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In April, The Black Lillies released Whiskey Angel, their debut recording. The album was recorded live in Cruz’s living room by Sparklehorse drummer Scott Minor, and features Billy Contreras on fiddle. The band has toured regularly throughout 2009, with highlights including two performances at the Bonnaroo Music + Arts Festival, two performances at Bristol's Rhythm & Roots Reunion, and appearances on the Music City Roots and Tennessee Shines live radio shows. The host of Tennessee Shines, legendary songwriter and musician Jim Lauderdale, called The Black Lillies “a true Americana supergroup.” The band kicked off their first national tour in November in front of a packed house at the storied Ryman Auditorium, the "Mother Church of Country Music." The Black Lillies have developed their own style of Americana music in true East Tennessee fashion. They may not fit any industry norm, but where they’re from, that’s a good thing. Listen to The Black Lillies on MySpace
Born in Modesto, California, Frank learned to sing and play the fiddle and banjo from his parents, both gifted musicians. By the time he was 12 years old he had already taken first place in several fiddle and banjo contests. During his high school years Frank studied the cello, eventually occupying the second chair in the cello section of the California All-State Honor Orchestra. In 1995 Frank moved to Alaska, where he taught fiddle, mandolin, and guitar, and took first prize in the Alaska State Fair fiddle contest four years in a row. While playing first chair violin in the University of Alaska's Symphony, he was also touring with bluegrass legends Doug Dillard and Ginger Boatwright. And even though he was barely twenty years old, he acted as a key mentor to members of Bearfoot (Winners of the 2001 National Band Competition at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival in Colorado) and other young Alaskan artists. Listen to Frank Solivan & Dirty Kitchen on MySpace
The Infamous Stringdusters’ genesis can be traced back to 2002, when Andy Hall, Chris Pandolfi, and original guitarist Chris Eldridge met in Boston. They knew they had musical chemistry, but their lives were too out of synch to start a band until they all found themselves in Nashville in 2004. By then, Hall had been in the band of acclaimed bluegrass singer and songwriter Ronnie Bowman, where he met Jeremy Garrett and Jesse Cobb. Together, this newly‐formed alliance of superpickers searched for the right bass player, who wound up being Travis Book, a product of the Colorado jamgrass scene. The departure of Eldridge in 2007 led to the addition of Andy Falco, whose blues‐infused style perfectly complemented the Stringdusters sound. Falco joined the Stringdusters in the late summer, and according to bassist/vocalist Travis Book, “It ended up giving the band a lift I don’t think anybody anticipated. It was almost like the sails finally filled up completely.” That same year the band released their debut album, Fork in the Road, through Sugar Hill Records. The band’s sophomore release (June 2008) through Sugar Hill Records, self‐titled The Infamous Stringdusters, feels like an introduction of a sort. Whereas Fork in the Road was made during their first potent months together, this album displays the band’s evolution during two years of intense touring, meticulous woodshedding and brotherly jamming. It’s their first record with accomplished guitarist Andy Falco, whose blues‐infused licks and stunning virtuosity has added a new facet to the band’s musical personality. It’s the first producer Tim O’Brien, a Grammy‐winning musician who has pioneered and embodied the progressive school of roots and bluegrass that underlies the Stringdusters sound. It also features nine band originals supplemented by a few carefully chosen tunes from colleagues in the acoustic music community. The Infamous Stringdusters continue to tear up the road relentlessly, hitting some of the biggest festivals in acoustic music like StageCoach, and jamming on major stages with heroes like David Grisman, Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Del McCoury and Jack Black. Catch the spirit and their newest songs at one of these upcoming tour dates.
Growing up in Southern California, John was playing both the piano and the clarinet by age 8. At 12 he got his first guitar and practiced voraciously while continuing to study classical music on woodwinds. By age 14, John was playing professionally. Learning first to play rock guitar, John absorbed other guitar styles as quickly as he discovered them. This broad musical palette has enabled him to play with artists as diverse as Elton John, Luciano Pavarotti, Bonnie Raitt, and Benny Goodman. He is an "A-List" session player working in LA, Nashville and London and has appeared on numerous platinum-selling and Grammy-winning CDs. John Jorgenson first came to national prominence in the mid 1980s with The Desert Rose Band, which he co-founded with Chris Hillman. The band earned five # 1 singles and garnered several awards. During this time, John won the ACM's "Guitarist of the Year" award three consecutive times. Following the Desert Rose Band, John formed another award-winning group, the virtuosic guitar trio The Hellecasters. Originally conceived as a "one off" gig for fun, the group went on to produce three acclaimed CDs and a live video, winning both "Album of the Year" and "Country Album of the Year" from the readers of Guitar Player Magazine for the stunning debut effort Return of the Hellecasters, released in 1993. In 1994 Elton John called and invited John on an 18-month world tour. The 18 months stretched into a six-year period that included not only sold out world tours, but also recordings, television appearances, and collaborations with many other artists including Sting and Billy Joel. In addition to acoustic and electric guitars, John was also featured on saxophone, pedal steel, mandolin and vocals. Although John Jorgenson is well-renowned in the pop, country and rock world, gypsy jazz is the style of music closest to his heart. Because of his international reputation as a gypsy jazz player, John was twice asked to recreate Django Reinhardt's music for feature films, Gattica and Head in The Clouds. The latter, released in early 2005 and starring Charlize Theron and Penelope Cruz, features John on camera as Django Reinhardt, complete with burned hand and gypsy moustache. 2004 also marked the release of Franco-American Swing on J2/FGM Records. As John Jorgenson's latest creative work, the CD is full of infectious gypsy jazz music. The Nashville Chamber Orchestra joins John in this collection of original compositions and gypsy jazz classics, pushing the boundaries as it adds to the tonal palette of traditional gypsy jazz. Beautiful melodies and soulful virtuosity abound for listeners treated to John Jorgenson's dazzling fretwork and sizzling clarinet playing. Additionally, John released two gypsy jazz guitar instruction books and DVDs, and a third instruction book is due to come out later this year. Currently living in Nashville, John tours worldwide playing gypsy jazz with The John Jorgenson Quintet. He also performs in the UK with his electric band, John Jorgenson & Friends, and continues to collaborate with other artists live and in the studio. Listen to the John Jorgenson Quintet on MySpace
Jeffries moved to Austin and moved in with fiddling champion-mandolin player Dennis Ludiker -- a member of South Austin Jug Band that Jeffries had met long ago when both were competing in the National Old-time Fiddle Contest in Weiser, Idaho -- as well as the young Brian Beken, who would also ultimately join the band. Jeffries began recording his own tunes under the name The Noah Jeffries Project and then with Ludiker, the duo trading duties on guitar, mandolin, fiddle and bass on an underground demo called "BoLth on the Rampage." Soon after, Beken, fiddler for South Austin Jug Band and The Gougers and a multi-instrumentalist himself, joined the band so it could perform live. With the addition of Matt Mefford on bass, the band was complete and became MilkDrive. It released its debut CD in June 2009, MILKDRIVE LIVE '09, with arrangements described as "impeccable" and picking so fast it's "unbelievable." Ludiker won the 2009 RockyGrass Mandolin Contest and holds fiddling championship titles from the 2009 and 2008 Texas State-Fiddlers Frolics, 2002 Walnut Valley Music Festival and 2001 Washington State Open. Beken was 2004 Texas Flatpick Guitar Champion. Jeffries won a Lionel Hampton International Jazz Festival Jazz Guitar Competition. Awards are a great measure of technical prowess, but they reveal nothing about the musical soul so palpable in MilkDrive's music. The quartet's sound is a textural, multi-layer mix of rhythms, tempos, flavors, downbeats, improvisation — and it mixes well with the confidence each player possesses that comes from experience with an instrument. Fingers flying at breathtaking speed, original tunes that feel familiar at first but go beyond extraordinary, heart and brains behind dynamic performances: It's an uncompromising musical journey the members of MilkDrive are on. Listen to MilkDrive on MySpace
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Born in the rumbling cab of a stone truck and aged in the oak of Tennessee’s smoky night haunts, The Black Lillies have come to the forefront of the Americana scene in little more than a year. Founded by multi instrumentalist and vocalist Cruz Contreras, co-founder of Robinella and the CCstringband, The Black Lillies have created their own unique brand of country, roots, rock and blues via Appalachia. The group, formed in 2008, also includes bassist Taylor Coker, electric guitar and pedal steel whiz Tom Pryor (the everybodyfields), and drummer Jamie Cook (the everybodyfields). 
Three‐time International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) award-winning band and Sugar Hill recording artist The Infamous Stringdusters hit the road this summer to deliver their unique bluegrass acoustic show to audiences across the country. Though the band is rooted in the traditions of bluegrass, fans can always expect to hear a mix of country, bluegrass and free form improvisations that help make every show a one‐of‐a‐kind experience. The band performs with such virtuosity and energy that they are equally as comfortable performing in a sit down performing arts center as they are in a standing‐room only rock club, and they relish this diversity in their performances. With a solid repertoire of original songs compiled from their two Sugar Hill albums, plus new songs and a constantly changing set list the band continues to pick up new fans each stop they make.
Guitarist John Jorgenson was a founding member of the Desert Rose Band, the Hellecasters, and asix-year member of Elton John's band. John Jorgenson is known as one of the pioneers of the American gypsy jazz movement. He has performed as a solo artist as well as collaborated with other musicians all over the world. His articles and lessons on gypsy jazz have appeared in prominent guitar magazines and he has given master classes around the country. He has performed with some of the most respected European proponents of this style, Bireli Lagrene and Romane. His playing has been included on a CD with Babik Reinhardt and Jimmy Rosenberg, and on another featuring Angelo Debarre and Moreno. In 1988 Curb Records released Jorgenson's After You've Gone CD, a collection of Reinhardt- and Goodman-styled 30s swing, featuring guest artists Darol Anger and David Grisman. 
MilkDrive, the Austin alt-folk-progressive acoustic string band, actually got its start in the northern climes of Idaho, where principal songwriter-multi-instrumentalist Noah Jeffries grew up playing bluegrass and gospel in his family's family band and started writing amazing tunes at age 14. The first band he put together, 36 String Swing, toured the state as Jeffries studied jazz performance at Boise State University.