PERFORMING ARTS ROSTER
2025 - 2026
Welcome, performing arts center programmers. While our entire roster is stocked with artists who are comfortable in virtually any setting, the artists you’ll find below are particularly suited to appreciative audiences that will hang on their every note. They offer unique sounds rooted in traditions along with a desire to push their music to its contemporary limits.
AJ LEE & BLUE SUMMIT
BLUEGRASS / AMERICANA
AJ Lee & Blue Summit are an award-winning energetic, charming, and technically jaw-dropping band quickly rising on the national roots music scene. Based in Santa Cruz, California, the group met as teenagers, picking and jamming together as kids at local music festivals, but they now find themselves rising to the top of national roots-music prominence.
They earned nominations for Best New Artist and Best Female Vocalist at the 2024 International Bluegrass Music Association Awards, and their new album, “City of Glass,” has begun racking up plays on both traditional radio and the streaming services. You’ll find it travels well beyond their bluegrass roots.
BCUC
GLOBAL / WORLD
BCUC is a live band from Soweto, South Africa, whose music derives from a blend of genres across the ages. Drawing inspiration from Indigenous sounds that have not been exposed in the mainstream, they aim for a timeless, honest, and ritualistic sound. The traditional music resonates with the spirituality, history and the future of the people. Bantu Music (Africa Ngungungu) is not constrained to where their roots lie, but instead recognizes human connection regardless of geography, culture or social standing. They are the now generation. They are relevant. It is music for the PEOPLE, by the PEOPLE, with the PEOPLE.
Need an introduction? Their 2016 EP “Our Truth” is a seminal work that continues to build their legend, while 2023’s “Ntuthwane” single shows they’re just getting started.
BIG RICHARD
AMERICANA / INDIE FOLK
The world-class musicians in Big Richard initially convened in 2021 for a festival date. But then the quartet showed up to the one-off like it had been together for years and decided they needed to keep this thing going, quickly becoming Denver’s best bluegrass band — and much more.
The quartet have previously played together in various configurations, but united to rage fiddle tunes and smash the patriarchy in Big Richard. You’ll find platinum recording artist Bonnie Sims on mandolin (Bonnie & Taylor Sims, Everybody Loves an Outlaw, Bonnie and the Clydes), multi-genre musician Dr. Joy Adams on cello (Nathaniel Rateliff, Darol Anger, Half Pelican, Bruce Hornsby, Bobby McFerrin, Chick Corea, Ben Folds; she’s won both a Grammy and an Emmy), Hazel Royer on bass and guitar, and Eve Panning on fiddle (Lonesome Days, TEDx, Barrage, Hollywood Film Score Orchestra).
Currently, they’re gearing up for the release of their first full-length album, “Girl Dinner,” from which they’ve already released the exquisite single, “Town Line.”
EAST NASH GRASS
BLUEGRASS
East Nash Grass is one of the hottest young bands in Bluegrass, picking up this year’s International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) award for Best New Artist and stacked with IBMA Best Instrumentalist winners: Grand Master Fiddle champion and AMA Instrumentalist of the year nominee Maddie Denton, Cory Walker (banjo), and Harry Clark (mandolin). Put them alongside charismatic frontman James Kee and bassist Jeff Partin (Rhonda Vincent, etc.) and you’ve got a powerhouse leader of the next generation in bluegrass excellence.
WSLR in Fogartyville calls them “a balance of undeniably hard-driving bluegrass alongside surprisingly introspective songwriting and earnest narration.”
As they work on the follow up to 2023’s “Last Chance To Win” — look for a release in the spring of 2025 — they now find themselves one of the most in-demand groups in Americana, fanning out well beyond the traditional bluegrass spots.
LaMP
JAZZ / FUNK
Featuring Russ Lawton (Drums), Scott Metzger (Guitar) and Ray Paczkowski (Keys), LaMP fuses the tested synergy of Russ and Ray — honed over two decades with the Trey Anastasio Band, as well as their duo Soule Monde — with Metzger’s acrobatic melodies on telecaster, made famous with his band WOLF! and the critically acclaimed Joe Russo’s Almost Dead.
What began as a single show has turned into sold-out gigs and rave reviews, with LaMP releasing a melodic swirling and crackling debut EP that quickly established them as one of the great power trios. You never know where they’ll take you.
MIGHTY POPLAR
BLUEGRASS / AMERICANA
At its heart, bluegrass music is about what happens when you commit to the moment. The joy of improvisation keeps the music fresh, and the fun of crafting ideas on the fly keeps the musicians on their toes. This true spirit of bluegrass infuses the self-titled record from Mighty Poplar, an all-star roots project featuring Andrew Marlin of Watchhouse, Noam Pikelny and Chris Eldridge of Punch Brothers, bassist Greg Garrison (Leftover Salmon) and fiddler Alex Hargreaves (Billy Strings).
With the musicians gathered knee-to-knee in a rural studio outside Nashville, the collaborative 10-track album emerged organically over a few days. “It felt so special and effortless; it didn’t take work,” says Eldridge, “other than the work and effort we’ve put in the rest of our lives.” Mighty Poplar’s album and fantastic show capture the fierce and playful energy of an all-night jam between old friends who just happen to be grandmasters of the music.
REBIRTH BRASS BAND
NEW ORLEANS
Formed in 1983 by the Frazier brothers, Rebirth Brass Band has evolved from playing the streets of the French Quarter to playing festivals and stages all over the world. While committed to upholding the tradition of New Orleans brass bands, they have also extended themselves into the realms of funk and hip-hop to create their signature sound.
Or, as Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers puts it: “Unbelievable. Hard as hell. Free as a ray of light. There is not a band on earth that is better. Stunning.” Sounds about right.
SAM BUSH
AMERICANA / NEWGRASS / BLUEGRASS
In a genre that loves its legends, Sam Bush is among the lofty elite of bluegrass originators — in the Bluegrass Hall of Fame not once, but twice — and part of the very foundation of its expansive community. But, as founder of New Grass Revival, he helped propel bluegrass forward into the mainstream and beyond, and he has never stopped pushing boundaries, making a name for himself in Americana circles well beyond his traditional roots.
With decades of live performance behind him, audiences still marvel at his boundless energy and his seemingly endless instrumental versatility, always ready to hop into a set with whoever’s on stage.
SAM GRISMAN PROJECT
ACOUSTIC / BLUEGRASS / JAMGRASS
The music that Sam Grisman heard his father David Grisman and Jerry Garcia make in the early ’90s in the house Sam grew up in (the simply titled “Jerry Garcia & David Grisman,” as just one example) is not only some of the most timeless acoustic music ever recorded, it also triggers his oldest and fondest musical memories. Sam is inspired by how much camaraderie, love, and joy is simply oozing out of his father and his best friend, but also how deeply they get underneath their favorite songs (originals, covers, and traditional/old-time tunes) and how expertly that material was curated.
Sam's aim in starting Sam Grisman Project is to build a container where he and his friends can showcase their genuine love and appreciation for the legacy of Dawg and Jerry’s music, the impact it has made on their own individual musical voices, and also to showcase the original music that their squad has to offer the world.
THE SENSATIONAL BARNES BROTHERS
SOUL / R&B / GOSPEL
The Sensational Barnes Brothers are a melting pot of the old and the new. As Pop Matters put it, “The brothers run through a spectrum of moods and modes in their gospel soul, often bridging the gap between, say, the Soul Stirrers and Stax, all the while keeping a local flavor.”
The brothers are able to dive deep into their roots, creating a sound that reflects the music of their history, all the while drawing in a modern-day audience. Want a taste? Try out, “I’m Trying To Go Home.” See if you’re not immediately enraptured.
VICTOR WOOTEN & THE WOOTEN BROTHERS
FUNK / JAZZ
As a five-time Grammy award winner and founding member of Belá Fleck & The Flecktones, Victor Wooten is one of the foremost bass players in the world. Now, he’s playing with the people who influenced him the most: his brothers Regi, Joseph, and Roy (Futureman). Together, the Wooten Brothers embark upon a musical journey of songs that influenced them as well as original compositions they’ve been working on since they were kids in the garage.
Regi Wooten is known as the TEACHA! Joseph Wooten is a three-time Grammy-nominated artist, songwriter, keyboardist, and vocalist who has been an integral member since 1993 of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees The Steve Miller Band. Roy “Futureman” Wooten is also a five-time Grammy award winner and an original founder of Belá Fleck & The Flecktones, as well as a drummer, a musician, and a composer.
Together, the quartet is unstoppable.
YONDER MOUNTAIN STRING BAND
BLUEGRASS / JAMGRASS
November 8, Yonder Mountain released “Nowhere Next,“ their 11th studio album and the follow-up to their critically acclaimed and Grammy-nominated “Get Yourself Outside.” It is the second collaboration written by founding members Adam Aijala (Guitar, Vocals), Ben Kaufmann (Bass, Vocals), Dave Johnston (Banjo, Vocals), and Nick Piccininni (Mandolin, Banjo, Fiddle, Vocals), who joined the band in 2020 as a multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter. Nick’s boundless musical talent and passion has imbued a renewed energy and joy to the band, which has been reinvigorated and reimagined in the last five years.
Now they’ve added award-winning, cross-genre violinist and fiddle-shredder Coleman Smith (Rapidgrass, David Lawrence & The Spoonful, The Bluegrass Journeymen) to the mix. He’s taking an extended leave from his international touring schedule to join Yonder, and from their first show together in June of 2023, the band felt an instant musical and personal connection. Fans responded in kind, thrilled by his exceptional talent and charisma on stage.