The California based all-women band is well known in the Cajun music scene for bringing the raw, driving authenticity of southwest Louisiana dancehalls to their shows. 

The Creole Belles’ self-titled CD on the Arhoolie record label, produced by Greg Landau and mastered by two-time Grammy winning engineer John Greenham, showcases the dynamic collaboration between Andrew’s soulful Creole roots and the Belles’ heartfelt expression of the music they have embraced over the years.

The Nell & Jim & Kalei Trio offers a joyful blend of roots, folk, Americana, and Hawaiian traditions. Their current show, Songs & Stories of Migration, Home, Mystery & Love, combines original songs, traditional music, beloved covers, and Dolly Parton favorites with beautiful harmonies, lively storytelling, and impressive musicianship on guitar, banjo, accordion, flute, ukulele, and Hawaiian slack key guitar.

Nell Robinson, praised as a “modern-day Patsy Cline,” has appeared on A Prairie Home Companion, while her Joe Henry-produced The Rose of No-Man’s Land, featuring Kris Kristofferson and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, became a PBS special. Jim Nunally is a Grammy- and IBMA Award-winning guitarist and two-time Western Open Flatpicking Guitar champion known for his longtime work with the David Grisman Bluegrass Experience. Kalei Yamanoha is a versatile multi-instrumentalist with deep experience in Hawaiian, folk, and Americana music, bringing accordion, steel guitar, ukulele, and more to the trio’s live sound.

The Sampaguitas sing Filipino folk songs and inspired originals in three-part harmony. Drawing influences from folk, blues, doo-wop girl groups, and the Filipinx-American diaspora, Jenevieve Francisco, Cristina Ibarra, and Aireene Espiritu share music from their roots and explore what it means to be in a “third culture” between worlds. The sampaguita is the national flower of the Philippines and only fitting to describe the sweet sounds coming from their melded vocal textures, tones, and tight harmonies. 

Fresh off the press, their latest release, Heels Upon the Ground (October 2026) is a collection of songs representing the journey of their “third culture” experiences and an evolution of their sound, including folk songs in three languages—Tagalog, Kapampangan, and English, as well as original compositions that let their own stories shine through.

“For us, this artistic practice is more than just music, it’s a reclaiming and relearning of languages that were lost, an affirmation of immigrant cultures, and a bold statement that we are not going anywhere. While this music is inspired by our personal stories and experiences, the themes are universal and we hope you hear yours and your families’ voices in our music.”

Black Banjo Reclamation Project is: Kele Nitoto, Deidra Hall, Azere Wilson, and Hannah Mayree.The Black Banjo Reclamation Project is a creative eco-system that curates musical, cultural and land-based healing opportunities for Black, Afro-Diasporic communities around the world to work with the banjo as a tool for reclaiming ancestral wisdom & creating Afro-futures. By teaching and learning banjo playing techniques with African and Black centered perspectives, our unique facilitation of programs which includes banjo musical education, building & repair, and restorative somatic community experiences, we highlight the practice of land stewardship and the roots of Black liberation found in our folkways. Through economic solidarity and self-determination, we are paving pathways for restorative narratives to use music as a tool for transforming our world.

Born and raised in Cuba, Carlitos Medrano came to the U.S. after having trained with one of Cuba's most famous congueros, Jose Luis “Changuito” Quintana. While in Cuba, he played extensively with some of Havana's best known Latin Jazz and Salsa groups, and since coming to the U.S. has played with many of the Bay Area's finest Latin groups.  After extensive participation in various musical groups, he decided to start his own projects with local Bay Area musicians; Cuban-style salsa performed by Sabor De Mi Cuba where he debuts his musical talents through original songwriting and composition. The fundamental characteristics of this project are fusions of Afro-Cuban roots influenced by world music. Sabor De Mi Cuba hopes to bring forth edginess to local exponents of music in the Bay Area. In December 2012, he decided to create his own recording entitled Sabor De Mi Cuba, where he experimented with composition and arrangements. The project was recorded and mastered in the prestigious Egrem Studios in Havana, Cuba.

According to Tom Ehrlich of Timba.com Magazine, Sabor De Mi Cuba “is a strong recording, full of elaborate, innovative arrangements, interesting use of chorus, rumba and jazz influenced dance music… The result is a beautiful, swinging recording which should establish Carlitos as a composer, percussionist and band leader to be reckoned with.”

Camellia Boutros is a Lebanese Palestinian composer and multi-instrumentalist based in San Francisco. After years of experience performing with a diverse array of Arab, Balkan, and Mexican music groups on trumpet, oud, and bass, she developed a fretless 12-string electric guitar as a vehicle for composing her own brand of Arab experimental rock. Naming her instrument the “electric oud-guitar,” Camellia writes music rooted in both Arabic Maqam and the Bay Area sound, which reflects her own experience growing up between California and the Levant. An energetic blend of Arab traditional, psychedelia, folk, jazz, hip hop, and experimentalism, her music and lyrics defy genre definition. Camellia is also an active member of Mission Delirium, Inspector Gadje, Corazón de Cedro, and Chhoti Maa. She has collaborated and recorded with Diana Gameros, Sweet Lew, Mild Universe, Clarissa Bitar, Banda Sin Nombre, Esotérica Tropical, Taleen, Makenobones, and more. She has performed at many of the Bay Area’s most beloved venues, such as Stern Grove, Yerba Buena Gardens, SF Jazz, The Independent, Yerba Buena Gardens, Rickshaw Stop, The New Parish, The Regency Ballroom, The Ivy Room, Brick and Mortar, The Chapel, Neck of the Woods, The Lab, Boom Boom Room, and Brava Theater.