Biography (from www.annehills.com)

Anne was born in Moradabad, India, the third daughter of educational missionaries. Raised in Michigan, she attended Arts Academy where she formed her first folk trio. She was also the female vocalist with the Big Band that turned out future jazz greats Peter Erskine, Bob Mintzer and Chris Brubeck. She moved to Chicago’s fertile folk scene in 1976 and co-founded the folklore center Music, still a force in the Chicago music scene.

As a singer, actress, writer, and musician Hills has continuously built a reputation of merit. During her career, she has received numerous honors including, most recently, the Pennsylvania Partner’s in the Arts Project Stream grant award (for the 2007 premiere of An Evening of James Whitcomb Riley). In 2005 she received the same grant for her premiere of The Heartsongs of Opal Whiteley. She was also the recipient of the 2002 Kate Wolf Memorial Award, and Kerrville Music Foundation’s tanding Female Vocalist of the Year Award (1997). Her duet children’s recording, Never Grow Up, released in 1998 with Mangsen on Flying Fish Records, was chosen for the coveted ’ Choice Award. Her poetic work won her Second Place in the Atlanta Review’s International Poetry Contest and her work as lyricist with jazz-artist Erskine was featured in a performance by choirs from around the world at a Hilliard Ensemble workshop in Germany. In 2001 she reunited with long-time friend Paxton to release a long-awaited duet recording Under American Skies for Appleseed Recordings, which won a (Washington Area Music Award) for "best traditional folk recording" that year.      

 Anne resides in Bethlehem, PA with her husband Mark Moss, editor of Sing Out! magazine, and their daughter Tamlyn.

Biography (from www.folkslikeus.org/watroba)

Matt brings a very special set of talents to the stage whenever he appears as a folk musician. His excellent guitar playing, mellow voice, friendship with his audience, and knowledge of his presentations is impressive. Add to that Matt’s own special brand of humor and you are in for a most entertaining and enlightening evening. You will feel his obvious love of folk music, both traditional and contemporary--the writers and performers, the heroes and villains. Matt sings songs of compassion, inner strength, humor, and every day living. He sings songs that you will feel and remember for a long time. You will love his music, you will love the journey that his music takes you on, and you will love the place that his music takes you to.

His love of folk music has led him to his position of "Folks Like Us" radio host, a position he held for over 20 years on WDET-FM. He was awarded "Best Overall Folk Performer" by the Detroit Music Awards for the year 2000, and his long list of credits include the prestigious Ann Arbor Folk Festival, the Detroit 300 celebration, The Ark, the Spirit of the Woods Festival, the New Jersey Folk Weekend, Louisville’s Kentucky Music Weekend, and hundreds of school and community presentations throughout the Great Lakes Region. He has shared the stage with some of our greatest performers, including Pete Seeger, Tom Paxton, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Arlo Guthrie, Shawn Colvin, Christine Lavin, Peter Yarrow, Anne Hills, Lout and Peter Berryman, and Richard Thompson.

Matt is also the host of the national radio program Sing Out! Radio Magazine, an hour-long magazine format show featuring interviews as well as live and recorded music. The program may be heard on many public radio stations, on XM Satellite Radio in The Village, and it is streamed online at .com.

Biography (from www.revrobertjones.com)

Robert B. Jones has more than twenty years of experience as a performer, musician, storyteller, radio producer/host, and music educator. He has opened for and played with some of the finest musicians in the world.  Still, Robert considers his greatest honor to be his call to the gospel of ministry.

Jones was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1956.  His father was from West Pointe, Mississippi and his mother hailed from Conecuh County, Alabama.  Consequently, Robert grew up in Detroit in a very Southern household.  Early on, Robert Jones fell under the influence of his maternal grandmother’s record collection.  He grew up listening to and loving a wide variety of music, especially the blues.

 By the age of 17, Robert had already amassed a record collection of early blues and begun to teach himself guitar and harmonica.  By his mid-twenties, Robert was hosting an award winning radio show on WDET-FM, Detroit called "Blues From The Lowlands".  Concentrating primarily on traditional acoustic blues, Robert started performing at some of Detroit’s best music venues including the Soup Kitchen Saloon, The Ark and Sully’s.

Influenced by legendary bluesman Willie Dixon, Robert developed an educational program called, "Blues for Schools".   This program has literally taken him into classrooms all over the country, and for approximately the next 15 years Robert polished his craft both as a performer and a music educator. In 2002, he reshaped his "Blues for Schools" program into "American Roots Music In Education" (ARMIE), a program that could encompass a wider variety of music including spirituals, gospel and folk songs.

 2006 marked a decided return to performance.  Especially influenced by sacred musicians such as Rev. Gary Davis, Blind Willie Johnson, Rev. Dan Smith, Joshua White, Blind Connie Williams and Rev. Robert Wilkins;  Rev. Robert B. Jones now presents "Holy Blues" to new audiences.  

Biography (from www.louandpeter.com)

Lou and Peter Berryman were both raised in Appleton, WI, and began playing music together in high school during the sixties. During the following nomadic decade, Lou studied classical voice and music theory in college while Peter continued an unfocused fascination with surrealist art, beatnik poetry, and jug band music. Early influences of American and British musical comedy and folk music fed a growing songbag of their original songs. Their brief marriage in the early seventies resolved into a lifelong friendship, and by the late seventies and early eighties they were honing their skills playing regular weekly concerts at a music club in Madison, becoming full-time musicians and songwriters in 1979.

During those early years they were motivated to write new songs every week, many about the history, cheese, beer and strange politics of their home state. By the mid '80s they were traveling all across the country, still writing and singing, but now with a broader perspective, finding that the quirks of their home state were not so much Midwestern as human. In these twenty-five years of performing together, Lou and Peter have produced almost twenty albums and three songbooks worth of hilarious, quirky, yet oddly profound songs, rich with word play and interesting images.

Lou and Peter have released almost twenty recordings and are working on their fourth songbook. Pete Seeger, Tom Paxton and Tom Lehrer count themselves among their fans. Their work has appeared in numerous compilations such as the popular RISE UP SINGING songbook, in periodicles like SING OUT! magazine, and in many audio collections. Berryman songs are being sung around the world by a legion of professional musicians including Peter, Paul and Mary, Garrison Keillor and Peggy Seeger, as well as shower singers everywhere. They have appeared numerous times on such national programs as MPR's A Prairie Home Companion and NPR's Weekend Edition, and tour across North America throughout the year.

Lou and Peter live about a mile from each other in Madison, Wisconsin, with their respective spouses of almost thirty years, Mark Hodgson and Kristi Seifert.