PATTY GRIFFIN
Over the past 12 years—following the release of her stunning guitar-and-voice debut, a collection of love-gone-wrong demos appropriately entitled Living With Ghosts—Patty Griffin has gradually emerged as one of America’s most talented and deeply emotive singer-songwriters. Emmylou Harris, a friend and collaborator who has covered Patty’s songs, is amazed at how Griffin arose from obscurity a seemingly fully formed singer and songwriter. Griffin's poetic lyricism, ardent alto, and thoroughly melodic sensibilities come as natural, it seems, as breathing. The youngest of seven children, Griffin grew up in Maine listening to her mother sing and digging the Beatles, Springsteen and Rickie Lee Jones. A $50 guitar in hand, she began writing songs at sixteen, but spent much of her young adult life waiting tables. In 1992, Griffin’s husband unceremoniously left her. Floored by the experience, she found herself performing her lovelorn songs in Boston area coffeehouses. The demo that would eventually become Living With Ghosts fell into a talent scout’s hands, and she soon landed a recording contract with A&M. Over the years, a string of gorgeous, critically acclaimed albums have followed. Festival founder Mike Koster, a rabid Patty Griffin fan, has wanted to book Griffin ever since he saw her open for Johnny Cash at the 1997 Telluride Bluegrass Festival. He is finally getting his wish. We are proud to welcome Patty Griffin for her first Thirsty Ear Festival performance. HONEYBOY EDWARDS
You can count on one hand the surviving Delta bluesmen who traveled the country during the 1930s and '40s. David "Honeyboy" Edwards, a direct link to the acoustic roots of American blues, is one of them. Born in 1915 in Shaw, Mississippi, Honeyboy has spent the better part of eight decades playing deeply rural Mississippi blues. In the old days, after a few years playing juke joints and picnics, he busked with nearly all the greats (including Son House, Charlie Patton, and the legendary Robert Johnson, whose death Honeyboy witnessed). In 1942 at age 27, Honeyboy was persuaded by folklorist Alan Lomax to wax 15 sides, his first recordings, for the Library of Congress (check out the 1992 Earwig reissue Delta Bluesman). But he didn't begin recording commercially until 1951 with Who May Your Regular Be (Arc Records). He later moved to the Windy City and cut many records. Despite the Chicago setting, his singing and guitar playing never lost that rural rawness--characteristics that mark his music to this day. In 1998 he published his critically acclaimed autobiography, The World Don't Owe Me Nothin'. Honeyboy Edwards has left his indelible mark on the foundation of the blues. GREG BROWN
An unpretentious, compelling, and humorous performer with a dark, rich, idiosyncratic voice, Greg Brown is, hands down, one of America's great singer-songwriters. His insightful lyrics paint powerful and often deceptively simple images on a canvas of gospel, blues, country, rock, and jazz. Everyone from Willie Nelson to Carlos Santana has covered his songs. The son of a guitar-playing poet and a banjo-picking Pentecostal preacher, he was born in the Hacklebarney section of southeastern Iowa. At age 10 he found a Big Bill Broonzy album in Kansas, and his fate was sealed. Years later, he landed a job running hootenannies at Gerdes Folk City in the Village. Over time he recorded a spate of critically acclaimed records and earned his way into the most prestigious theaters and festivals throughout the country. We're proud to welcome Greg back. DAVE ALVIN & the GUILTY MEN
Dave Alvin, of the Blasters and X fame, has gradually become an American roots music icon, embracing a singularly Californian  take on blues, country, rock & roll, folk and R&B. His favorite blues is the West Coast scene that coalesced around Big Joe Turner and T-Bone Walker after World War II. His favorite country music is the Bakersfield Sound of Buck Owens and Merle Haggard. He leans toward R&B from the South Central L.A. scene of Jesse Belvin and Johnny “Guitar” Watson. His songwriting has always been shaped by his fellow California songwriters. And his favorite pop-rock songwriters are the chroniclers of California’s collision of sun-tanned hopes and film-noir disappointments: Randy Newman, Tom Waits, Brian Wilson. Stan Ridgway. Born in Los Angeles in 1955, Alvin and his older brother Phil were blues fanatics who snuck into the Ashgrove nightclub to hear Big Joe Turner, T-Bone Walker and the like. The brothers teamed with drummer Bill Bateman and bassist John Bazz to form the great punkabilly band the Blasters in 1979, and over the next decade Dave would mature into one of America’s great players and songwriters. Tensions between the two brothers drove them apart, and Dave would briefly join X and The Knitters before launching his solo career in 1987. His gritty solo albums have ranged from twangy roots-rock to country-folk to muscular blues. He won the Best Traditional Folk Grammy for 2000’s Public Domain: Songs from the Wild Land. We are proud to welcome Dave and his band for their first Thirsty Ear Festival performance. BE GOOD TANYAS
One of the most beloved folk acts to emerge in recent years, this all-girl, alt-folk trio is composed of Frazey Ford, Samantha Parton, and Trish Klein (also a member of Po’ Girl), who first met in the mountains of British Columbia at tree-planting camps and open stages. At Trish's Chinatown house they would drink wine and share songs and stories. Bonded by their passion for old-time music and a love of vintage clothes, they began performing in Vancouver thrift stores, cafes, galleries, bars, house parties, you name it. After a brief U.S. tour, they hunkered down to record their classic debut Blue Horse, which featured gorgeous vocal harmonies, stirring melodies, and a brilliant balance of the band’s appreciation for traditional music with its taste for the contemporary.  Blue Horse, a critical darling and popular success, catapulted the band to international fame. That record was followed by 2003’s Chinatown and a new album is expected this fall. We are jazzed to welcome The Be Good Tanyas for their first New Mexico appearance. In addition to Saturday’s main stage set, be sure to check out their special presentation on Canadian folk music on the Grand Hotel stage. LOUISIANA RED
As the years pass, there are fewer and fewer artists left that were active during the formative years of the blues and participated in the development of the music. Louisiana Red is one such artist. Born in Bessema, Alabama as Iverson Minter in 1932, his mother died a week after his birth. His father was killed by the Ku Klux Klan when he was a young boy. These hard beginnings serve as underpinnings for his songs, many of which are launching pads for expressing his immediate feelings in the nearly lost tradition of spontaneous composition that has immediate roots in the original Delta Blues artists, and goes even further back to the West African griot bards. In a career spanning more than half a century, Red has played with just about every major bluesman you can name (some of the most memorable encounters being his jams with B.B.King and Muddy Waters), but he exhibits the same intensitiy whether playing for 10,000 people at a festival or 100 people in an intimate club. After living in Germany for 20 years, Red has begun playing frequently in the United States again, including a stop at this year’s Thirsty Ear Festival. HAZEL MILLER BAND
Whether she's channeling Aretha Franklin or belting out original blues, jazz, or gospel tunes, Hazel Miller's husky, soulful vocals have been described as a "force of nature." The Kentucky-born chanteuse has been a mainstay on the Colorado music scene since 1984, when her rental truck broke down in Denver en route to L.A. and she decided to stay. Miller regularly plays with Big Head Todd and the Monsters and her own jazz-savvy band. ICONS, the band's latest CD, is a tribute to the artists who shaped Miller as a singer—Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Nancy Wilson, and Ella Fitzgerald. PO' GIRL
Po' Girl co-conspirators Trish Klein, Allison Russell, and Diona Davies revive the grit and spirit of old-time vagabond lullabies, hobo-poetry, and inner-city blues through a singular mix of original songs and distinctive adaptations of traditionals. Their harmony-drenched melodies highlight contrasting vocals and deft arrangements that embrace rural blues, gypsy fiddle, sultry Cajun love songs, rustic Depression-Era jazz, vintage R&B, and a heavy dose of street poetry. Like the Be Good Tanya's (Trish Klein is a founding member of that acclaimed female alt-folk trio and splits her time between the two groups), gorgeous vocal harmonies are the central feature of the band's timeless sound. Po' Girl has released two albums to critical acclaim and their third is due in early 2006. EDDIE TURNER
Eddie Turner’s ethereal style is an amalgam of the Afro-Cuban rhythms of his heritage and the music that influenced him as a teenager: Chicago blues, jazz, R&B and psychedelic rock. The Cuban-born singer-guitarist picked up his first guitar at age 12. Raised in Chicago, he moved to Colorado in the 1970s and played in the rock bands the Immortal Nightflames and Zephyr. After a decade hiatus from music, Turner eventually found himself rounding out the most classic version of the Otis Taylor Band (Turner played Thirsty Ear in 2001 with the band), contributing his otherworldly guitar atmospherics. Now the leader of his own band, Turner supplements his guitar playing with soulful vocals and a gospel flare. His debut disc, Rise, was recently released on the NorthernBlues label. T. BROUSSARD
A descendent of Creole and zydeco music icons, Bryant Keith "T" Broussard’s fate was sealed long before he was born. His mother, Mary Jane Ardoin, stands alone as a female master of the traditional Creole accordion, a talent that was undoubtedly passed on from her uncle Bois Sec Ardoin, a Creole music pioneer, and her uncle Carlton Frank, a famous Creole violinist. Broussard recalls playing drums and scrub board as a child when his mother performed at local dances. In 1993, at the age of 21, he formed his own band and started touring. An accomplished accordionist, singer, songwriter, drummer, scrub board player and bassist, Broussard leads his remarkably energetic band through both zydeco romps and traditional Creole music. Bring your dancin’ shoes for this one. CHIPPER THOMPSON
Thompson lives in Taos, New Mexico, but he grew up in the heart of the Tennessee Valley — a microcosm of the Old South with both cotton fields andd Appalachian foothills—where he was well grounded in the musical traditions of his Scots-Irish ancestors, as well as regional blues. Thompson's deft handling of guitar, mandolin, bouzouki, dulcimer, and banjo make him a viable threat, whether cranking out his own brand of "folk & roll" or teaming with other musicians for bouts of Appalachian/Celtic folk songs. "We wanted to play and record songs with the same intensity and near-apocalyptic passion we'd heard on old field recordings," says Thompson of his collaboration with Mason Brown on Am I Born To Die, a wonderful, bloody body of traditional Appalachian and Scots-Irish songs. "So often folk music has a flowery, sweet image, but that's not how it's performed by the old-time singers in the pubs in Ireland. We want that smoldering sound." ALEX MARYOL
One of the Southwest's most beloved artists, Alex Maryol has been rocking his native state with an uptempo, contemporary blues band for years. His 1999 debut CD, They Call Me Lefty, immediately established him as the most impressive blues-based guitarist of the talented young crop of Santa Fe players. By age 20, the guitarist-vocalist-songwriter had landed a spot on the Thirsty Ear Festival stage along with many of his heroes. Soon he was playing some of the country's biggest stages, including the Telluride Blues & Brews and King Biscuit Festivals. Maryol's last album, Make Everything Alright, is a typically high energy electric blues rock concoction featuring mostly original compositions. LA FAMILIA VIGIL
Hailing from the norteño village of El Rito, famed ethnomusicologist Cipriano Vigil and his family mix it up with a blend of old and new that always stays true to the spirit of New Mexico. Along with traditional Spanish colonial folk songs and entriegas that mark such rites of passage as baptism, marriage, and death, Cipriano and his son, Cipriano Jr., and daughter, Felicita, play original compositions that put the norteño stamp on Nueva Canción, a Latin American musical genre birthed in the 1960s to speak folk with a political accent. With guitar, fiddle, and words, the trio tells the story of northern New Mexicans' struggles for justice and cultural preservation. In their first Thirsty Ear Festival appearance, La Familia Vigil kicks off Friday evening's festivities. VALDEZ
Guitarist, singer-songwriter and homegrown Santa Fean Ken Valdez returned to New Mexico from Minneapolis in 1994 flush with the success of Every Little Lie, his second CD. The formation of his own band and a third album, the reflective, emotionally evocative Thoughts & Time, led to bookings like Telluride Blues & Brews Festival and snagging such accolades as best rock band at the 2005 Taos Solar Music Festival. Valdez returns to Thirsty Ear to host Sunday's late-night blues jam. JOSH MARTIN & THE SANTA FE SUPERGROUP
Josh Martin has been playing music in Santa Fe since he was a teenager. As a member of Mary & Mars playing "New Mexigrass," he helped create a bluegrass craze in Santa Fe. His New Mexico anthem, "One Less Fiesta" continues to receive airplay more than three years after its release. Martin's annual travels to rural Mexico have informed his unique take on traditional American music. A decade on the New Mexico music scene has seen him lend his multi-instrumental talents to Joe West and Bill Hearne, among many others. For this year's Thirsty Ear Festival, Josh has gathered the cream of the crop to host Saturday's late-night bluegrass jam on the Saloon Stage. Banjo wiz James Horn and fiddler Grey Howell are among those scheduled to appear.