Song of the Soul

By day  Daniel Zerr  is a mild-mannered Natural Resource Educator with the UW Extension here in Eau Claire, but other times Dan makes music in a variety of configurations, including his solo act. One of his common bass & vocals gigs is with  Eggplant Heroes , and you will find him mixing other strange incredients, hence his 2014 release,  Guacamole, Macaroni and Cheese .

Maria Dunn  is a passionate and inspired storyteller and songwriter with a voice to charm us all. Born in Scotland but having lived almost all of her life near Edmonton, Alberta, Maria combines old world music and roots with Canadian life and people to produce beautiful, moving music.

Cody Diekhoff is  Chicago Farmer , a consummate story-teller combined with heartfelt tunes & evocative voice. Coming of age when punk/grunge rock was the alternative thing, he got hooked on an alternative to the alternative by Hank Williams, leading to a kind of alt-country/folk/Americana style all his own. Cody is from a farming family in small-town Illinois, did good time in Chicago, an...

Gem Andrews  is born & raised in Northeast England, around Liverpool, so it was a bit of a surprise to find that the beautiful music she makes owes much to Americana and Alt-country influences. All the more since she's spent the last few years in Berlin, Germany. Honesty, vulnerability, and twang come powerfully through Gem's music.

The Minnesota Music Coalition  is a statewide network of artists, industry professionals and music supporters who care about creating and sustaining a vibrant popular music community. Ellen Stanley, aka  Mother Banjo , is their executive director and shares samples of the wonderful work & music across genres from the coalition.

Mindy Dillard  is so many things, besides being an enchanting singer/songwriter. She's a Musical Alchemist, Body Image Activist, and sometimes she's Princess Fearless. And that's just a start. She created a one-woman folk rock opera called  How to Survive a Poison Apple , combining mythological scholarship and soul-deep whimsy. She operates out of Salt Lake City, Utah.

A revisit to 6 powerful performers from the end of 2017, sampling some of the musical styles we heard, including kirtan, pop, folk, rap/hip-hop, and country, and you'll encounter stories and songs from folk like  Heidi Kalyani  in Nova Scotia,  Laura Joy  in Chicago,  Jen Hazen  in Eau Claire instead of prison,  Alex Mead  in Buffalo, NY,  Dawud Wharnsb...

A Song of the Soul collage from mid-2017 full of folkies, young & old, with tributes to Pete Seeger by  Charlie King  and Pete's sister, Peggy Seeger , a Quaker ballad by  Paul Tinkerhess , a sing-along song with  Peter & Annie , Anishinabe-rooted music with  Bill Miller , and an heartful journey across America in song with  Robinson & Rohe .

A rich sampling of the wonderful songs & guests of the first half of 2017, including  Radmilla Cody ,  Irfan Ali Taj ,  Ashley Mazanec ,  Nici Peper ,  Billy Jonas , and  Jean Rohe . An incredibly rich potluck of musical dishes!

Erika Kulnys  is out to change the world, sometimes by tackling the "big issues", but also by inspiring the listener to heal themselves and therefore get out of the way of change. Operating from Nova Scotia, and with an enchanting voice, piercing lyrics, and great instrumentation, Erika takes the heart and soul flying into a better future.

Sarah Vos is a founder and lead vocalist of  Dead Horses . With poise, depth, and beauty, she and the band take listeners on a sensuous and soulful glide through layers of experience and meaning. With language that is evocative and comforting, Sarah welcomes you into a piece of heaven. They appeared at the  Great River Folk Festival  in LaCrosse, WI, August 27, 2016.

Manifestive: The Holiday Album  is a fund-raising gift to  The Community Table  from a generous flock of musicians in the Chippewa Valley of Wisconsin. Masterminded and led by  Anastasia Vishnevsky  and  Danno , the songs include work by 12 other musicians.

Idris Phillips  has been making superb music with wonderful artists for close to 40 years, and finally he's released his first CD,  Star By Moon , this one emphasizing his folk roots, but promising his jazz, blues, and other styles in future recordings. His guitar & keyboards are magic, and his lyrics triple-deep, in the listener's ear, in Idris' personal experience, & in the mys...

Anastasia Vishnevsky shares her Buddhist soul locally as  Manifest Eau Claire  and as part of  RavenWolf  (with Kai Ulrica). Stasia does alchemy, mixing pain, errors, injury, blessings, & vision into golden music. Her CDs  Trigger  and  She  are planned for release in 2018, but you can see & hear her music  on Bandcamp .

Jim Page  has been a fixture of Seattle's folk music scene since the early 1970's, including his successful campaign to legalize street performing through the city in 1974, and as one of the founder of the Pike Market Performers Guild, and their Busker Festival. In addition to strong folk roots, Jim has spent years in Ireland, and he's produced 23 records, the latest being  A Hand Full o...

Alex Mead is My Rap Name Is Alex , and he makes world-healing rap/hip-hop music in Buffalo, NY. A year-round bicyclist in a snowy land, a member of Bloodthirsty Vegans , and a reformed computer programmer, Alex combines tech savy with peace-justice-environmental passions to create absorbing music & videos. Subscribe to his YouTube channel here.

Larry Long  is the kind of great musician who brings musicians together, hence his collaborations known as the  American Roots Revue . Studs Terkel called Larry  America's Troubadour . With flavors of folk, soul, blues, rock, and Native American music, and as a deeply passionate activist, Larry helps transport hearts and create programs like  Elders' Wisdom Children's Song . La...

Jen Hazen  has deep honesty and an awesome laugh, and both come through in the way she lights up the stage as part of the many constellations of music she occupies:  Jenny & the Lost Boys ,  Jenny & the Jets ,  Girl Band ,  Milk & Whiskey , and  Weapons of Brass Destruction , among others. In  Jen's blog , you can learn more about Jen and her  Mu...

Weekdays, Jim Phillips is a mild-mannered  Chemistry prof at UW-EC , but after hours to transforms into a singer/songwriter, well-favored bass guitarist who has found a reborn calling to music after dramatic changes in his life.

Jeff White  wants musical revolutions constantly, and some non-musical revolutioning too. His style, self-dubbed, is Alt Country and Western Folk, but that's the tip of the iceberg. He's toured in 4 countries, recorded with Greg Brown, and opened for a Bernie Sanders rally, and he hosts a weekly open mic gathering for musicians 7 pm on Tuesdays at the Tomahawk Room in Chippewa Falls, WI.

David LaMotte  is rich in music, and bountiful in living out what he sings about. With 12 recordings, 3 books, founding credits for  Abraham Jam  and a Rotary World Peace Fellowship, there is so much to rhapsodize about. Situated in Black Mountain, North Carolina, David has voice, lyrics, & guitar to charm you deeper.

Tash Terry is half of  Indigie Femme , a confluence of two powerful, spiritually-rooted, women of native tribes of the global north and south. Tash is from the Dine/Navajo Nation, roots she draws on to express identity, love, connection, gratitude, & joy.

Art and music suffuse the work & play of  Heidi Kalyani . Her musical collaborations are wide-ranging, including Turko-Balkan music with  ORO! Orkestra , kirtan with  Blue Lotus Trio  and her  Heart Wide Open Project , and Indonesian music as part of the  Mindful Flower Gamelan . Heidi is Canadian, occupying a small town called Wolfville in Nova Scotia.

Billy Jonas  is more fun and spiritual depth than you can hardly imagine. Sometimes described as doing neo-tribal hootenanny, industrial re-percussion, and soul-spelunking, he started as part of the Oberlin College Big Bang Theory performance art collective, was part of The Billys, sometimes shares as part of the  Abraham Jam , and is at the core of the Billy Jonas Band.

Douglas Wood  has produced at least 8 CDs & is author of Old Turtle and at least 31 other books, often on themes of deep connection & respect for the Earth. These passions also guide his work as a wilderness guide. In addition to his solo music, he performs as part of the  Wild Spirit Band .