Eric Krasno & Friends featuring Ivan Neville, Tony Hall, and Nikki Glaspie with special guests Celisse, Matisyahu, Emily King, Molly Tuttle, and Robert Randolph

Eric "Kraz" Krasno is a New York-based Grammy-winning guitarist, songwriter, recording artist, and producer best known for his work with Soulive and Lettuce, both of which he co-founded. His own musical roots lie in funk, jazz, rock, and hip-hop, and he has written songs and produced records for a variety of artists in a range of genres including Norah Jones, Aaron Neville, Talib Kweli, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Ledisi, 50 Cent, and Matisyahu.

Krasno was raised in the suburbs of New York City, and in Fairfield County, Connecticut. His earliest influences were his musician grandfather, a professional pianist who played gypsy jazz and swing, as well as his older brother and father, also accomplished musicians though amateurs. His early attraction to classic rock records from Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix Experience, Jeff Beck, and Grateful Dead influenced his decision to become a guitarist. He began playing in local bands during high school. After graduating, he attended the Berklee School of Music for one semester before transferring to Hampshire College. Despite its brevity, it was at Berklee that he encountered other founding members of the funk/jam unit Lettuce during a summer program. The band formed while its members were still in their teens and have been a going concern in both the studio and on concert stages since then. In 1999, he joined brothers Alan and Neal Evans, and Sam Kininger, to co-found Soulive, a jazz/hip-hop/folk/groove unit that recorded for several labels including Blue Note and, like Lettuce, they're known for a rigorous touring schedule.

Krasno began his career as a producer on Kweli's Quality in 2002. His reputation spread among hip-hop artists, and under various monikers he worked with a variety of rappers including Redman and Pharoah Monche, and R&B, jazz, pop, and rock artists including Keyshia Cole, Allen Stone, Dave Matthews Band, Justin Timberlake, and Nigel Hall. As a guitarist, Krasno's work has graced albums and tours by everyone from the Beatnuts, Snoop Dog, and Sonya Kitchell to Vieux Farka Toure, Christian McBride, Joshua Redman, and Dr. Lonnie Smith.

Krasno issued Reminisce, his debut solo album in 2010 on SOI, and toured with his own group while continuing to play and record with Lettuce and Phil Lesh & Friends. His sophomore offering, Blood from a Stone, was released in July 2016 through Feel Records. It was preceded by the singles "Waiting for Your Love" and "On the Rise." The latter set showcased his lead vocals for the first time alongside his playing and songwriting. Krasno and his road sextet toured throughout the summer supporting Dumpstaphunk. The same year, he produced Neville's Apache album. The studio band he enlisted included members of Lettuce, Soulive, the Dap Kings, and Budos Band. ~ Thom Jurek

Celisse has been making strides for over a decade, but recently she has taken the music world by storm. If you ask her where she is from, you'll get a few different answers. Born in Oakland, she spent a meaningful portion of her life in New York City on Broadway and television, which helped shape her artistic vision.
In the past few years Celisse’s momentum has carried her into numerous ventures. She has collaborated with Alicia Keys contributing guitar and additional production to her track “Billions (Unlocked).” Her touring in 2022 included support spots for Lucius and Brandi Carlile, Dave Matthews Band at The Gorge, and as part of Joni Mitchell’s historic “Joni Jams” performance at Newport Folk Festival, among various festival appearances. Her soulful voice and captivating
stage presence led to her inclusion on NIVA’s Live List as a favorite up-and-coming touring artist in 2023, with festivals this year including Boston Calling, Bonnaroo, and more. In addition to the fireworks of her live performance, audiences may have caught Celisse on television appearing alongside Lucius on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert or the season premiere of Austin City Limits Live with Brandi Carlile. Most recently, Joni Mitchell once again invited Celisse to collaborate, this time in celebration of Joni's Gershwin Prize Honor, where the two played a stirring performance of "Summertime." With her debut album forthcoming, Celisse is preparing to give full exposure of herself. The thesis has been written... now we get to the good stuff.

Creativity is like a fire in a fireplace: You have to tend it or it will go out. For nearly two decades, Matisyahu has kept his creative spirit aflame by evolving his sound, melding genres, and testing the limits of the musical traditions that have inspired him. His latest release, Hold The Fire, and its leadoff single “Fireproof” takes inspiration from a fire dream inspired by Matisyahu's Old Testament religion, which has meant so much to his spiritual and creative life since his recording career began in 2004 and his breakout track "King Without a Crown" blasted into the Billboard charts in 2005. In a roundabout way, those same Old Testament roots springboarded Matisyahu's music career. Growing up outside New York City, the young Matthew Miller followed jam bands like Phish and the Grateful Dead. Then, in Bob Marley and reggae, he found that the messaging of Rastafarianism was sourced in part from that same Old Testament. The sound that emerged on his first albums—including his first two studio releases as well as 2005's Gold-certified Live at Stubb's—embraced both the spirit of reggae and his spirituality and roots in Judaism. Buoyed by hits like "King Without a Crown," albums like the Grammy-nominated and Billboard No.1-ranked Youth in 2006, and the Gold-certified 2009 antiwar hit "One Day" (streamed over 150 million times on Spotify alone), he toured extensively through the second half of the aughts with a high-energy stage show that has since grown to include more improvisation. All the while his music expanded into a shapeshifting collision of reggae, hip-hop, alt rock and boldly inventive pop. Today, he continues to be inspired by evolving musical trends, finding linkages and loops between eras and genres. Matisyahu's spirituality has evolved in parallel with his music, though his Jewish heritage remains a central theme throughout his life and music. The new EP, Hold The Fire (out February 2024), also finds him reflecting on celebrity and artistic success. For Matisyahu, “the unbelievable and miraculous feeling of being connected to our people” is what keeps the creative fire alight.

Demonstrating Molly Tuttle’s musical range on their latest album, City of Gold encompasses everything from the sprawling roots-rock of “When My Race Is Run,” a gorgeously moody piece described as “a love song about death, and wanting someone to be the person there waiting for you when you cross over,” to the spooky folk of “Stranger Things,” a darkly charged reverie featuring masterful work on Dobro. Tuttle also showcases her beguiling vocals and lavishly detailed songwriting with such matters as marijuana legalization on “Down Home Dispensary,” a gloriously fun track spiked with unforgettable lines like “Legalize the southland and roll us a number” and gentrification’s corrosive effect on the character of once-vibrant neighborhoods on the harmony-fueled and freewheeling“ Where Did All the Wild Things Go.” Throughout City of Gold, Tuttle and Golden Highway deliver the kind of high-energy and full-hearted songs primed for a joyously unified singing-along, an element that partly inspired the title to the album. “To me the words ‘City of Gold’ represent the community that the band and I have built with the people we get to play music for, and how it’s become like its own little world,” says Tuttle. “I wanted the album to celebrate that sense of community, because one of the things I love most about this music is how so much of the audience plays music as well. They inspire me to keep writing songs in the hopes that people will sing along and maybe play those songs with their friends—almost like we’re all a part of one great big family.” Since moving to Nashville in 2015, Tuttle has continued to receive widespread accolades, most recently earning seven nominations at the 2023 IBMA Bluegrass Music Awards: Entertainer of the Year, Female Vocalist of the Year, Guitar Player of the Year, Album of the Year (Crooked Tree), Song of the Year (“Crooked Tree”), Instrumental Group of the Year and Collaborative Recording of the Year (“From My Mountain [Calling You]” with Peter Rowan Linsday Lou).Additionally, Tuttle also won Album of the Year at the 2023 International Folk Music Awards, Female Vocalist of the Year at the 2022 IBMAs, Instrumentalist of the Year at the 2018 Americana Music Awards and Guitar Player of the Year at the IBMAs in both 2017 and 2018.