Song of the Soul

She's never just one (musical) thing. As the co-creator of the immensely popular group-singing songbook, Rise Up Singing, and its sequel, Rise Again, Annie Patterson has one foot securely rooted in the folk music world. Annie must have several feet, because she also has feet well-planted in diverse musical genres, like blues, swing, and jazz.

Christine Stay & Aiden Quinn are the modern-folk duo known as Friction Farm. Starting, both, from science-geek jobs, they followed their hearts from work they were very competent at into work that they love and do exquisitely. Based from their sustainable home near Greenville, South Carolina, they make music with deep lyrics, beautiful vocals, and sumptuous instrumentals.

Kristin Lems is insightful, determined, compassionate, and talented, and sees our world with eyes honed by the experience of living in Iran, Algeria, & Mongolia, the last 2 as a Fulbright scholar. She's founder of the National Women’s Music Festival in Champaign-Urbana (this year in Middleton, WI), and got Dr Demento's attention with her music, including the very clever Mammary Glands. Kristin is a professor of ESL/Bilingual Education at National Louis University with their flagship campus in Chicago.

John Vento self-describes as making Americana Classic Rock with Indie Folk Pop surprises, which you can find when he performs solo, with Nied's Hotel Band, or, in the past, with Xposure and Bmen. He has sometimes been called the chameleon of Pittsburgh's music scene.

Tom Kimmel spent more than 3 decades in Nashville sharing his songs with folks like Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Linda Ronstadt, Nanci Griffith, Dolly Parton, Shawn Colvin, Art Garfunkel, and many, many other well-known performers, and performing them himself. Tom's songs expose his heart and move the hearts of others, both though the words & music, combining his gifts as a songwriter, poet, speaker, & teacher.

Clare Norelle is all about healing & wholeness, and that quality pours through her music. Her voice & lyrics are soothing, dancing, flowing, & beautiful. Clare also enchants the world with things like community yoga & story-telling, in Madison, WI. Her latest release is Islands of Possible Things.

So much to love about Ash Devine - her songs, her singing, her humanitarian clowning, her Magic Penny instrument gifting, her Earth connection, her social activism, & much more. Combining indie-folk and Appalachian music influences with her Theater & Community Arts for Social Change studies, Ash is a captivating performer, breathing spirit & joy through her vocals and a dance of the soul through her instruments.

Johnsmith includes exactly the right mix of heart, wonder, & whimsy in the songs he writes, combined with a flawless voice and impeccable guitar. He has produced 8 solo CDs, was a Kerrville New Folk winner, & has decades experience performing all across the USA.

Each year there's a contest sponsored by the Renaissance Artists and Writers Association called Songs for Social Change, and today we have here the winner of last year's contest. Mary Lou Fulton rated number one out of many hundreds of submissions with her song Not Going Back. What makes it all the more remarkable is that she did it with the very first song she ever released! But it was but first in a healthy line of wonderful music, as she transitioned from telling stories through journalism and newspaper, to singing stories for the world. Mary Lou Fulton joins us from Los Angeles.

A tribute to John Prine, with 6 guests, some singing songs by John, others singing songs about and inspired by John, all paying tribute to a great, truly unique, country-folk singer who died this past April. Carsie Blanton, Laura Farley, and Johnsmith will be singing originals, while Sammie Purcell of Foxes and Fossils, Tom Pirozolli, and Joe Jencks will be covering John Prine songs. Great originals & great renditions, seeded by John Prine.