Mark Kozelek was born and raised in Massillon, Ohio. Upon relocating to Atlanta, Georgia, he met drummer Anthony Koutsos. After the pair moved once again to San Francisco, California, Red House Painters formed with the addition of guitarist Gorden Mack and bassist Jerry Vessel. From 1992 to 1996, Red House Painters released a series of acclaimed albums, showcasing Kozelek's intense, highly autobiographical songs.
The Audreys are an Australian five-piece blues/roots band who formed in Adelaide, South Australia in 2004. Their debut album, Between Last Night and Us saw them collect the 2006 ARIA Award for Best Blues & Roots Album. Vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Taasha Coates says it took her and fellow songwriter/guitarist Tristan Goodall an age to get back to writing: “We were just a little Adelaide band that made an album, then suddenly we were touring constantly and playing on bigger and bigger stages.
Steve Earle (born January 17, 1955) is a singer-songwriter best known for his country music and rock 'n roll tinged "alt-country." He is also a published writer, a keen political activist (particularly in protesting against the death penalty in the U.S., as in his song "Ellis Unit One" from the movie Dead Man Walking), and has written and directed a play. Steve also had a small role as a recovering addict on the HBO television show "The Wire".
Band of Horses, known early in its life simply as Horses, is an Indie band formed in Seattle and later moved to Charleston, South Carolina, United States by Ben Bridwell, Mat Brooke, Tim Meinig and Chris Early. Creighton Barret and Rob Hampton Later replaced Meinig and Early and in February 2006 Joe Arnone joined the troupe. They are currently signed to Fat Possum Records. Band of Horses was formed by Ben Bridwell (guitar, vocals) and Mat Brooke (guitar) in 2004 after the break-up of their previous band, Carissa's Wierd.
Joshua Hayes Carll, known as Hayes Carll, is a singer-songwriter from The Woodlands, Texas (a Houston suburb). He is currently signed to Lost Highway Records. If you haven’t already heard of Hayes Carll, you soon will. In the three years since his self-released second album, Little Rock became available, Carll has toured relentlessly in North America and abroad (performing over two hundred shows a year), founded a successful singer-songwriter music festival on the Gulf Coast of Texas, secured a record deal with Lost Highway Records...
While Kurt Wagner’s role as bandleader in seminal soul/country/folk collective Lambchop sees him deal in multiple shades of deep-orange warmth, Cortney Tidwell’s solo career is often shaded by a kind of icy detachment; an engaging, beautiful coldness. At first glance they might not seem the most natural fit for an album of country takes from the 60s and 70s, but look a little deeper and Invariable Heartache makes perfect sense.
Michelle Shocked is a traveller, a troubadour, a 'picker-poet', as they say in Texas. As a young feminist, she left Texas to travel, Kerouac-style, and was caught up in Reagan-era grassroots politics. Her musical career was ignited by a bootleg recording made around a Kerrville Folk Festival campfire on a Sony walkman. Released in England as ‘The Texas Campfire Tapes’ without Shocked’s authority, its success abroad enticed Mercury Records to offer the newcomer a recording contract.
Real Estate is a band from Ridgewood, New Jersey, United States, now based in Brooklyn, N.Y. The band has roots in the Garden State and they’re led by singer/guitarist Martin Courtney and feature guitarist Matthew Mondanile (the latter known to some for his work in Ducktails, Predator Vision, and The Parasails) as well as Alex Bleeker on bass and Etienne Duguay (also of Predator Vision) on the drums.
The Kill Devil Hills are a 6 piece country, swampy blues band from Perth, Western Australia. Their 2004 release Heathen Songs was followed in 2006 by The Drought, an album which has been widely praised by local reviews. The multi-award-winning group spent the best part of 2009 completing their third album, ‘Man, You Should Explode’ released nationally in September 2009 through Torn and Frayed/Shock.
Mary Gauthier (born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 1962) is an American folk singer/songwriter. Given up at birth by a mother she never knew, Mary was adopted. At age 15, she ran away from home and stole her parents' car, and spent the next several years in detox, halfway houses, and living with friends; she spent her 18th birthday in jail. These experiences provided fodder for her songwriting later on (particularly her song "Drag Queens in Limousines").