Willy Tea Taylor & The Fellership, Matt Axton & Badmoon, Big Harp

WILLY TEA TAYLOR

There is no question that Willy Tea Taylor’s life as a singer/songwriter was predetermined – his role realized the moment he wrote his first song. His inspirations drawn from two separate wells; Living the life of a cattleman’s kid and experiencing true visionaries music like Greg Brown, John Hartford, and Guy Clark. The image of Guy Clark and friends sitting around the kitchen table loaded with ashtrays full of butts, half-smoked cigarettes, food, and booze on one Christmas Eve in 1975 burned into Taylor’s soul. Those guys, swapping songs without pretense, lit Willy Tea’s fire. And ever since, its led purpose with passion – finding a hang by curating relationships through musical friendships that get him closer to his own Clark style kitchen table.

From his early days co-fronting The Good Luck Thrift Store Outfit, to singing solo in countless cowboy bars, to pitching countless wiffle ball games, Willy Tea has never lost the vision. Now Willy Tea Taylor has taken his vision of the “hero hang” on the road. and his talented traveling band The Fellership is made up of his fantastically talented buds who play Willy’s songs with a brand of reckless abandon and utter humility that spits in the face of pretense. The way The Fellership plays Will’s songs is the way they demand to be played and, in their short time together, they have been awe-ing every audience lucky enough to see them

MATT AXTON

Some say rock is dead, but fans of Matt Axton know that Mountain-Soul-Rock & Roll is alive and kicking. This West Coast-based singer/songwriter and band leader’s music is a powerful mix of classic storytelling and guitar-driven roots-rock resulting in a true modern Americana sound. Axton’s distinct baritone voice, unique finger-picker guitar style and wealth of legacy stories lands perfectly in an intimate listening room or a late-night honky-tonk. Axton tours nationally playing large festivals and iconic institutions as well as opening up for acts like Midland, Paul Cauthen, Jim Lauderdale, and Nikki Lane.

BIG HARP

Stefanie Drootin and Chris Senseney are music lifers — a married couple whose story began on the road and never really left it. Drootin spent her teens and twenties touring the world as a bassist with the likes of Bright Eyes, Conor Oberst, Azure Ray, and M. Ward; Senseney grew up in Nebraska’s Sandhills, fell into Omaha’s legendary indie scene, and never stopped writing songs.

Together they formed Big Harp, releasing three albums of hard-edged folk-rock before a decade-long hiatus. Their fourth album Runs to Blue — recorded live with just acoustic guitar, bass, and two voices that know each other like hand and glove — is out now on Saddle Creek Records.