If folk, roots, and Americana were on a Venn diagram, Grace Morrison would be squarely in the center. With a career that began as a backup singer for rock icons like Eddie Money and Joey Molland (of the band Badfinger), Grace has become a regular on the national festival and touring circuit. She has won a number of prestigious awards including the Grand Prize of the New England Songwriting Competition and the WPRI Rhode Show Big Break contest where her music video was played on the season finale of American Idol. The first half of 2019 is off to a great start for Grace as she was selected to be an Official Showcase performer at the Southeast Regional Folk Alliance (TN), named a finalist in the Wildflower (TX) Festival performing singer-songwriter contest, and selected to perform in the Emerging Artist Showcase at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival (NY). Her sophomore solo album “Reasons" was released on May 10th and debuted the # 2 Top Album on the Roots Music Report’s Top 50 Contemporary Country Airplay Chart.

Berklee College professor Joel Schwindt focuses his research on early opera and country music (confusing, right?). He has published articles and musical editions with Cambridge University Press and Bärenreiter-Verlag, presented at international and regional conferences, and received awards from groups such as the American Musicological Society and the Mellon Foundation. His talk for this event is entitled, “The ABCs: Why We Say ‘Anything But Country,’” which explores how and why country music has been “Other-ed” by so-called “cultured” society, and how living outside and across this divide has been a part of his own story.

April's love for dance began, as it does with many little girls, when her parents signed her up for a "creative movement" class at a local dance school. She took lessons and performed in recitals for 10 years, then decided to rekindle her love for dance in her 20's by taking private ballroom lessons. It was through these lessons that she met her future husband Zeke, whose southern roots and shared love for dance eventually led them both straight into the world of Country Line Dancing! In 2014, April and Zeke started Boston's most successful weekly line dance night at Loretta's Last Call near Fenway Park. She was eventually inspired to try her hand at choreographing her own dances. While April and Zeke now mostly perform and teach at private parties and events, you can still find them on the floor at Loretta's and always sharing new dances on their YouTube channel, Grapevine to the Right.