roger Joseph Manning Jr. and Tim Smith have synchronized for the first time since 1994. Just like any great relationship, they simply picked up where they left off.

Roger Joseph Manning Jr. (Beck, Air, Cheap Trick and Imperial Drag)

Eric Dover (Imperial Drag, Slash’s Snakepit, Alice Cooper, Sextus)

Tim Smith (Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, The Finn Brothers, Sheryl Crow, Umajets)