Michael McDermott’s story is the classic tale of survival, perseverance, love and redemption. The first half begins with youthful innocence, a dream-come-true recording contract, a classic debut album heralded by the media, and a downward spiral with seemingly no bottom. The second half begins with love and the woman that would become his wife, Heather Horton, their baby girl, and a collection of achingly honest songs born of new inspiration that are amongst the very best of his ten album career. The chapters in between innocence lost and love-fueled redemption are about McDermott’s survival as he tears down the walls between himself and his audience to cultivate an intimate and faithful connection that has kept him going through the years. On stage, he pours every ounce of himself into the songs and delivers a sermon of a show that in his own words “is as much for the outcast as it is the congregation.” It is more often than not a cathartic audience experience as McDermott leads them through the explorations of the dark corners of life’s journey, while uncovering the middle class truths of their own lives. McDermott got off to a fast start when he released his first album 620 W. Surf. The music media heralded him with comparisons to rock n’ roll’s godlike, “The new Springsteen…Truly singular lyrics…Like Dylan…One of his generation’s greatest talents,” they wrote. Pretty heady stuff for a 20-year old kid of Irish descent who’d barely traveled further from his Southside Chicago neighborhood than Wrigley Field. The music business pays attention when your introduction to the world is accompanied by the names Azoff and Koppelman.  As a young A&R man, Brian Koppelman heard the buzz that was coming out of the Chicago coffeehouse scene where McDermott was making the rounds. He swooped in and signed him to Giant Records, the label that Warner Music had just bankrolled for already legendary impresario Irving Azoff. MTV, Rolling Stone, the New York Times, chart topping radio airplay, besieging label promotion. It was all there. A new artist could not dream for anything more. Even author Stephen King, well known for his affinity to quote rock lyrics in his mega-selling novels, wrote, "Not since I first heard Bruce Springsteen singing 'Rosalita' had I heard someone who excited me so much as a listener, who turned my dials so high, who just made me feel so (expletive) happy to have ears.” And then, as fast as it started, came the skidding halt. "By the time I was 24, I was over," the singer-songwriter says. "Really, I was kind of over." Maybe it was the hype, or the timing was wrong. Who knows? The music biz is full of stories of songwriting singers with next-coming honors that end with broken dreams.  Sometimes it just doesn’t work. McDermott acknowledges that he had something, perhaps a lot, to do with it. He was young, naïve, free spirited and believed the hype. With no idea how to reconcile his future path with his sudden dream-come-true life, and no one he trusted enough to guide him, he responded by going off the rails, living the rock n’ roll fantasy of drugs, alcohol, fast lane parties, strippers, mobsters, jail…you name it, he did it. He went out of control and scared the hell out of the people close to him. Michael slipped so far down that Brian Koppelman, who went on to become a Hollywood screenwriter, admits that his first film, the 1998 poker cult-classic Rounders, carried a lot of his experiences with McDermott within its narrative. Matt Damon’s gambling protagonist actually shared the songwriter’s stage name (they call him “Mike” in the movie), while Edward Norton’s character, an out-of-luck ex-con with big debts to pay, carried the surname Murphy, McDermott’s actual birthright. Though they gave their hero his name, Koppelman and screenwriting partner David Levien both admitted that McDermott aligned more with the Murphy character, a notorious screw-up who just can’t seem to catch a break. Between his own self-destruction and the recording industry shakeup that marked the mid-1990s, McDermott found himself without a contract and awash in debt and self-doubt. “Throughout the years, I had continued to feel like I was on a mission, of sorts, singing spiritual songs,” he once said, “but never really feeling good about the other elements of my life.” Understandably, he's found positive inspiration in his wife and daughter and having at last become more comfortable in his own skin, scarred but smarter, McDermott is making more life-affirming choices. It’s reflected in his last two self released albums, Hit Me Back and Hey La Hey, which include some of the strongest and most profound songs that he has written. In 2013, McDermott and Horton introduced a new band, The Westies, another slice of McDermott’s pie. More folk than rock, The Westies are a rootsy Americana band complete with steel guitar, mandolin, fiddle, and stand-up bass. It’s classic McDermott, but this time through the eyes and soul of his faux-famous alter ego, Johnny Darkstar.  There’s another quote by Stephen King that suits Michael himself as well as the intended reference to his talents: “Michael’s music, like Springsteen's and Van Morrison's, helped me to find a part of myself that wasn't lost, as I had feared, but only misplaced. That's why we love the ones who are really good at it, I think: because they give us back ourselves, all dusted and shined up, and they do it with a smile…Michael McDermott is one of the best songwriters in the world and possibly the greatest undiscovered rock ‘n’ roll talent of the last 20 years.” Although fame has eluded Michael, he has the rest of the act nailed, and twenty years in to his career he isn’t lost or misplaced, he has found himself, has no fear, he’s still good at it, and is all dusted and shined up and ready for the twenty years to come.

Steve Dawson is one of the Chicago music scene’s bona fide stars, and, says the St. Louis Riverfront Times’ Roy Kasten, “one of the most underrated songwriters in American music.” Dawson and his wife Diane Christiansen have led local heroes Dolly Varden for over twenty years, and he leads jazz-folk ensemble Funeral Bonsai Wedding as well. In these bands as well as on his solo albums and with Rachel Drew and the Bitter Roots, Dawson combines musicality, craftsmanship, and raw soul in a way that continues to rivet his audiences. Steve teaches guitar and songwriting at the Old Town School of Folk Music, where his skill and generosity have birthed dozens of gifted writers. His most recent accomplishment is a book on songwriting, Take It to the Bridge: Unlocking the Great Songs Inside You, written with Mark Caro and published by GIA.

Rachel Drew blends a strong modern take on rhythmic Memphis Soul, recalling Stax-Volt era performers like Carla Thomas, with doses of introspective folk, classic country, and the occasional pop-influenced flourish. In performance and on record, Rachel delivers intelligent lyrics in a soulful, heartfelt manner backed by a cadre of some of Chicago’s best working musicians."  

Singer-songwriter Naomi Ashley’s songs are intimate, plain-spoken and gorgeously sung, surging with all the contradictory impulses of real, imperfect life. Her 2024 album, “Love Bug” greedily grabs from every corner of Americana – grounding the charm of Naomi’s versatile lyrical style in country, blues, folk and rock. She is a woman of many bands fronting two bands of original music as well as Chicago’s popular Pretenders tribute Real Pretenders. In September of 2025 Naomi & her “Other Band” will release a series of singles recorded live at Reliable Recorders in Chicago.  

When singer songwriter Mark Dvorak began his career in music he knew right away he’d be in it for the long haul. Thirty-five years later Mark is still writing, recording and on the road performing. “At this stage of the game,” said the singer from his home outside Chicago, Illinois, “I feel like I’m doing my best work.” The Chicago Tribune called him “masterful,” and the Fox Valley Folk Festival describes him as “a living archive of song and style.” In 2012 WFMT 98.7 fm Midnight Special host Rich Warren named him Chicago’s “official troubadour.” Mark has given concerts in almost all of the United States and has made visits to Finland, Canada and Ireland. To date he has released twenty albums of traditional, Americana and original song including 2020s acclaimed Let Love Go On and 2024s Live & Alone. Dvorak has won awards for children’s music, journalism and was honored in 2013 with the FARM Lantern Bearer Award from Folk Alliance International. In 2008 he received the Woodstock Folk Festival Lifetime Achievement Award.

Born and raised in the Boston area, Gerald began his musical life at the age of 10.  Playing drums throughout high school in rock bands, orchestras and with theater companies, he attended the famed Tanglewood Institute in the summers of 1985 and 1986.  In 1986, he was accepted into both the Manhattan School of Music and the New England Conservatory of Music as a classical percussionist.  He chose NEC, studying jazz and classical percussion with Bob Moses, Fred Buda, Vic Firth and Arthur Press, while also playing in combos led by Moses, Dave Holland, George Garzone and Hankus Netsky.  Gerald continued to play in local rock bands, jazz combos, orchestras and musical theaters until 1991, when he moved to Chicago to attend DePaul University, securing the drum chair in the top big band upon his arrival.  Since then, he has gone on to play with some of the top rock, jazz and country musicians in the Chicago area and nationwide, and has extensive studio credits to his name.  He’s been living and working in Chicago for the past 20+ years.His longest post has been with alt-country godfather Robbie Fulks, with whom he has recorded and played nationally and overseas since 2000.  And since 2006, Gerald has been playing with one of the creators of 'kindie rock':  Justin Roberts and his band, the Not-Ready-For-Naptime Players.  They play more than 100 shows a year around North America, and the band's last two albums -- Recess (2013) and Jungle Gym (2010) -- were each nominated for a Grammy Award.​In addition to hundreds of rock clubs in the United States and abroad, Mr. Dowd has played some of the most prestigious music venues in the world, including multiple appearances at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, The Borderline in London, the Rose Bowl and the Getty Center in Los Angeles, The Paradiso in Amsterdam, The Bottom Line, the Fillmore East, CBGB's and Symphony Space in New York City, the Kennedy Center in D.C., Symphony Hall and The Rathskellar in Boston, and Ravinia, Lollapalooza, Millennium Park, Steppenwolf Theater and Second City in Chicago.  TV appearances include the Today Show, The Jenny Jones Show, Sound Opinions, and numerous appearances on local Chicago television. Gerald has also performed and/or recorded with:  Chris Mills, Frisbie, Nora O’Connor, Kelly Hogan, Edith Frost, Lush Budgett, Dave Ramont, Dick Smith, Lloyd Green, Dennis Crouch, Peter Himmelman, Swing Gitan, 500Clown Theater Company, Neko Case, Andrew Bird, EXO, Steve Albini,  Mavis Staples, George Jones, Buck Owens, Tina Fey, Marshall Crenshaw, Rhymefest, Rich Little, Otis Clay, Catie Curtis, Pinetop Seven, Richie Cole, and Arturo Sandoval, among many others.   ​Gerald has been described as “the hardest working drummer in Chicago” (Richard Milne, WXRT), and is one of the city’s most in-demand drummers, having played on over 60 albums, and averaging 200 live dates a year. In 2014, he was the recipient of an IAP arts grant from Chicago's Dept. Of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE), which led to his first full length solo album, Home Now, in 2014. His first release, Kingsize EP, was released in 2012.