Described as “…the unknown queen of Americana…” (Feedback, Norway), Queen Esther’s most recent work includes a performance with her western swing collective The Black Rose of Texas at Lincoln Center’s Summer for the City that included a workshop at Jazz at Lincoln Center, and a grant from The 2022 New York City Women’s Fund for Media, Music and Theater for Blackbirding, an alt-country album written during an all media artist residency at Gettysburg National Military Park. A proud member of Actor’s Equity, SAG/AFTRA, The Dramatists Guild and The Recording Academy, her critically acclaimed 2021 Black Americana album Gild The Black Lily is the fourth release on her imprint EL Recordings – and her TED Talk about the true origins of country and bluegrass continues to reverberate throughout the Americana community. She was a 2015 NewSong Music Performance and Songwriting Competition finalist.

After releasing her debut album Loose Cannon in February 2021, Olivia Ellen Lloyd has been on a steady diet of writing, touring and honing her bandleading chops at some of Brooklyn, New York’s Americana institutions (Skinny Dennis, Luckydog, and Pete’s Candy Store). And it appears that hard work is paying off – her self-funded and independently released debut album Loose Cannon has been quietly winding its way into the hearts and minds of Country and Americana music lovers all over the world. Currently sitting pretty at over 600,000 streams on Apple Music and Spotify,  Loose Cannon was featured on numerous best-of lists (Ear to the Ground notably named it their Album of the Year), received praise from Nashville Lifestyles, Rolling Stone Country, Holler Country,  and The Bluegrass Situation, and made it onto editorial playlists on Apple Music, Tidal, and Amazon Music. Her 2020 single “Shepherdstown’“ was named one of Tidal’s best songs of 2020 on their Rising Folk playlist.

Lloyd is a West Virginia native and proud of it. Raised by a musician and a public school educator in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, her sound is a combination of her deeply rooted past and her fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants present. 2021 NewSong Music Performance and Songwriting Competition finalist.

Jae Jin is an independent global recording artist, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist & storyteller from Baltimore, MD. He has self-released 4 full-length albums of original music for which he has received GRAMMY consideration, numerous accolades, and songwriting awards, including the prestigious John Lennon Songwriting Award and Finalist for the NewSong Music Performance and Songwriting Competition. Jae was a 2019 NewSong Music Performance and Songwriting Competition finalist.

Michael Flynn is an Americana-adjacent singer/songwriter based in western NC. His songs have been featured on shows like Grey’s Anatomy and Shameless, and on commercials for useful products like cars and shampoo. He’s also won a few awards for songwriting, most recently the 2021 Newsong Music Grand Prize. His band Slow Runner has released 5 full length albums, an EP, and several singles. They spent some time on one of SonyBMG’s labels and have toured internationally with artists like The Avett Brothers, Josh Ritter, Built to Spill, William Fitzsimmons, and others. Michael has released three solo albums, including the most recent ‘Survive With Me’ in 2020. 2022 brought the release of a new EP called ‘endlings,’ an unvarnished collection of songs that at various points evoke the following emotions: sadness, happiness, regret, romance, optimism, pessimism, you get the idea. He consistently threatens to someday write a self-help book called ‘Stop Trying to Look Like What You Used To Look Like And Just Look Like What You Look Like’ but none of his friends actually think he’ll follow through.