Norah Jones, born on March 30th 1979 in New York City, is one of the most popular contemporary jazz and jazz-influenced singers of our time. She was a member of Wax Poetic before her debut album Come Away With Me. She can still be heard singing with them on two tracks of their release, Nublu Sessions.

Her debut album Come Away With Me was released in 2002 and sold 22 million copies worldwide. It won 5 Grammy Awards in 2003.

Her second album, Feels Like Home, with folk tendency, is the highest-selling album in the history of Blue Note Records with over a million copies sold within the first week. Norah Jones was listed among the most influential people of 2004 by the Time Magazine.

On January 30, 2007 Norah Jones released her third album, Not Too Late - a collection of 13 original songs, itunes includes a bonus live track of the song Sinkin' Soon. This was the most pre-ordered album of all time on Amazon.com.

Her fourth studio album, The Fall, was released on November 17, 2009.

Her fifth studio album ...Little Broken Hearts was released on May 1, 2012 and she collaborated with Danger Mouse for its production. The Happy Pills Songfacts reports that the album was recorded at Danger Mouse's Los Angeles studio during the fall of 2011. The record was co-written by Jones and Danger Mouse, with the pair handling the majority of the instrumentals. Jones teamed up with the producer after she contributed vocals to his Rome project with Daniele Luppi.

The daughter of Beatles-influencing sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar, Jones doesn't closely follow any particular genre, rather she brings her unique jazzy flavor to songs with roots in country, folk, Americana, and modern light jazz, pop and rock.


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Adam Green (born May 28, 1981 in Mount Kisco, New York) is an American singer-songwriter.

Green attended Emerson College briefly in 1998 before leaving to concentrate on his music, going on to co-found the anti folk group The Moldy Peaches with Kimya Dawson. In 2004 The Moldy Peaches went on hiatus and both Green and Dawson embarked on solo careers.

Green released several albums on Rough Trade Records. Among his better known songs are "Jessica" (about singer Jessica Simpson), "Novotel", "Friends of Mine", "Dance with Me", "Carolina" and "Emily", and, in Britain, his cover of The Libertines track "What a Waster".

Prior to Jacket Full of Danger in 2006, all of Green's albums had been released on the 22nd of the month. His latest album was released on March 18, 2008 and is titled Sixes & Sevens. Titles include "Morning After Midnight", "Twee Twee Dee", and "Drowning Head First", the latter a duet between Green and his girlfriend.

In January 2008, The Moldy Peaches began having a resurgence in popularity, due to their music being included in the hit indie film Juno.

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Jesse Malin is a New York City-based singer-songwriter who started his performing career in the 1980s in the New York hardcore band Heart Attack. He was the original frontman for the 90's punk/hard rock band D Generation. After the band broke up in 1999, Malin formed the alt. rock band Bellvue before he began to work on solo material. Malin's new songs displayed such influences as Paul Westerberg, Bruce Springsteen, and Neil Young.

Ryan Adams, an old friend, was impressed by Malin's new songs and offered to produce a record for him, in spite of having never done it before. Malin's debut, "The Fine Art of Self Destruction," was made in just under a week, and was released in January, 2003. He toured both the US and the UK in support of the album.

Malin's follow-up, "The Heat," was released in June, 2004. He released his third album, "Glitter in the Gutter," in March, 2007.

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Nicole Atkins' music is a blend of the decades and an expression of the images that many of us share in our memories. Both playful and tragic and never cynical. Nicole draws upon the documents left us by heroes such as Roy Orbison, Phil Spector, Nina Simone, The Kinks, David Lynch, as much as her own experiences learning from the new heroes like Stephen Malkmus, Wilco, Lucinda Williams...

She is from Neptune, NJ.

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Born in Gillette, New Jersey (April 4, 1984), Baylin hung around in the bar and restaurant her parents owned throughout her childhood. "The energy in there is powerful," Baylin relates. "We got some shady regulars, and I grew up completely enchanted by their stories." Her mother would join her in singalongs of classic pop music, but by age 13 young Jessie had discovered some of her greatest influences - Nina Simone, Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. She was also inspired by Barbra Streisand and Judy Garland and their emotional intensity electrified her. "They just let it all hang out," she notes. "Something about artists who looks vulnerable enough to break but at the same time are so powerful... I love that fine line. That's why I put so much into my stage performance, because that's what inspires me."

Baylin moved to Los Angeles after high school to escape her "comfort zone", and admittedly, "to escape New Jersey". Baylin wrote her first song with a friend and immediately knew she'd found her calling. Afterward, she cut some demos, resulting in a residency at the Mint, which led to a growing interest in her work in the record industry. Signing a record deal with Verve Forecast in 2008.

---

"It's a collection of a bunch of moments in my life," Jessie Baylin says of her Verve Forecast debut Firesight. "I'm just trying to be as honest as I can, and hopefully people will connect with the songs and recognize moments of their own life in them."

Firesight makes good on the critical praise and grass-roots fan support that's already been heaped upon the 24-year-old artist. The album offers a vibrant, soulful showcase for her talents as both an uncommonly insightful songwriter and a deeply expressive, effortlessly charismatic vocalist.

Recorded in the artist's recently adopted hometown of Nashville with noted producer Roger Moutenot (Yo La Tengo, Rogue Wave), Firesight features contributions from some of Nashville's most respected rock players, and songwriting collaborations with such notable co-writers as Whiskeytown member Mike Daly and Grammy-winning songwriter/performer Jesse Harris, L.A. troubadour Zack Hexum and the Rembrandts' Danny Wilde.

All-star support notwithstanding, it's Baylin's lyrically incisive, melodically intoxicating compositions and bracing performances that make Firesight such a revelation. Such tunes as "Leave Your Mark," "Lonely Heaven," "Not A Day More" and "See How I Run" boast a level of emotional insight that's rare in such a young artist.

Although Firesight shows her to be a natural songwriter and performer, Jessie Baylin's road to a musical career has been an unconventional one. She gained her initial performing experience during early childhood, singing for customers at the Fire Sight Inn, the New Jersey restaurant/jazz bar that her parents owned. It was there that she developed her lifelong affinity for music, as well as gaining some early insights into human nature by observing the establishment's colorful clientele.

"That's why I wanted Firesight to be the title of the record," Baylin explains. "It's where I come from, and it's who I am."

As a child, Baylin felt a deep connection with the honesty and intensity of such classic jazz and pop divas as Joni Mitchell, Stevie Nicks, Billie Holiday and Nina Simone, whose influence would later inform her own singing. She also demonstrated an early penchant for introspection and self-examination, writing poetry and keeping personal journals while still in elementary school.

Shortly after graduating from high school, Baylin demonstrated her iconoclastic spirit by deciding to leave her family and friends behind to move to Los Angeles. "I was really comfortable at home with my family," she explains, "and I really needed to get uncomfortable and take a big risk. It was nuts, but I just felt as though it was something that I needed to do. L.A. was completely alien to me. I didn't know anyone when I moved there, and I didn't make any friends there for about a year."

It was after arriving in L.A. that Baylin stumbled upon her gift for songwriting. "A friend came to visit from New York," she recalls, "and he brought his little baby Taylor guitar. We were sitting around singing some of our favorite songs, and then he started playing this melody and I picked up my journal and I knew the words that needed to go with that music. I started singing them and it all just connected. That was the first song I wrote.

"I knew right away that this was what I was meant to be doing," she continues. "I had been searching for my purpose, and it smacked me in the face. It was scary, because I didn't know anyone in the music business. But I knew that it was what I was supposed to do, so I just went with it."

After an extended period honing her budding songwriting skills in solitude, Baylin recruited a band and booked her first show at the L.A. club the Mint. Almost immediately, she developed a local buzz and an enthusiastic following. "When I started playing out in L.A. and finding myself as an artist, it was the first time in my life that I actually felt like me," she says. "I could walk into a place and feel like all of me was there."

She soon became a fixture at the Hotel Café, emerging as a pillar of a vibrant grass-roots scene of young singer/songwriters. Before long, she was receiving offers of record deals, but passed on them because she didn't feel she was ready yet.

"The Hotel Café was a really amazing scene," Baylin states, "and it's great that it sprung up in L.A. yet had very little to do with the music business. Everyone was being offered record deals and turning them down. We were just trying to figure out a way we could just have it be our own thing."

In 2007, a co-writing session with songwriter/producer/recording artist Jesse Harris (best-known for his Grammy-winning work with Norah Jones) organically grew into a recording project that became Baylin's first album, You, which received a low-key independent release. In addition to demonstrating her evolving songwriting and performing abilities, the project also saw Baylin recording with such legendary veteran musicians as Jim Keltner, Van Dyke Parks and Leland Sklar.

Baylin continued to win new fans on national tours with James Morrison, Brett Dennen and Cranberries singer Dolores O'Riordan. She was also a featured performer on the 2006 Hotel Café tour and its 2008 sequel, alongside such Hotel Café alumni as Cary Brothers, Ingrid Michaelson and Greg Laswell.

With Firesight establishing her as one of the year's most exciting new creative forces, Jessie Baylin is eager to share her songs with rapidly expanding fan base.

"Listening to this record still sends a chill up my back," she says, adding, "I think that most artists struggle with fear and insecurity, and I certainly do, but I've never felt more confident and comfortable on stage than when I'm playing the songs on Firesight. It just feels so good and so right; I just fall into it, and I'm in the moment and it's beautiful."

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This band won the contest to be the first unsigned artist to be featured on the cover of the Rolling Stone magazine.

From the prairie city of Saskatoon, Canada come the Sheepdogs, 4 young gentlemen who revel in the joy of rock n roll so wholeheartedly, it's downright contagious. Sporting the long-haired looks of their musical forefathers, the lads make the most of their 2 guitars, bass and drums combo. Soulful vocalizations, everybody harmonizing, old-school guitar chops winding, riffing and chiming, and a grooving rhythm section that keeps it all going. Having already cemented their reputation as dynamic performers in their hometown, the Sheepdogs now turn their attention to spreading their affection for rock n roll cross-country. They have spent the last year covering the great white north, playing from Vancouver island to Montreal. They have played festivals, headlined a bill during 2007's Junofest, opened for the likes of Matt Mays and el Torpedo, and performed before thousands at 2006's Saskatoon Centennial Celebration. In January 2007 they released their debut LP Trying to Grow, a collection of guitar-driven originals that recall classic rockers like the Stones, CCR, and the Kinks. The album's title-track was featured in a province-wide campaign in their native Saskatchewan. Early 2008 has already seen the completion of their follow-up album, which mixes elements of southern rock and moody soul with gleeful straight-forward rockers. Once again, the boys are hitting the road, spreading their rock n roll revival to the rest of Canada.
-Bill Shakespeare, August 2007

Band Lineup:
Ewan Currie - lead vocals, guitar
Leot Hanson - backing vocals, guitar
Ryan Gullen - backing vocals, bass
Sam Corbett - backing vocals, drums

http://www.thesheepdogs.com/

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Justin Long, one of Chicago's house music pioneers, began DJing at the young age of 15. His early musical influences ranged from Joy Division and Depeche Mode to the Sex Pistols. In 1988, Justin discovered house music on WBMX radio, which directed him into the world of house music where he has helped shape the Chicago House sound into what it is today. During the past 15 years, Justin has accomplished more than most could imagine in the house music industry. In the early 90's, Justin began DJing at underground events throughout the Midwest with the likes of Derrick Carter, Cajmere and Traxx. Soon thereafter, more gigs followed and Justin's name became synonymous with Chicago House music. In 1999, Justin was the founding DJ on Chicago's Q101 Sonic Boom Radio; one of the longest running mix shows in the United States and is now preparing to start .dotbleep radion on xm radios the move. While touring for the past nine years, Justin has made frequent visits throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico and Europe, including repeat visits to headline UK venues such as Back to Basics, Sub Club, Fabric and Circus. In addition, Justin has made countless guest appearances and held residencies in Chicago's best nightclubs such as Red Dog, 112 Green Street, Karma, Slick's Lounge, Mamby and Zentra. Currently, Justin hosts a monthly residency at SmartBar which is one of Chicago's premier house events entitled .Dotbleep. In the studio, Justin is working closely with Dan X under the moniker "No Assembly Firm". Together, Justin and Dan have completed over two dozen projects including original and remix work for highly acclaimed record labels such as Classic, Music For Freaks, Junior Boys Own, Aroma, Cajual, Robsoul, Greens Keepers Music and many more. Justin and Dan perform together frequently, headlining venues across the globe. These sounds and performances have captured a cult following and can be heard in regular rotation worldwide on "The Move" on XM radio. Along with performing and producing, Justin works in conjunction with 20:20 Vision to run his own record label, .Dotbleep Recordings which features artists such as: Natural Rhythm, Sawtooth Sucka, Trade Marq and Miles Maeda. In it's early stages, .Dotbleep has drawn quite a bit of attention and looks to follow it's Chicago successors, Cajual and Classic. Justin continues to push the boundaries of house music, while constantly refining himself as an artist.

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Youth grew up in New York and started playing as young as 12 years old (hence the name Youth) in several New York City hardcore bands. He made his playing debut with Agnostic Front in 1983 but did not play on any recordings. Youth also appeared for New York City act Warzone until around 1986. He joined Murphy's Law (another New York City band) that year, recording on various works with them, including two full-length albums, Youth performed with them until 1995.

After leaving Murphy's Law, and he recorded a single with a band named The Homewreckers in 1996. Around this time Youth evolved his style from hardcore to implementing some of his 70s punk influences, such as New York Dolls, Dead Boys and The Heartbreakers, thus he joined famous New York City glam punk band D Generation, replacing Richard Bacchus on guitar. He was with D Generation from 1996 to 1998 and recorded on their final album "Through The Darkness", Youth co-wrote one of the tracks "Sunday Secret Saints" with Jesse Malin.

Chrome Locust was formed by Youth along with former D Generation members Michael Wildwood and Vásquez member Jim Heneghan in 1998, the band proved to be short-lived lasting only a year before splitting up however, they managed to record and release a self-titled album on Tee Pee Records.


---- Playing with Danzig and Samhain ----

During the summer of 1999, he successfully auditioned for Danzig; he joined up as the guitarist. Ironically, former D Generation bandmate Howie Pyro joined Danzig at the same time. The same year Glenn Danzig had reformed the band Samhain, guitarist Damien decided not to join the band for their reunion tour, thus Todd was asked to replace him.

He only had 3 months to practice and learn the Samhain and Danzig sets. Although not an "original" member of Samhain, fans welcomed him to the lineup, some even mistaking him for Damien. The band AFI had toured with Samhain during 1999, and their frontman Davey Havok was a longtime fan, so in 2000 Youth, along with Samhain members London May and Steve Zing masterminded Son of Sam. This featured Davey Havok on vocals and on their album Songs from the Earth guest appearances from Glenn Danzig himself, the project was however only meant to be a one time thing.

Back with the band Danzig, Youth recorded two albums; a live one, and "I Luciferi" which was released in 2002, it featured Glenn Danzig, Howie Pyro and future Queens of the Stone Age drummer Joey Castillo. Todd eventually left the group in 2003.

Todd Youth rejoined Danzig in 2007 for the Halloween Tour and also appeared on the release The Lost Tracks Of Danzig.


---- Recent times ----

Youth also played with Motörhead in May 2003, filling in for three years on Motörhead's tour of the United States, as Phil Campbell's mother had passed away and he was unable to continue on tour.

Since 2004, Todd has led Los Angeles rockers The Chelsea Smiles, this in some ways marks a return to the style of music Youth played with D Generation with the band implementing similar influences, such as; The Stooges, New York Dolls, MC5 and Chuck Berry. They released a debut EP; "Nowhere Ride" in 2005. The debut full-length Chelsea Smiles album, "Thirty Six Hours Later" was released in November 2006, its European release date is early December of the same year.

The Chelsea Smiles were personally invited by Social D to open for them in 2006. The Chelsea Smiles later went on to tour Europe in 2007.

In 2008 Todd reformed the band Son Of Sam. This released reunited Todd Youth and Steve Zing, but did not have Davey Havok on vocals. As with the first Son Of Sam release, all music was written by Todd.

2008 and 2009 also saw Todd joining legendary singer, Glen Campbell's band. Todd recorded 3 songs on Glen's comeback record "Meet Glen Campbell". Todd has done various tv show appearances (Jimmy Kimmel, The Tonight Show) and toured the U.K. in support of the release.

2009 - The Chelsea Smiles will release a new, self-titled release. The band is doing a 2 1/2 week U.K. tour with Wednesday 13 in support of the release.

Along with his various projects Todd spends his off time as a much sought after studio musician in the Los Angeles area.


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The Uptown Horns are a horn section formed in 1980 by Arno Hecht, Crispin Cioe, Bob Funk and Paul Litteral in New York City.

For the first year, the 'Horns played at Tramps night club in NYC, backing artists including Big Joe Turner, The Neville Brothers, Ronnie Spector and david johannsen. Their first recording, in 1981, was on Iggy Pop's "Party" album.

With Pop's recommendation, The Uptown Horns toured with The J. Geils Band, establishing themselves as a premier horn section.

Their recording credits on over 150 albums include James Brown's Grammy Award winning Living In America and tracks for Tom Waits, Joe Cocker, Albert Collins, Bonnie Raitt, Robert Palmer, Lou Reed and REM.

The Uptown Horns have appeared live with The Rolling Stones, Robert Plant, Ray Charles and B.B. King, to name a few.

The Horns have released one CD, The Uptown Horns Revue.

Their official website is http://www.phunque.com/uptown/.

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