Alameda’s Steve Meckfessel joined his first band, Size Five, when he was in junior high school in Sacramento. As a student at UC Santa Cruz, he played in a folk duo. In 2000 he formed Stone Soup, a vintage rock and roll cover band. When he recorded his first solo effort, Twice, in 2004, he brought in the founder of his junior high band, Peter Andrews, to play on the album. The title song was used on the long-running television show, JAG. The website Minor 7th praised Steve’s second album, Under Beautiful Skies, for its "plainspoken wisdom" and "ironies we can believe in," calling the album "lovely" and "moving." Under Beautiful Skies made the Americana charts and was played on stations throughout the, US, Canada, Australia and Europe. Steve has co-written songs with Bob Hahn, Peter Andrews, Jeff Lionz, Barbara Higbie and Keith Greeninger.
 
Don Arbor is a San Francisco singer, songwriter, and award-winning video artist whose sweet tenor and upbeat take on life are on vivid display in his albums, Salam Pax and Man on a Mission, and in his new single, “County D,” recorded with Barbara Higbie. Seems Don heard a lovely instrumental on Barbara’s latest album, Scenes from Life, and was inspired to write his own lyrics. The result is a collaboration featuring Barbara’s soulful piano and Don’s soaring vocals. Don has twice won the award for Best Music Video at the Berkeley Video and Film Festival, for “Salam Pax” and for “If I Had a Son, He’d Look Like Trayvon.”

Berkeley’s Barbara Higbie is a master of piano and fiddle who composes beautiful music and sings like a dream. She’s been nominated for a Grammy award, won Bammy awards, performed on more than 65 albums, and released four solo albums, as well as two albums with Teresa Trull and three with Montreux, the band she co-founded with Darol Anger. In the words of the Los Angeles Times, she’s a “jolt of bright sunlight” – and everyone in the audience feels her warmth.