"A phenomenal talent whose feel for classic soul music is bone deep...This woman is on fire." -- The New York Times MORGAN JAMES has a voice that needs to be heard, even when she was just a fifth grader belting out standards on a karaoke machine. After her grandmother heard her sing, the matriarch footed the bill for James’ voice lessons, positive that her granddaughter had the mysterious it. And, despite the sometimes treacherous terrain of the music industry, James has never tired in her quest. Whether it’s tussling with unimaginative label executives, covering and owning songs by the likes of the Beatles, or casting a woman as Jesus, James has carved out an enviable career, always on her own terms. James has a particular taste for inserting herself into men’s spaces, twisting hyper-masculine songs to her will and changing their meanings in the process. That feminist lens is brought to the forefront in her most recent project, Soul Remains the Same, which reinterprets tracks from the likes of AC/DC, the Stone Temple Pilots, and Pearl Jam. “Something I’ve always loved, and I’ve done throughout my career, is sing songs that are not just written by men, but especially made for men,” she says. “And make them my own.”

“A one-man compendium of avant Americana.” – The New Yorker As a child of Memphis, TN, Doug Wamble has always been surrounded by a vast musical and cultural landscape. From listening to his mother play piano in their Baptist church to his grandfather singing cowboy songs, murder ballads and old time gospel favorites while strumming his guitar, Doug has been immersed in music for his entire life. After completing a Bachelors in Jazz Guitar from the University of North Florida and a Masters of Music from Northwestern, Doug decided to head to New York to seek a career as a guitarist and composer. Appearing on bandstands and recordings with such artists as Wynton Marsalis, Norah Jones, Steven Bernstein, Courtney Love, Madeleine Peyroux, and Cassandra Wilson, Doug was making a name for himself in the jazz world when he was signed to Branford Marsalis’ label, Marsalis Music/Rounder Records. Doug released two critically acclaimed records "Country Libations" and "Bluestate", and two singer/songwriter albums on E1 records, "Doug Wamble" and "Fast as Years, Slow As Days", the latter being on his own imprint, Halcyonic Records. Building on his history with Wynton Marsalis, which led to guitar contributions to several Ken Burns documentaries for PBS such as "Prohibition," "The War" and "Unforgivable Blackness", Doug began working as a composer for Burns’ Florentine Films, collaborating with Ken, his daughter Sarah, and David McMahon for the tragic film "The Central Park Five" in 2012. Wamble contributed original score pieces for Burns’" Vietnam", "Jackie Robinson", "The Dust Bowl", "The Roosevelts", "Eastlake Meadows", and "Muhammed Ali." In 2022, Doug scored his first dramatic feature, "The Subject", starring Aunjunue Ellis and Jason Biggs, directed by fellow Memphian-turned-New Yorker Lanie Zipoy. Doug has been the album producer and touring musical director/ guitarist for his wife, Morgan James, since 2012 and since 2016 has been on faculty as an ensemble director and guitar instructor at The Juilliard School. In May 2022, Doug went in to the studio to record his first album of original acoustic music, drawing on his early love of Ornette Coleman and Dewey Redman blended with his deep connection to the Delta blues and gospel music of Blind Willie Johnson and Son House, as well as troubadour and resonator guitar enthusiast, the late Chris Whitley. Joined by the legendary rhythm section of Eric Revis and Jeff “Tain” Watts and the inimitable Branford Marsalis on saxophones, "Blues In The Present Tense" will be released in October 2022.