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Kristin Andreassen
Kristin Andreassen’s most recent release is an album of children’s music about emotions. The Bright Siders’ A Mind of Your Own (Smithsonian Folkways) was created with psychiatrist Dr. Kari Groff and features the voices of Ed Helms, The War & Treaty, Gaby Moreno, Punch Brothers, and many more. The album won a National Parenting Product Award and followed up on Kristin’s first kids’ radio hit, the song “Crayola Doesn’t Make a Color for Your Eyes.” Kristin has toured and recorded with the stringband Uncle Earl, the “folk noir” trio Sometymes Why, the percussive dance company Footworks, and NYC’s anti-folk superhero Jeffrey Lewis. She’s had the honor of recording with producers John Paul Jones, Dirk Powell, Mark Schatz, José Ayerve, Robin MacMillan, and Shane Leonard (coming soon!). One favorite MoM-inspired collaboration is this video for her song “How the Water Walks” — written on the island and filmed with shadow puppets by Anna Roberts-Gevalt. After graduating from McGill University, Kristin apprenticed with community economic development pioneer Father Greg MacLeod at Cape Breton University. Now based in Nashville, she survived the arts armageddon known as “The Pandemic” by managing a small construction company.
Laura Cortese
Laura Cortese has built a distinguished career as an Americana fiddler, songwriter and vocalist. She is now one of the most in-demand musical collaborators on the folk circuit. She grew up in San Francisco, CA and moved to Boston, MA to study at Berklee College of Music, immersing herself in the city's vibrant indie music scene and enjoying a busy touring-and-studio career which included appearances with Band of Horses at Carnegie Hall and Pete Seeger at Newport Folk Festival. She tours internationally with her band, the Dance Cards. The group is bold and elegant, schooled in the lyrical rituals of folk music and backed by grooves that alternatively inspire Cajun two-stepping and rock ’n’ roll hip swagger. Laura Cortese & the Dance Cards have appeared at venues and festivals throughout the US, UK, Sweden, Canada, India, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Estonia, Montenegro, Greece and Bangladesh pairing sophisticated string arrangements (two fiddles, cello & bass) and rich vocal harmonies with poignant and powerful singing.