June was a Great Folk - Americana Music Month!

I love original artists. I mean the ones who aren't part of the Corporate-branded big label machine. Well, maybe it would be nice to have the money that goes along with it, but something tells me it ain't all it's cracked up to be... (hmmmm, MJ dying at 50 comes to mind).

This last month of June brought some incredible Folk and Americana artists out all over the South Eastern part of the Mid-Atlantic States. Our own Bill Payne set out to play at the Nashville Folk Festival. He has been writing and singing his tunes for over a half century... a real full-time pro! I've had the honor of recording him live at the 3rd Street Coffeehouse a few months ago. His set included favorites like "Life is Backwards," "I'm Not Pretending," "Again, Again," and "Johnny Cake" (which I'm including here in a Pic-Vid for you all).



Another really nice set of artists stopped by here in Downtown at the Emerging Artists Series event which was presented by the Americana Agency. They played in a Round-Robin fashion, meaning they each played a song and passed the next number to the other artist.
The three performers, all signed artists, were Jonathan Byrd of Waterbug Records, Danny Schmidt of Redhouse Records, and Doug and Telisha Williams, of No Evil records. They were the subjects of my previous post - but now I have some videos for you to watch.

Here is Jonathan, with his fond (and funny) song about... oh, I can't give it away!!



Here's Danny performing an amazing "Better Off Broke"



And finally, a really swinging version of Doug and Telisha's "Kitchen Light"



Well, I hope y'all liked those tunes as much as I do!! These guys and gals signing their hearts out can't wait for someone at Sony to say that they're good at what they do before you buy their records - that's something y'all have to start doing first. They are worth it - so go check them out on their websites for more songs and tour dates NEAR YOU!!!

See you around Roanoke!