The Tillers are Mike Oberst, Sean Geil, Aaron Geil & Joe Macheret.  The Tillers got their start in August 2007 when they started thumping around with some banjos and guitars and a big wooden bass. Their earliest gigs were for coins and burritos on the city’s famous Ludlow Street in the district of Clifton. The songs they picked were mostly older than their grandparents. Some came from Woody Guthrie, some were southern blues laments, and many were anonymous relics of Appalachian woods, churches, riverboats, railroads, prairies, and coal mines.  Their look didn’t fit the stereotype. They were clearly recovering punk rockers with roots in city’s west side punk rock and hardcore scene. The punk influence gave their sound a distinctive bite, setting them apart from most other folk acts- a hard-driving percussive strum and stomp that brought new pulse and vinegar to some very old songs. But their musical range soon proved itself as they floated from hard-tackle thumping to tender graceful melody, all the while topped by Oberst and Geil’s clear tenor harmonies.  They began picking up weekly gigs around the city’s bar scene. It didn’t take long before their signature treatment of classic folk songs became the preferred versions of Cincinnati locals. Their audiences swelled, growing into an assortment of grey-haired mechanics, neo-hippies, farmers, punkers, professors, and random strays all stomping, clapping, singing, and belting outbursts of “John Henry!” “Darlin’ Corey!” Ever since, the band has come to each show with the same energy. They are magnetic showmen, mature musicians, and colorful storytellers.  The Tillers have since won over Cincinnati’s bar and festival scene, and launching tours with tireless momentum. They were awarded CityBeat Magazine’s Cincinnati Entertainment Award for best Folk and Americana act in 2009, 2010, 2013, 2014 & 2015. Their relentless gigging has taken them throughout the East coast, the Midwest and West, the Appalachian south and to the UK and Ireland opening for the St.Louis crooner, Pokey LaFarge. In the summer of 2009, veteran NBC news anchor Tom Brokaw featured the Tillers on a documentary about US Route 50. Brokaw showcased the group’s song “There is Road (Route 50)” as a testimony to the highway’s role as a connective tissue of the nation.  Musically, the band wears many hats. Their sound has proven to be an appropriate fit with a wide range of musical styles- traditional folk, bluegrass, jazz, punk rock and anything else they might run into. They have shared the stage with a broad swath of national touring acts, ranging from renowned folk legends such as Doc Watson, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Guy Clark, Country Joe McDonald, Jerry Douglas, Iris Dement, Pokey LaFarge and The Carolina Chocolate Drops to rambunctious rock daredevils like the Legendary Shack Shakers.  Always moving, the Tillers continue to enter new territory. Their musical growth can be heard through the scape of their many releases, 2008′s debut record Ludlow Street Rag, 2010′s By The Signs, 2011′s Wild Hog in the Woods, 2012′s Live from the Historic Southgate House, 2013′s Hand On The Plow and many more bootleg releases. The band’s lineup has also taken new shape. In February 2010, long-time bassist Jason Soudrette fondly parted ways with the group, being replaced by Aaron Geil, brother of guitarist Sean. In 2015 the band added fiddler Joe Macheret (Joe’s Truck Stop/Urban Pioneers) to the ranks. Recalibrating has not slowed their pace.  They continue to plot their travels around the map, electrifying new places and making new friends wherever they go. From place to place, they carry with them more instruments, new songs, and funnier stories. They are Cincinnati’s traveling minstrels. Expect to hear from them soon.

The Cincinnati-based ensemble Buffalo Wabs (as in ‘mobs’) and the Price Hill Hustle can be best described as ‘American’-- from the mountains to Music Row, blues-gospel to traditional country, the Hustle combines parts of the American-born genre catalogue to create an energetic experience every single night.    This four-piece moves from fast-paced, foot-stomping anthems to harmony-laden ballads and traditional dirges of spirit and labor. “The group started around the love of music that moves you,” says drummer/vocalist and band spokesman, Casey Campbell. “The music accompanies the story; and sometimes the music is the story by which we can all connect to one another.”    With the release of their third album, Stranger in the Alps, due March 15th, 2019, the Hustle aims to increase their original music portfolio while paying homage to select tunes that have had lasting impact on the band. “This album explores the first co-writing the band has undertaken,” says Campbell.  “And through that collaborative process we’re beginning to find more complex voices, more adventurous tunes that bridge our influences even more than before.”  The new original material featured on Stranger in the Alps is a “cross-section of stylistic influences and voices,” says Campbell. “Oh, Ramona!,” written by Campbell, hearkens to the Piedmont Blues-era musicians, with tongue-in-cheek lyrics and a wry humor throughout. “Those old pickers knew how to tell a story; that’s the kind of vibe we’re after.”  The band also pays respects to some of the great influencers of American music on this latest album.  “The covers we’ve chosen mean something to us; these are songs that still speak to us, and we want folks who may not know them to become familiar.” On the album’s third track, the band takes a full-steam-ahead approach to the iconic Leadbelly song, “Stewball,” an all-out fest that echoes the frantic speeds of a racetrack. “The intensity, the pace, it all builds from the first note to the last,” with help from acclaimed regional musicians Joe Macheret (The Tillers and Joe’s Truckstop) on fiddle and John K. Victor on harmonica. Macheret’s fiddle plays a pivotal role throughout the album; as Campbell notes, “Having such immensely talented friends is so beneficial when building the sonic landscape of a studio tune.”    As “Stranger in the Alps” is just hitting the market, the band already has its eyes set on the next project. “The wheels have been put in motion,” Campbell says, “and we’re ready to get the next batch out. It’s going to be a busy year.”    The Hustle has worked relentlessly through the Mid-Atlantic region, playing shows from south Minnesota to Asheville, North Carolina. As 2019 begins ramping up the band is eager to stretch its legs farther west, farther south, and beyond.    From large theaters to tiny bars, the show’s the same: heartfelt, real, a little loose, and sincerely fun.  As the Hustle says, “If it ain’t fun, it ain’t worth it.”  Founded on the West Side of Cincinnati, the current lineup of the Hustle is starting its third year together. Anchored by the upright, Bill Baldock brings decades of experience and finesse to the  talent pool, having been based around Nashville, TN, for many years while playing for a litany of revered industry professionals. Primary soloist Scott Risner does the same; now based in Cincinnati, Risner has also been a staple in the circuit for over thirty years, playing with such renowned acts as Alison Krauss and JD Crowe and the New South. Founding members Matt Wabnitz and Casey Campbell have been picking out heavy-hearted tunes for a decade together. Campbell, an Alabama native, brings a gospel-vocal sense to the arrangements while Wabnitz’ distinct hammering of the strings and raw vocal power sets the tone.    “We play music that we connect to, whether it’s an old find or a new line.  We want it to mean something, every time.” 

The Comet Bluegrass All-Stars (CBAS) were assembled in 1996 as the Sunday night house band at The Comet a neighborhood pub in Northside, Cincinnati. Since that time the popularity of the band has grown beyond the lounge at The Comet, opening for such national acts as Sam Bush, Blue Highway, Del McCoury, Peter Rowan and Ricky Skaggs.  The Sunday night sessions at the Comet are informal and known to draw a diverse, “listening” audience from small children to senior citizens. Those attending the shows find each member of the band accomplished singers and multi-instrumentalists in their own right, with the live combination of these players presenting an even greater sum than its parts, through amazing musical interplay and high lonesome bluegrass harmony.

Chelsea Ford and The Trouble is a string band from Cincinnati, OH with influences ranging from traditional folk to jazz/blues including The Carter Family, Dakota Staton, and Loretta Lynn. They formed in July 2017 and are husband and wife duo Jon and Chelsea Ford on banjo/guitar/vocals and Matt Crone on upright bass.

Good ole downhome bluegrass from the Cincinnati area.

The OLD SOULS STRING BAND is comprised of Zane Thompson, Elijah Bedel and Eric Osborne who are all young traditional musicians specializing in Appalachian old time music as well as other folk styles. Their love for the music is rooted in a deep appreciation of community, history, and culture. They hope to keep these styles alive for a new generation and would love to encourage other young people to play as well.

"Just two hops and a jump" from the Ohio River and “not a fur piece” from Cincinnati, the Rabbit Hash String Band is pickin' tunes in Rabbit Hash, Kentucky.   The Rabbit Hash String Band features the fiddling of Warren Waldron paired to clawhammer banjo playing by Russ Childers; the rhythmic guitar of Judy Waldron and driving banjo uke by Barb Childers pushes them along. All members, without warning, have been known to belt out a song. The band came together in 1991 when these old-time friends desired to replicate the 1920s music of the Georgia Skillet Lickers. They keep alive a rare and endangered species of live homemade music. Russ and Barb Childers of Batavia, Ohio, present old timey music to area school children when not playing with the Rabbits. Warren and Judy Waldron of Somerville, Ohio, play and call traditional square dances all over the region. The band takes its name from the home of fiddler and former band member Tommy Taylor of Rabbit Hash, Kentucky, who contributed an amazing repertoire of puns and one-liners as well as the band’s theme song “Rabbit Hash, Kentucky” featured in the acclaimed 2004 documentary Rabbit Hash, Center of the Universe. Any evening spent with the Rabbit Hash String Band promises a good, old time. The fun-loving music will transport the listener to "Rabbit Hash, Kentucky… where I long to be… cornbread, molasses, and sassafras tea..."