Cowboy music is about the human condition, western version. Steve worked as a cowboy some years ago and he taught history for many years. His repertoire consists mostly of working cowboy songs. He also incorporates yarn spinning into his act in the tradition of folks like Will Rogers or Woody Guthrie. Some of his yarns are actually true! Most of his stories are informative historical anecdotes. Steve is as much an actor as a singer, which is what makes his act so refreshing.

John Coinman is an award-winning singer-songwriter who grew up on the Kiowa Grasslands in Clayton, New Mexico. He has recorded five solo albums and had numerous songs in films and on television. John is the bandleader for Text with Kevin Costner & Modern West (KCMW) and he was the Music Supervisor for the film Dances With Wolves. He has been touring with KCMW since 2006 and has recorded 5 albums of original songs with the band including the companion CD to the award winning miniseries Hatfields And McCoys. He has collaborated with many notable artists including John Densmore of The Doors, James Intveld, Michael Blake (the writer of Dances With Wolves), Amy Rigby, Tony Gilkyson (of Lone Justice and X), Teddy Morgan, and 4 time grammy winner Alfonso Rodenas. John's latest solo album Under The Sun was released in October, 2019.

A fine finger-style guitarist with a precise baritone, Van Kirk has a Ph.D. from the University of Alaska. After five years of living in his van and playing music across the US and Canada, he thought that a career in the sciences might be a bit more secure than playing music for a living, especially as a single parent. Eventually, however, he realized that he liked writing songs more than statistical models, and he put aside his computer, picked up his guitar, and set out again.

He's not your average crying-in-your-coffee singer-songwriter. "We are driven by myth and the seasons of the heart" he says. "Science comes later. We need new stories and new myths for a very complex 21st century so that everyone, absolutely everyone, regardless of creed, color, gender, sexuality or anything else, can listen and look and see themselves on the Hero's Quest."

Thus his songs: Thunderbird resurrects the Phoenix in an empty desert diner somewhere in the American Southwest (yes, the Phoenix drives a Thunderbird), The Queen of Elfland plucks Thomas the Rhymer from the English-Scottish border in 1250 and drops him, along with the Queen, into a subway car, and The Midnight Commander has an insane old man leading the city of New York to take up arms (and underwear) against hatred.

Of this charming, Quixotic, and decidedly eclectic performer, the Borderline Folk Club in New York wrote "it is what every singer-songwriter should aspire to."

Jim Jones was the Western Music Association's 2014 Male Performer of the Year and winner of the International Western Music Association 2019 Song of the Year, Academy of Western Artists 2016 Western Song of the Year and Western Writers of America 2013, 2017 and 2021 Spur Awards for Best Western Song. His songs and books are about the West ... cowboys, horses & cattle, cattle rustlers, the coming of the train … songs about people and land, rivers and mountains, the beauty of the Western sky. His solo albums include "Race with the Wind," 2015, "Headin' Home," 2018, compilation CD, "Favorites," 2019, and recently released CD, "Good Days Are Comin'". Western novels include the Jared Delaney series, Rustler's Moon, Colorado Moon and Waning Moon, and the spin-off series including The Big Empty (2016) and The Lights of Cimarron (2019), published by Five Star Publishing. He has published two illustrated children's books, Spur Finalist Bolo the Brave and Bolo the Brave: True Friend.

Mariam Funke is a native of Germany who from early on has felt a kinship with the American West and its music. He has enjoyed a colorful career on stage and in the recording studio, earning a reputation for being a versatile multi-instrumentalist, arranger and producer who is at home in many genres. In recent years, as a member of the Western Trio "The Cowboy Way", Mariam received numerous awards, including the International Western Music Association's Group of the Year Award for 2017, 2018, 2019 and Western Album of the Year Award for "Go West" in 2019. Other awards include Western Heritage Wrangler Award-Traditional Western Album of the Year 2017 for "The Cowboy Way" and, as co-writer with Doug Figgs and Floyd Beard, Wrangler Award-Western Song 2021 for "El Caballo del Fuego".Now residing in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Mariam works in his home studio as composer, producer, private music teacher, sideman and songwriter.

Dan McCorison cut his teeth in the thriving folk music scene of his home town, Denver Colorado. During his high school years his family moved first to Detroit and then on to North Carolina which allowed him to experience first hand, some of the great roots of American music. Shortly after college Dan returned to his native Colorado where he and a couple of new friends formed his first band, Dusty Drapes and the Dusters. Known for sure fire country music and Western swing, The Dusters were soon touring, headlining packed shows and opening for the likes of Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Flatt and Scruggs and Linda Ronstadt. Along the way, Dan was discovered by Chris Hillman of The Byrds and Flying Burrito Brothers. Shortly after leaving the Dusters, Chris arranged for Dan to be signed to MCA Records and produced the resulting album featuring Emmylou Harris' Hot Band. Dan's trail finally led him to Nashville where he lived for twenty years writing and recording with some of the finest writers and musicians in country music. He has played all around the USA as well as in Japan, Australia and Europe. Dan is currently living with his wife, June and their trusty dog, Daisy in Arizona. He is a proud member of the International Western Music Association and the Pro Cowboy Country Artists Association. Dan was named 2021 Songwriter of the Year by the IWMA. His recently released album: Me and Les, earned the 2021 Traditional Western Album of The Year award from the IWMA.

Award winning singer/songwriter Randy Lewis Brown, despite being well past his prime and having an early bedtime, can still take an audience on a magical journey of discovery with his story telling and songs. Hailing from what he describes as the Upper East Side of Texas, his songs are tightly packed with sadness, wonder, joy, humor, philosophy as well as a tiny tad of that subtle southern smart-ass. With guitar, mandolin and voice alone he will guide you through his rich inner world and you will find yourself in the exact spot where the wide open spaces of the West meet the mossy confines of southern pine forests and mysteries are laid bare. Randy Lewis Brown's previous pair of albums, Dream Big (2007) and But Wait, There's More (2013) drew crowds during his traveling shows, creating core fans along the way. His newest record, Red Crow (2019) has received critical acclaim both in the US and Europe, charting on both Americana and Texas Charts as well as considerable airplay. Brown has been a repeat winner of songwriting awards over more than two decades: including the New Traditions Award (2007), TIME Songwriting Competition (2009), Poor David's BW Stevenson Songwriter Contest (2014), FTR Willows by Water (2017), South Florida Folk Festival (2018), and he was the regional finalist at the Kerrville Folk Festival in 1995 and 2009.

With a voice as warm and smooth as amber honey and impressive for both its power and intimacy, Claudia Nygaard delivers songs that are heartfelt, humorous, scrappy, and sensual. And so are the stories in between them. She is a captivating storyteller, with a twinkle in her eye that makes everyone in the audience think she is sharing a secret with them alone. Emotionally fearless, she shares her deepest sorrows with a rare vulnerability and tenderness one moment, then a quick wit and an outlandish, irreverent sense of humor the next.

Claudia tours tirelessly, and has torn up the highways of all 50 states and performed in 9 foreign countries. She has appeared at over 200 fairs & festivals, including numrerous times at the Kerrville Folk Festival. She has also been an emerging artist at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival in New York. Her large fan base has recently supported her with a $25,000 kickstarter and she is now in the studio recording her next release (Jan 2019) "Lucky Girl", with Neilson Hubbard producing. Neilson has just been nominated for Album of the year by the Americana Music Association.

As a salaried staff songwriter on Nashville's Music Row, Nygaard learned her craft well. Her last CD "Let The Storm Roll In" rose to #1 on the Cashbox Roots/Country chart and #8 on the Folk DJ chart. Two of the songs, "Georgia Boy" and "J.C." won the Kerrville, TX Folk Festival "New Folk" songwriting competition for her, but they weren't the only songs that radio took a liking to. EVERY song on the album received airplay. "Storm" was also highly praised by the press. It received five stars from Americana benchmark magazine "Maverick", and legendary folk music magazine "Sing Out" claimed the songs "rival the likes of Guy Clark or Ian Tyson".

Filled with rich harmonies, genuine, heart warming (and breaking) lyrics, Manitoba Country Music Association's 2019 Roots Artist of the Year, Two Crows for Comfort spins stories into songs and songs into stories. Accompanied by their two pups, Frankie and Elliot, the wandering duo hit the road in support of their latest album "Show Me Light". "Their show stands out as one of the most loved concerts I have ever had - people are still talking about them! Erin and Cory are super sweet and personable, have beautiful harmonies and are great storytellers. As human beings, they are lovely, and as musicians they are magic." (Julie Epp, Concerts for Claude)