Paul Thorn has created an innovative and impressive career, pleasing crowds with his muscular brand of roots music – bluesy, rocking and thoroughly Southern American, yet also speaking universal truths. Among those who value originality, inspiration, eccentricity and character – as well as talent that hovers somewhere on the outskirts of genius, the story of Paul Thorn is already familiar. Born in Tupelo, Mississippi, raised among the same spirits (and some of the actual people) who nurtured the young Elvis generations before, Paul Thorn has rambled down back roads and jumped out of airplanes, worked for years in a furniture factory, battled four-time world champion boxer Roberto Duran on national television, performed on stages with Bonnie Raitt, Mark Knopfler, Sting, and John Prine among many others, and made some of the most emotionally restless yet fully accessible music of our time. He’s also appeared on major television shows, received numerous National Public Radio features and charted multiple times on the Billboard Top 100 and Americana Radio Charts.

Amythyst Kiah
With an unforgettable voice that’s both unfettered and exquisitely controlled, Tennessee-bred singer/songwriter Amythyst Kiah is redefining the limits of roots music. Growing up a Black and LGBTQ+ woman in the Bible Belt, she experienced social anxiety, grief, alienation – and ultimately, the hard-won triumph of total self-acceptance. Kiah’s debut for Rounder Records, the standout track “Black Myself,” was originally recorded with Our Native Daughters. It earned a 2020 GRAMMY Award nomination for Best American Roots Song and won Song of the Year at the 2019 Folk Alliance International Awards. Kiah’s new version of “Black Myself ” – radically reimagined with the help of producer Tony Berg (Phoebe Bridgers, Amos Lee, Andrew Bird) – represents a stunning expansion of her sound into the world of iconoclastic alternative rock.

John Ellison, charismatic creator of the R&B standard “Some Kind of Wonderful”, will knock your socks off with his trademark energy, soulful voice and award-winning lyrics. He impresses with his music and voice and is one of the few remaining soul and blues legends that have made an essential contribution to the development of blues, gospel, soul, and funk music in a time of great social change.

John received no fewer than 5 lifetime BMI achievement awards and was inducted in the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame and has played with, written for, and performed alongside Nina Simone, James Brown, The Temptations, Wilson Pickett, Grand Funk Railroad, Huey Lewis & the News, Buddy Guy, Joss Stone etc.

John Ellison is Some Kind of Wonderful!