SAM BUSH
Widely hailed as the "King of Newgrass," Sam Bush has been instrumental (pun fully intended) in expanding the horizons of bluegrass, fusing it with jazz, rock, blues, funk and other styles. He's the co-founder of the genre-bending New Grass Revival and an in-demand musician who has played with everyone from Emmylou Harris (his former boss in the Nash Ramblers) and Bela Fleck to Lyle Lovett and Garth Brooks. Best known for his jaw-dropping skills on the mandolin, he is also a three-time national junior fiddle champion and Grammy-winning vocalist. The current generation of young mandolin players—Chris Thile, Ronnie McCoury, and Mike Marshall among them—worship Bush in much the same way he idolized Bill Monroe and Jethro Burns. For his headlining performance at the Thirsty Ear Festival, Bush employs the considerable talent of his traveling band—Scott Vestal, Stephen Mougin, Byron House and Chris Brown—who also play on Circles Around Me, Bush's latest solo album. We are jazzed to welcome Sam to Santa Fe for his first Thirsty Ear Festival performance. RICHARD JOHNSTON
Embracing the one-chord, deep-trance blues of the Mississippi Hill Country, Richard Johnston appeared as a street musician on the Memphis blues scene in 1997, and three years later recorded his rollicking self-produced debut, Foot Hill Stomp. Featuring guest appearances by Jessie Mae Hemphill and Cedric Burnside, it was nominated for a Handy Award, and the CD release party on Beale Street was broadcast to 20 million radio listeners. Like his musical hero, Junior Kimbrough, Johnston has since reached the world by sitting still. Armed with one-of-a-kind instruments (home-made cigar box guitars, among them) and a boot full of Southern grooves, Johnston is known for his ferocious performances. He knocked us all out at a solo gig at Thirsty Ear in 2007—a slack-jawed Jimmie Dale Gilmore standing sidestage demanding "Who IS that guy!"—and we're happy to welcome back one of our all-time favorite bluesmen. ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL
For more than three decades Asleep at the Wheel has boldly defied the fickle lures of the mainstream — and thrived — by sticking to its noble cause of keeping that distinctly American of art forms, Western Swing, alive and kicking. Along the way, they've been awarded nine Grammys, entertained millions and won praise and admiration from the likes of Willie Nelson to Bob Dylan to Van Morrison. Asleep at the Wheel is an American musical institution: a kinship of like-minded musicians (over 80 members to date) united under bandleader Ray Benson's crusade to carry the torch of big band western swing music into the 21st century. Case and point is the latest lineup, which is not only spectacularly talented but also noticeably youthful. "My goal was to be more different than anybody," says bandleader Ray Benson. "We're a dance band and this is improvisational music, which I think is the whole ball of wax, because that's where the rubber really meets the road...I think it's interesting to listen to updated versions of what people do, hearing how they have evolved. People change, and I love to have the luxury of having a career this long to do it. Part of the impetus was touring with Bob Dylan a couple of years ago. Every night, Dylan would do those songs a little differently, and it made it very exciting to see where they were going to go each night." DAVE ALVIN & THE GUILTY WOMEN
Dave Alvin, of Blasters and X fame, has gradually become an American roots music icon, embracing a singularly Californian take on blues, country, rock, folk and R&B. Born in Los Angeles in 1955, Alvin and his older brother Phil were blues fanatics who snuck into the Ashgrove nightclub to hear Big Joe Turner, T-Bone Walker, and the like, all of which is beautifully chronicled on his classic Ashgrove release. The brothers teamed with drummer Bill Bateman and bassist John Bazz to form the great punkabilly band the Blasters in 1979, and over the next decade Dave would mature into one of America's great players and songwriters. Tensions between the two brothers drove them apart, and Dave would briefly join X and The Knitters before launching his solo career in 1987. His gritty solo albums have ranged from twangy roots-rock to country-folk to muscular blues. He won the Best Traditional Folk Grammy for 2000's Public Domain: Songs from the Wild Land. Dave's current band, the Guilty Women, debuted at the 2008 Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival and focuses on Alvin's acoustic side. HAYES CARLL
Carll has a voice as tough and relentless as a late-night Lone Star brawl and a lyric sensibility worthy of an M.F.A. creative-writing seminar.
—The New Yorker

"Hayes Carll is an inheritor of the Texas songwriting tradition that includes Townes Van Zandt and Steve Earle. He's highly romantic and highly literary and sometimes, it seems, just plain high. But he lives up to his lofty antecedents, singing in a drawl that's as sexy as it is smart, and writing songs that are as charmingly self-deprecating as they are self-mythologizing," writes Anthony DeCurtis of Texas' best emerging artist (an honor Carll shares with Ryan Bingham). Drawing inspiration from Texas songwriting heroes Van Zandt and Guy Clark, Carll's clever anecdotes, genuine sincerity and self-deprecating humor made his 2008 Lost Highway debut, Trouble In Mind, a runaway hit. A brawny blend of folk, country and roadhouse rock with brainy, quirky lyrics, the record led to an Americana Music Association 'Song of the Year' award for his satirical "She Left Me For Jesus" (the song Don Imus calls the greatest country song ever written) and an 'Artist of the Year' nomination. Since then, the Texas native has toured non-stop, both with and without his band (for Thirsty Ear he is bringing a full band). Perhaps the Tulsa World put it best when it called Carll "a traveling Texas troubadour for today's X Generation.... He's the snarky slacker with a heart of pure Kerouac. He's a modern storyteller's dream, wrapped in a cloak of country-folk charm." PO’ GIRL
Canadian folk group Po 'Girl is best known for its intricate harmonies, poetic lyrics, and deft songwriting that bridges the gap between traditional forms (blues, Depression-era folk and jazz, gypsy rhythms) and the urban landscape from which it's members hail. This band of multi-instrumentalists--the nucleus of which is Allison Russell, Awna Teixeira, and respected guitar-maker Benny Sidelinger--plays a wide array of instruments including gutbucket bass, accordion, clarinet, banjo, dobro, guitar, electric bass, glockenspiel, piano, harmonica, bicycle bells, drums, and found objects. Their fluid and joyous musicality has led to bookings on the world's greatest folk festival stages; they're equally at home in Cameroon playing the Massao World Music Festival or at the International Jazz Festival in Montreal. Kudos from the likes of Rolling Stone, No Depression, and most of North America's major newspapers continue to roll in as Po' Girl's deeply authentic and joyous live shows reach an ever-growing audience. DARRELL SCOTT
"He ranks as the most outstanding and underrated songwriters and performers in the United States today," says Vintage Guitar of songwriter, in-demand instrumentalist, and acclaimed performer Darrell Scott. Born on a tobacco farm in Kentucky in 1959 and raised in California, Scott's father was a steelworker by trade but a songwriter at heart. Soon Darrell and his four brothers were experiencing on-the-job training as part of their dad's band in roadhouses and taverns as far north as Alaska. Darrell eventually earned a poetry degree from Tufts, where he sharpened his guitar and banjo talents before hitting Nashville and earning his way into Music Row's inner circles, cutting and producing records with Guy Clark, Randy Travis, Patty Loveless, and the like, as well as recording his own material on a string of critically acclaimed discs. He's also found time to team with pals like Tim O'Brien, Steve Earle (Scott is a member of Earle's Bluegrass Dukes), and longtime friend Sam Bush. As a songwriter, he's contributed a string of hits to the Dixie Chicks, Travis Tritt, Garth Brooks, Sara Evans, and many more. In all, Scott has had more than 45 cuts recorded by other artists. We are proud to welcome to the Thirsty Ear stage the man Rolling Stone compares to Clark and Springsteen "at their best." JT & THE CLOUDS
Steeped in the fragile, simmering soul-singing tradition of Curtis Mayfield and Sam Cooke, but also at home in the modern indie-folk realm carved out by Bon Iver and M. Ward, JT & the Clouds formed in 2004 in Chicago. Led by fiery-haired Jeremy "JT" Lindsay, who penned the songs “Scattered Leaves,” popularized by the Be Good Tanyas, and “Til It’s Gone,” a Po’ Girl staple, the Clouds are one of the Windy City’s best kept secrets. Here’s what various critics say about the music: It’s “low key and achingly gorgeous” (Chicago Tribune), “I'd swear this album was cut in 1972, that's how authentic it sounds" (Evolution of Media), “soul-wrenching melodies that move seamlessly from angelic to haunting, often in the same verse" (Toledo City Paper). The band’s latest release, Caledonia, is as shot through with soul as their live performances. FELIX Y LOS GATOS
Made up of some of the best session musicians from the New Mexico blues and jazz scene, Felix y Los Gatos was born of the high-octane sounds keyboardist Dave Barclay started making when he brought a button accordion to a blues jam. Fusing zydeco, New Mexican rancheras and outlaw country with the improvisation of jazz and swing, Felix y Gatos has refined its sound with hundreds of gigs in its three years of life, including an opening stint for BeauSoleil in Santa Fe with a typically high-energy set. SAVOR
Traditional Cuban music, alive and heady, straight from Havana's bracing streets. Victor Alvarez, the founder and leader of Savor, has been playing it for decades, first on the streets of his native Cuba, and later in his adopted home of Santa Fe, NM. An award-winning mandolinist and guitarist, Alvarez has traveled the world with his salsa orchestra La Express, recorded traditional Cuban forms on the AAPA and North to South labels, and become a favorite of NM audiences. "One Among Thousands," a documentary that traces Alvarez's return to the island in search of long-lost relatives, childhood friends and forgotten songs, has played at a number of prestigious venues including the National Hispanic Cultural Center. Alvarez left Havana when he was just 13. Four decades later, he returned as an outsider to explore revolutionary Cuba. His emotional and bittersweet personal journey is part of the broader story of the Cuban nation, a country divided by war, revolution and Cold War politics. Alvarez is among hundreds of thousands of Cubans who have left the island since 1959. But for many of the exiles, Cuba has never been far behind. For more info on the film, tap into www.oneamongthousands.com. For more on Alvarez, check out his opening main stage set fronting Savor on Sunday, followed by a zesty set in the Grand Hotel later in the day. ALEX MARYOL
One of the Southwest's most beloved artists, Alex Maryol has been rocking his native state with an uptempo, contemporary blues band for years. His 1999 debut, They Call Me Lefty, immediately established him as the most impressive blues-based guitarist of the talented young crop of New Mexican players. By age 20, the guitarist-vocalist-songwriter had landed a spot on the Thirsty Ear Festival stage along with many of his heroes. Soon he was playing some of the country's biggest stages, including the Telluride Blues & Brews and King Biscuit Festivals. These years of working in the blues laid a solid foundation for him to expand his musical horizon, which has resulted in his latest disc, Face The Day, a textured blend of pop, soul, rock and roots music. GOGO SNAP RADIO is Sarah-Jane Moody (the Dolly Ranchers) on vox, ukulele, electric guitar, harmonicas, junkyard percussion, and maybe some other things, and Jeremy Bleich (birth, Circus Luminous) on melodicas, oud, toy piano, guitar, bass, bells, objects, and most definitely many other things. Often they are joined by friends on drums sets and harmony vocals. GoGo Snap Radio creates an eclectic sound with trashy tenderness and rock-n-roll tendencies, incorporating a wide palette of forms and instrumentation both ancient and modern. Bleich's odd metered ear and background in classical composition, mixed with his road-dog sense of contemporary soundscapes, add to Moody's country-ish, twanged out vocals and poetic rhythmic stylings. AKEEM AYANNIYI
In 2010, Southwest Roots Music continues its K-12 music programming by bringing acclaimed Nigerian drummer Akeem Ayanniyi into NM grade schools and to the Thirsty Ear Festival for an interactive program with kids. Akeem heads the Santa Fe-based troupe Agalu, an ensemble from Nigeria that keeps alive traditional Yoruba stories, rituals and mythology through drumming, storytelling and dance. A ninth-generation practitioner of the Yoruba talking drum, Akeem engages students in conversation about the continent of Africa, framed within his own personal story about growing up as a drummer in Nigeria. In addition to stories and song, he demonstrates the traditional talking drum, ashiko, djembe and bata drums, which children have the opportunity to play and experience. A drummer from the age of five, Akeem descends from a family lineage that can be traced back 700 years to the Yoruba deity of drumming, Ayan Agalu. He has toured much of the world and performed at the Smithsonian Institute; the Brooklyn Academy of Music; the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe; Afrikadey! in Calgary, Canada; and the New Mexico Jazz & International Music Festival. MARC AND HARMONICA MIKE'S COUNTRY BLUES REVIEW
This Santa Fe-based duo has been together for about 6 months, but have combined playing experience of over 50 years. A blend of folk, Americana and country blues, the duo plays both original material and tasty covers. Malin is the also the lead guitar player in the Rattlerz, and Harmonica Mike sits in with a range of NM bands. During their energetic shows you are likely to hear guitar, dobro, banjo, harmonica, cajon and the occasional kazoo. WESTERN SWING DANCE LESSONS WITH DONNA
Basic two-step: If you can walk, you can two-step! In this 30-minute fast-lane session, we'll get you doing the basic pattern & a few moves so you can get out on the floor and boot-scoot to Asleep at the Wheel. Come solo or with friends; we'll rotate partners during the lesson. Brought to you by GottaDance Sundays 7-8pm on KSFR 101.1 Santa Fe public radio.

Basic Western Swing: Western swing bands came along in the heyday of jitterbug swing and the dance was easily adapted to western music. This 30-minute session will teach the basics of 6-count swing dance & a few moves to get you into the middle of the dance floor for Asleep at the Wheel. Come solo or with friends; we'll rotate partners during the lesson. Brought to you by GottaDance Sundays 7-8pm on KSFR 101.1 Santa Fe public radio.

---