“It’s hard to hold your hand when you’re lettin’ go,” Kim Richey sings on her latest album, Thorn in My Heart, the eighth of a solo career that began in 1995 when Kim was 39, after she’d worked as a school teacher and tried her hand at songwriting for other artists. Her songs, on the border between country and rock, tell compelling stories about people who may have broken their heart a time or two but aren’t yet done with love. She “entices you with sad and unembellished music that reveals an original spirit,” says Billboard Magazine. “Her characters,” says AllMusic.com, “are honest, vulnerable, wary, and confused; their disappointment never bitter; their optimism never totally vanquished when things don’t turn out properly.” Kim, who grew up in Zanesville, Ohio, has received two Grammy nominations. Her 1999 album Glimmer won Alt-Country Album of the Year honors in People Magazine. Her songs get under your skin and into your head – and you want to hear them again and again.

Grammy winner Mollie O’Brien and her husband Rich Moore have quite a track record: 30 years of marriage, two kids, numerous day jobs, and a history of making great music. Molly, who appears regularly on A Prairie Home Companion and Mountain Stage, has recorded eleven acclaimed albums, including three with Rich, 900 Baseline, Saints & Sinners, and, most recently, Love Runner, a glorious mix of contemporary folk and powerhouse gospel, funky dance music and soulful blues. Rich is an eloquent guitarist and Mollie is an extraordinary singer. In the words of the Washington Post, “the precision of her phrasing, the smooth flow of her delivery, and the sheer beauty of her alto make her one of the best interpretive singers in American pop today.” Together, Mollie and Rich have a winning way of bringing out the essence of every song they play.

Nina Gerber and Chris Webster have been making music together for more than 25 years, and they finally got around to releasing an album of gorgeous duets, Apple Blossom Lane, featuring Chris’s bluesy, jazzy, soulful voice and Nina’s incomparable guitar accompaniment, always surprising, yet always so exactly right. They take their time with each song, playing with possibilities, exploring depths, arriving at moments of rare beauty and transcendence. If you’ve ever heard Nina before, you know she always brings out the best in the musicians around her, and Chris’s best is spectacularly good – her “magic derives from those ineffable qualities of vocal grain, emotional nuance, timing, and phrasing possessed by the truly great and moving singers of any style,” says the Oakland Tribune. This is a duo that delivers the goods!

visit Kim Richey's website

visit Mollie O'Brien's website

visit Nina Gerber's website

visit Chris Webster's website