John Sonofmel. Voted 2017 “One Week Live” Singer/ Songwriter of the Year- Wussow’s Music Cafe, formerly Beaners. “Dylanesque songwriting delivered with a voice like Johnny Cash.” -Jeffrey Jones, WOJB Music Director, Hayward, WI. “Sometimes it takes traveling far from home to find out where one comes from. From Baku to Berkeley, Anchorage to Ankara, Sonofmel brings the foreign home to the familiar, piling prodigal wanderings and fistfuls of chords into spoken word, stories, and song.” – Sonofmel (Photo: JD Bass Photography)
David Huckfelt is a singer, lyricist, activist and founding frontman of Minneapolis indie-folk cult favorites The Pines. An Iowa native and former theology student, Huckfelt attended the Iowa Writers Workshop before turning his attention to songwriting and performing. With improvisational mastery, Huckfelt’s shows and songs of no spiritual-surrender have earned him a devoted following from small-town opera houses and theaters to national festival stages like Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, Edmonton and Calgary Folk Fests, and the legendary First Avenue mainroom, sharing stages with Mavis Staples, Emmylou Harris, Bon Iver, Calexico, Trampled By Turtles & more. An early encounter and collaboration with radical Native American poet John Trudell introduced Huckfelt as a friend and partner to an array of Indigenous artists and activists, including Winona LaDuke, Louise Erdrich, & Keith Secola, working for climate justice and tribal sovereignty under the banner of music + resistance. With roots in the same fertile Midwestern soil that produced legendary folk singers like John Prine and Greg Brown, David’s new solo work preserves a rugged optimism that blasts through layers of darkness in real time with songs that speak volumes, soft and clear. (Photo: Graham Tolbert)
Edward Ojard, aka “Eddie” of Two Harbors began playing piano at age 3, began composing at age 4 and has become a highly accomplished 15 year old pianist and composer. Eddie’s musicianship continues to advance through his study of piano and music theory, which earned him the highest score and special honors in recent statewide piano comprehensive exams. Eddie’s success in the American Protege Piano Competition earned him a spot performing at Carnegie Hall in December 2023. Along with music competitions, high school classes, and being a Two Harbors High School JV basketball player, Eddie is busy preparing to release his fifth original music CD. (Photo provided by Helen Ojard)
Oshkii Giizhik Singers (OGS) is a group of Indigenous women singers and hand drummers from Northern Minnesota. Founded in 2006, the group has had dozens of Native women and elders from the region sing and share teachings over the years. OGS was the first women’s drum group to receive a “best traditional recording” NAMMY award in 2009 with their album, It’s A New Day For Love and we credit that distinction to the many women’s drum groups that paved the way for them. (Photo: Nedahness Rose Greene)
Michael Charette (Laughing Fox) is an artist, musician, writer, performer and a member of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa (Ojibwe). As a self-taught Native American flute player, he enhances his stories with flute music and storytelling performances. Growing up surrounded by the beauty of Lake Superior and the Woodlands led him to dedicate his gifts as an artist teaching about Indigenous history, culture, and heritage. His work as both a visual and performance artist is varied and tied together by the traditional wisdom of the Anishinaabe people, which is respectfully incorporated into his work. Tales of Laughing Fox. Native American Cultural Demonstrations that consist of stories, culture, history and music from the Anishinaabe Peoples. With over 20 flutes in his collection, each with their own story voices and song. Michael weaves traditional storytelling with his own experiences. Tales of Laughing Fox performs all over Turtle Island and beyond, recently returning from a trip to York, England. Laughing Fox currently has Native American flute Music albums available: https://laughingfox.bandcamp.com https://talesoflaughingfox.wixsite.com/talesoflaughingfox (Photo provided by Michael Laughing Fox Charette)
