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Lakota John
Lakota John is an old soul with a love for music. He is a guitarist/vocalist, from Southeastern North Carolina, who grew up listening to his dad’s music library. At 6 years old he picked up harmonica, and at age 7 guitar. LJ learned to play guitar left-handed, in standard tuning, and was intrigued by the sound of the slide guitar. At age 10, he bought himself a glass slide, placed it on his pinky finger, and he has been sliding over the frets ever since.
Lakota John blends styles of Folk, Blues, Rock & Jazz with slide guitar, banjo, piano, and mandolin. He adds in a bit of harmonica and mixes in part of his Indigenous heritage with the sounds of the Native American flute. LJ received two scholarships in 2008 and 2009 to attend Centrum’s Acoustic Blues Festival in Port Townsend, WA. There he participated in a week of guitar workshops and jam sessions, learning in the classrooms of blues masters. In 2009, he joined the Music Maker Relief Foundation, performing as one of their Next Generation Artists, alongside older Bluesmen. Lakota John continues to learn alongside master musicians and mentors to broaden his musical abilities while incorporating sounds of American Music. important to everyone in this coastal town.m service.
Lisa Biales
Performing comes naturally for this Ohio native who grew up in a musical family and has been singing from a very young age. As early as the 6th grade, Lisa played acoustic guitar in church, and for weddings. As a member of the long-time folk duo Prairie Orchid, with Sarah Goslee Reed, Biales played over 100 shows a year as an artist-in-schools educational performer. Always writing and performing her own music, Biales started her recording career in 1999.
Dubbed the “Belle of the Blues” for her crystal clear voice and charming stage presence, Biales has released ten albums with her latest, THE BEAT OF MY HEART produced by Tony Braunagel.
In 2013, Lisa’s album Singing In My Soul wins Cincy Blues Challenge Best Self Produced CD of the year and garnered her a spot at the beloved Cincinnati Blues Fest. The album charted at #10 on the Roots Music Report.
Craicdown
Craicdown describes its music as WORLD ACOUSTICANA — acoustic roots music with a high-energy, rock-inspired flair. Mixing musical influences from many parts of the world and various genres, the Craicdown sound is refreshingly distinctive and unique yet always appealing.
Drawing from both traditional and contemporary sources as well as penning much of their own material, Craicdown’s repertoire includes both songs and instrumental pieces ranging in style from Americana to reggae-sounding vocals, from Celtic influenced jigs and reels to the music of Brazil and Argentina.
The ensemble’s instrumentation sets it apart from other acoustic acts. The band features Rob Sharer on guitar, flute, fiddle and vocals; David DiGiuseppe on accordion and Irish cittern; and Jim Roberts on drums and percussion.
House Musicians
Tim Brookbank
Tim Brookbank
Tim Brookbank
Bass
Stan Ginn
Tim Brookbank
Tim Brookbank
Drums/Percussion
Tim Brookbank
Maxwell Pierson
Drums/Percussion
Maria Moorman
Vocals/Flute/Piano
John Vennemeyer
Violin/Sax/Flute
Michael Johnathon
Among the throngs of artists in the music world, few have elevated “dreaming” to such a high art form as folksinger Michael Johnathon. He is a touring songwriter, author of five published books, playwright of the Walden Play performed in 42 countries, composer of the opera, Woody: For the People, organizer of the national association of front porch musicians called SongFarmers, the full symphony performances of SONGS OF RURAL AMERICA and as the creator and host of the live audience broadcast of the WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour with a radio audience with over two million listeners each week on 500 public radio stations, public television coast-to-coast, American Forces Radio Network in 173 nations and now on the RFD-TV Network nationwide … including the legendary WSM AM the home of the Grand Ole Opry.
WoodSongs produced its historic 1,000th live audience broadcast November 2019
Michael grew up in upstate New York along the shores of the Hudson River. At 19 years old, he moved to the Mexican border town of Laredo, Texas, and found a job working as the late-night DJ on a small radio station. One night, he played ‘Turn, Turn, Turn’ by Roger McGuinn and The Byrds. As the song played, he recalled seeing the songwriter, his neighbor Pete Seeger, performing in his Dutchess County hometown in New York. By the time the song had ended, he decided to pursue a career as a folksinger.
Two months later, he bought a guitar and a banjo and settled into the isolated mountain hamlet of Mousie, Kentucky. For the next three years, he traveled up and down the hollers of the Appalachian mountains knocking on doors and learning the music of the mountain people.
Michael experienced hundreds of front porch hootenannies where folks would pull out their banjos and fiddles, sit on their front porches with him and play the old songs that their grandparents taught them.
Soon enough, he began performing concerts at hundreds of colleges, schools, and fairs. He performed two thousand Earth Concerts, plus benefits for the homeless, farm families, and shelters helping battered women and children. In all, he sang to over two million people in one four-year stretch.
Now settled in the foothills of Appalachia, the Kentucky-based songwriter is a tree-hugger at heart, he performed two thousand Earth Concerts at schools and colleges, plus benefits for the homeless, farm families, and shelters helping battered women and children. Billboard Magazine headlined him as an “UnSung Hero” and he has been featured on CNN, TNN, CMT, AP, Headline News, NPR, Bravo, and the BBC.
http://www.michaeljohnathon.com/bio/
Elaine Diehl
Elaine Diehl joined the staff of Cincinnati Public Radio in 2015 as a part-time announcer on WVXU and WGUC. She came on board full time in 2017 as WGUC's Afternoon Drive/Early Evening classical music host. Elaine is also heard on WVXU's "Around Cincinnati," interviewing local and national musicians, writers, and event producers. She has been deeply involved in the Cincinnati music scene since graduation from Xavier University. A versatile singer, Elaine is at home performing Rock (Bromwell-Diehl Band, Elaine, and the Biscaynes, Madrigal), Jazz, and Swing (Lee's Junction Big Band, Boutique), Musical Theatre and jingles. She appears annually in the Pillar Award-winning Suits That Rock at Covington's Carnegie Arts Center. As a life-long Cincinnatian, Elaine's love of radio was born while listening to The Big Red Machine with her grandfather on a 9 volt-powered pocket transistor. She began in Public Radio as a volunteer, answering phones and making doughnut runs for Fund Drives at WVXU, WAIF, and WNKU where she began her on-air career hosting Morning Drive. Elaine and her musician husband, Jan enjoy the abundance of Art and Entertainment available in Cincinnati. The parents of two grown daughters, they reside in Green Township.