Folk Alliance Int’l Announces Initial Showcase Lineup of 130+ Artists

Folk Alliance International (FAI) — the leading and largest nonprofit dedicated to serving, strengthening, and engaging the global folk music community through preservation, promotion, and presentation — has unveiled the lineup of Official Showcases for its thirty-sixth annual conference, to be held February 21–25, 2024, in Kansas City, MO.

The artists represent thirty-six countries of origin and twenty-one US states.

The conference’s theme in 2024 is Alchemy: A Transformative Force, showcasing the power of music to provide the change needed in the world.

The initial lineup is here.

Among the artists announced to be performing Official Showcases are:

· Bodega, CA’s Rainbow Girls;

· JUNO Award nominee and multiple Maple Blues Award winner Matt Andersen;

· Arkansas’ Willi Carlisle, who performed at Newport Folk Fest and who “speaks his truth…reminiscent of folk singers like Woody Guthrie” (NPR Music);

· Jolie Holland, whose upcoming album has been previewed in Stereogum and Pitchfork and about whom NPR Music said, “immediately arresting voice… that lands halfway between dusty rural Americana and grimy New York art-rock”;

· Powerhouse vocalist, intrepid songwriter, and drag queen Flamy Grant, winner of 2023 Kerrville New Folk Competition;

· Canadian-Grenadian “star in the making” (Folk Alley) and Smithsonian Folkways Recordings artist Kaia Kater;

· Olive Klug, who found success on TikTok and whose songs reflect their experience with queer identity and the struggle to establish adulthood in unprecedented times;

· Tony Award winner John Gallagher Jr., star of Broadway’s American Idiot, Spring Awakening, and the upcoming Avett Brothers musical Swept Away;

· 2022 International Folk Music Award Song of the Year winner Crys Matthews;

· Memphis’ Amy LaVere, whom NPR said “specializes in lyrics that are more barbed than her sweet soprano prepares you for”;

· The Steel Wheels, of whom NPR said, “Smearing the boundaries separating blues, bluegrass and gospel music, The Steel Wheels’ sound has earned the band multiple awards and a near-permanent place atop independent music and Americana charts”;

· the “magic” (New York Times) Livingston Taylor, writer of four Billboard Top Forty hits and subject of a 2019 PBS special;

· IBMA Momentum Vocalist Award winner AJ Lee and Blue Summit

· Hit songwriter Bruce Sudano, who wrote the GRAMMY-nominated track “Tell Me I’m Not Dreamin’ (Too Good to Be True)” as well as songs for Michael Jackson, Dolly Parton, Reba McEntire, and his late wife, the GRAMMY Award-winning singer Donna Summer;

· Three-time JUNO Award Winner, Connie Kaldor;

· Austin’s Gina Chavez, about whom NPR said “if you don’t know her already, I dare you to walk away and not become a fan”;

· New Orleans’ Handmade Moments, who incorporate alto sax, bass clarinet, sousaphone, mandolin, guitar and beatboxing and were subjects of the documentary Busking, which screened at dozens of film festivals around the world;

· Justin Adams, frequent Robert Plant collaborator, & Mauro Durante;

· English singer John Smith, International Folk Music Award-nominee with over 100 million Spotify streams of his music;

· Jorge Glem, Venezuelan virtuoso cuatro player, and Sam Reider Present Brooklyn-Cumaná;

· Memphissippi Sounds, a blend of North Mississippi hill country blues, Memphis blues and soul, rock, and hip-hop featuring Cameron Kimbrough, grandson of blues legend Junior Kimbrough;

· Three-time Scottish Traditional Music Awards Live Act of the Year winners Skerryvore;

· IBMA Momentum Band award winners Still House Junkies

A playlist of Official Showcase artists is forthcoming.