SF Bay Area Based Bluegrass Band   AJ Lee and Blue Summit made their first appearance in Santa Cruz in 2015. Led by singer, songwriter, and mandolinist, AJ Lee, the bluegrass band has performed all over the world, but finds home in California’s Bay Area. The latest full length project, I’ll Come Back, debuted August 2021 - with national touring in support of the record ongoing. Although falling loosely under the bluegrass label, AJLBS generally plays sans banjo, with Sullivan Tuttle and Scott Gates on steel stringed acoustic guitars, AJ on mandolin, Jan Purat on fiddle, and Chad Bowen on upright bass - a configuration effectively used to create unique space and texture in the arrangements not as commonly found in the music of their peers. Drawing from influences such as country, soul, swing, rock, and jam music, the band uses the lens of bluegrass as a vessel through which to express and explore the thread that binds and unifies all great music.

Lead singer/songwriter Erinn Peet Lukes has an angelic voice that soars over a blanket of acoustic sound. Thunder and Rain's music lives somewhere in between folk, country, bluegrass, and pop, made cohesive by Peet-Lukes' "nimble, yet devastating" vocals, heartfelt lyricism and a high level of musicianship from Amelia Ransom on fiddle and Laura Ray on banjo.  Peet Lukes didn't know anything about bluegrass or country when she wrote her first song at thirteen in her hometown of Redondo Beach, California. She pursued her love of performing original songs through major music hubs like Seattle and New York City, until she landed in Golden, CO in 2013. She began to explore bluegrass jams in the Denver area, where she would eventually meet bass player Ian Haegele and her co writer and then band member, RP Oates. Thunder and Rain recorded their first record, Holler Out, in 2014. Since their first effort, the band has toured across the US, Canada, Ireland and the UK. They were finalists in the Rockygrass Band Competition in 2014 and named #1 Bluegrass band by the Denver Westword in 2016. They're bluegrass covers of popular songs have amassed hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube.  Thunder and Rain released their third album, Passing in the Night, January 2020. The pandemic thwarted big tour plans, and eventually broke up the band temporarily. Peet-Lukes' packed her bags and moved to Nashville, TN, where she met Ransom and Ray through friends in the bluegrass community. They hit it off right away, and decided to reform the band and start again in a new hometown.