Jerry Douglas
Jerry Douglas is widely recognized as the greatest innovator on the Dobro in the last half century—possibly the greatest ever. He’s been described as the Jimi Hendrix and the Charlie Parker of acoustic music. The New York Times has called him “Dobro’s matchless contemporary master.” He has won 14 Grammy® Awards, three Country Music Association Musician of the Year citations,...
Hot Club of Cowtown
As its name implies, the Hot Club of Cowtown pays homage to two legendary groups from the 1930s: the swinging guitar and violin of Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli’s Hot Club of Paris, decamped from the “City of Lights” to the territory of Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys. Now celebrating over 20 years together, the Hot Club of Cowtown...
Feedel Band
Known to many as “Little Ethiopia,” Washington, D.C., is the second largest Ethiopian city in the world. A number of master Ethiopian musicians live in the metro area, including several major stars from the golden age of Ethiojazz, one of Ethiopia’s defining musical sounds in the 20th century. Having played with these legends for years, the founding members of Feedel...
Alex Meixner
Representing the fourth generation in a family polka tradition, Alex Meixner has built his reputation as a dynamic master of the diatonic button accordion on a family musical tradition with deep roots. His family heritage notwithstanding, Alex’s music is not exactly his great grandfather Leopold’s polka. Instead, Alex brings a fresh musical voice to the tradition, infusing the American polka...
The Alt
Three masters of Irish music celebrate the songs and spirit at the core of the tradition. John Doyle, Nuala Kennedy, and Eamon O’Leary—virtuoso musicians and fine singers with huge repertoires who could travel in any number of musical directions—have together returned to the trusted and timeless. The group takes its name from the Alt, a storied glen in County Sligo,...
Sri Lankan Dance Academy of NY
In recent years, the Tompkinsville neighborhood of Staten Island has earned the moniker “Little Sri Lanka,” in honor of the vibrant immigrant community that has developed in this New York City borough since the first Sri Lankan family arrived in the late 1970s. Now numbering about 10,000 people, this is believed to be the largest Sri Lankan enclave in the...
Shemekia Copeland
When Alligator Records president Bruce Iglauer first saw a teenaged Shemekia Copeland perform, he predicted, “I think she will be the next great female blues singer.... The blues world has been waiting for someone like Shemekia for a long time.” He couldn’t have been more right. Over 20 years later, the one-time teenage sensation who announced her arrival on the...
Petroloukas Halkias & Vasilis Kostas
Petroloukas Halkias is a living legend of the clarino (clarinet) and one of the foremost representatives of Greek demotic (folk) music. At 85 years old, he is a keeper of the musical traditions of Epirus, a region in northwest Greece. Vasilis Kostas, a groundbreaking performer on the laouto (a long-necked, fretted lute), represents the next generation in this tradition. The...
Héctor Del Curto’s Tango Quartet
The elegant, subtle, and intensely passionate Argentine music and dance called tango could find no higher expression than through the superb artistry of bandoneónist Héctor Del Curto and his ensemble. A virtuoso player of the bandoneón, an accordion of German origin that is the driving force and central instrument in tango orchestras, Del Curto masterfully leads his quartet and dancers...
Rebolú
Rebolú is the preeminent Afro-Colombian ensemble in the United States, playing the rich, rhythmic, and undeniably danceable music of Colombia’s Caribbean coast. Founded by singer, composer, and gaitero Ronald Polo together with master percussionist Morris Cañate, the ensemble weaves indigenous and contemporary instruments into a vibrant expression of Afro-Colombian culture. It’s no surprise that the group’s recordings are titled Abriendo...
