Nashville Scene

A formidable combination of passion, ambition, innovation, and talent, Christian Sedelmyer exemplifies a new generation of musicians. A five-string fiddle player who is influenced in equal part by Neil Young and Stuart Duncan, Christian’s unique and progressive improvisational ideas, technical facility, and ardent musicianship have garnered him a strong reputation in Nashville, where he now makes his home. Originally from Erie, PA, Christian grew up studying classical violin, while simultaneously playing 60’s and 70’s era folk rock in his dad’s band. After graduating from Wake Forest University with a business degree, Christian took a consulting job in Washington, DC. It took less than a year for him to realize that working a nine-to-five was not going to allow him to satisfy his musical curiosity.

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True Americana music!!
Whether one calls it kismet or destiny, some things are just meant to be, like The Danberrys. Dorothy Daniel and Ben DeBerry both began to learn music around the age of ten and later joined talents when they met in high school in 1997. They dated through their first two years of college and then after four years, Dorothy and Ben went their separate ways. Five years later they realized they never should have never parted. They were married in October 2006.

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"By the time most kids had little more to show for their teen years than a driver's license, brothers Jake and Jamin Orrall had already amassed three box sets' worth of mad-scientist studio experiments in their basement lair. Now, their self-starter Infinity Cat label is looking like a blue-chip stock, while their two-man prog-punk project is shaping up as one of the city's most exciting acts. The proof's in their current CD Castle Storm...

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Inspired by the Grateful Dead, Todd began playing guitar as a teenager, which led to his discovery of bluegrass music. Along with friends, he formed the traditional bluegrass band Well Strung, providing him the opportunity to develop his chops by playing in bars and at festivals throughout the state of Alaska. Channeling the spirit of heroes such as Jimmy Martin and Johnny Cash, it wasn't long before Todd began crafting his own original compositions. As he felt confined by the limitations of the traditional bluegrass format, though, he sought a more versatile acoustic sound to compliment his vocal abilities and lyrical themes. Enlisting members from Well Strung to back him, his vision was fulfilled by forming an ensemble that relied primarily on guitar, bass, mandolin and fiddle. While incorporating noticeable elements of bluegrass such as drive and harmonization, this new configuration allowed the dynamic room to experiment with honky-tonk and country stylings as well. In homage to his Alaskan roots, he billed the group as Todd Grebe & Cold Country, releasing a self-titled debut album in 2008 that featured all original material and garnered critical acclaim in Alaska and beyond.

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For nearly a decade, Off The Wagon has enjoyed playing bluegrass music for audiences in Nashville and beyond. Featuring a steady rotation of songs by both classic and lesser-known names in bluegrass, the band cut its teeth on the stage of the world-famous Station Inn and other local venues. Off The Wagon continues to grow and delight audiences with favorite bluegrass standards, deeper cuts, and original tunes that put the band's unique stamp on the traditional bluegrass sound.

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Quite simply one of the best voices to be heard in music today, Grace Adele has mixed elements of Americana, Country, and Retro. With her silky sultry vocals she caresses every word in songs of love, loss and laughter.

While on past tours Grace Adele has performed on many radio shows such as WDVX's The Blue Pate Special, Knoxville TN and WFPK Louisville, KY. She is hired for private events, folk festivals and art festivals are just a few examples among many other events.

Grace Adele surrounds herself with the finest talent. Whether she is performing as a duo with her partner in crime, mandolinist Keenan Wade or traveling with her string players known as, The Grand Band, the group always delivers an all out striking performance.

A talented instrumentalist herself Ms. Adele adds a spark of comedy as a master of the kazoo and even provides a little tap-danced percussion on occasion. It's a show that encompasses everything from a traditional fiddle tune to original melodies that are both instantly memorable. Listen to her once and you'll be entranced; see her perform and you'll understand just how compellingly vital and engaging an artist can be.

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Derek Hoke has crafted a collection of equally endearing and infectious songs for his long awaited sophomore release – Waiting All Night. Out August 21, 2012 on Electric Western / Thirty Tigers, Waiting All Night picks up right where Hoke left off with his first release Goodbye Rock N Roll. There is a significant difference here though. If Goodbye Rock N Roll was slow crafted, simmered in Hoke’s brain on low, and came to life on a lazy saw dust floor one night in town, then Waiting All Night was born under the lights on stage. It’s clear that Hoke and his band have been affected by the past years of playing week after week. Nashville has a way of doing that to a singer. A way of molding a voice around the lingering smoke and whiskey hanging in the air night after night. And first and foremost, Derek Hoke is a singer. The songs, even the ballads, reach out and yearn for a late night in a dark room. It’s the same feeling you get when you leave the house at 2am to catch last call…because if you don’t you might miss something. You might miss the steel guitar or meandering piano solos and telecaster riffs. Well, get out of the house, because you won’t want to miss a tune on Waiting All Night.

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Southern girls have it so good, since they're usually beautiful, fun and have that irresistible drawl where they can tell you to fuck off and make it sound like you're getting an extra piece of pie, with ice cream on top. Throw in a little talent, maybe some long legs or soft curves, and you can kiss your composure goodbye. Then there's Jen Duke. With the voice of an Angel and the wiles of a Siren, she'll lure you in with buttery purrs and the distant memories of smoky shadows, dirt roads and honky tonks. It is the sound of country blues, mountain bluegrass and old-time gospel, of sorrow and hope, righteousness and redemption. She sings the songs of a Southern girl who is complicated and messy, simple and plain-spoken, sacred and profane.

Born into music in New Orleans, Jen was joining in with her piano-playing Grandmother as soon as she could speak. Always singing, playing and listening. The sounds of the brass bands and bayous slowly seeped into her vernacular. In a town where music is always in the air, she soaked up a diversity of influences from street musicians on washboards and whistles to Django-jazz and Delta blues. She was sought out for her sweet tone and quick pickup, and did studio work with various bands, including members of the Cajun-centric Red Stick Ramblers.

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I believe that music is a vehicle for a higher message we all have the ability to attain. However, the voice, and the power of words is not enough. We must go out into the world and make a concrete difference from the ground up. And remember, it's not the gun you shoot but what you load it with that measures the impact you have.

I have my head on straight with a few screws loose- you may think I'm bluffing, but I am playing this game honestly and with a full deck.

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Rachael Hester is a second-generation musician with a passion for traditional music that comes through in both her singing and her writing. Fully submerged in the Nashville music scene as a child and raised in the outskirts of Nashville, her roots in country music are as authentic as they come. Influenced by the classic country and western swing artists she grew up around and the 60’s and 70’s folk music she fell in love with at a young age, her music has a wide range of traditional sounds tied together by her unique, pure voice. Her debut album “Only Time Will Tell” is a project proudly produced and co-written by her father and Nashville fiddle player Hoot Hester.

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"As a vocalist, she's a powerhouse, owning a solid gold tremolo laced with attitude and blessed with range that she wields with style... a world-class singer." Billboard Magazine Just when you think you can label Julie Lee into one category or genre, you hear something different. Lee is a collage, a real scrapbook of various traditional American styles. In her songwriting, as well as her work as a visual artist, Julie takes bits and pieces from each of her myriad influences to make something of her own that is both old and new. Though a Maryland native, Lee has lived in Nashville, TN for 14 years and travelled and performed extensively across the US and Europe. She has had her songs recorded by Country, Bluegrass, and Contemporary Folk artists, most notably and recently by Alison Krauss, who included Julie's songs Jacob's Dream and Away Down The River on her most Platinum-selling collection A Hundred Miles Or More. "When I first heard Julie Lee was taken by her ability to be artful, truthful, commercial and refreshing at the same time. Not at all easy in this day of artiface and facade." -Rodney Crowell

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“Music is life,” declares Rod McGaha matter-of-factly. “It’s about finding the common thread, the common bond that we all have. I don’t care whether you’re a classical musician or a jazz musician—let’s see what we have in common, and unite to send a message.” That’s why the critically-acclaimed trumpeter elected to mesh a hand-picked lineup of first-rate jazz musicians with an accomplished string quartet on his new album, A Gentle Man. The resulting sound is both elegant and intimate, distinguished by both technical virtuosity and emotional directness. With its emphasis on dreamy ballads and fresh interpretations of classic material, the album harks back to such string-kissed trumpet touchstones as Clifford Brown With Strings and Miles Davis’ Sketches of Spain. “I wanted it to have that classic type of sound,” McGaha explains—but without the grandeur of, say, the large ensemble heard on Sketches. “There’s a certain intimacy about the string quartet,” he says. “A jazz quartet is more personal than a big band, and a string quartet is more personal than an orchestra. I wanted it to be more cozy.” For the self-produced A Gentle Man, McGaha assembled a crew of players he felt would be best suited to create that “cozy” atmosphere: guitarist Andre Reiss, bass player Roger Spencer, drummer Marcus Finnie, viola player Kristin Wilkinson, cellist Kristin Cassell and violinists David Davidson and David Angell. Jeff Steinberg played piano and wrote the arrangements. “I try to choose musicians like Duke Ellington did, each one for his or her own individual character,” McGaha says. “There are certain cats that have different sounds, so I think about who I want in each chair.”

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Born in Oklahoma, raised in Denver, Kenny Vaughan's earliest memories of music are his father's jazz record collection:

“My dad listened to Jimmy Smith, Mose Allison, Count Basie, Woody Herman, Miles Davis, Tony Mottola, and used to take me to hear Johnny Smith play at Shaner's in Denver. My neighbor, Charles Sawtelle, listened to Flatt and Scruggs and played Salty Dog on his Martin guitar for me. I knew then and there that I wanted to do that! I got my first electric guitar when I was twelve. The first thing I played was ’Folsom Prison Blues’. My first band played Stones, surf, '60's garage punk, and Memphis soul. I saw the Stones, Jimi Hendrix, The Cream, Howlin' Wolf, Captain Beefheart, Buck Owens and The Buckaroos, The Dead, The Doors, Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, Johnny Winter, John Mayall, and Led Zep's first stateside gig, all before I was sixteen!"

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