Twice GRAMMY-nominated singer/songwriter Becca Stevens has established an outstanding career of blending effortless vocal talent with exquisite compositions that draw inspiration from pop, jazz, indie-rock, and folk music traditions. Her music stretches the boundaries of convention with songs that weave together her classical and Appalachian folk music upbringing with her love of the rich rhythms and harmonies of jazz and world music, further enhanced and accompanied by her skill on multiple string instruments. Becca has toured internationally as the bandleader of the Becca Stevens Band since its inception in 2006. Along with her solo output, Becca is a highly respected collaborator who has written and toured extensively with the likes of David Crosby as an active member of his Lighthouse Band, Jacob Collier, Michael League of Snarky Puppy and Taylor Eigsti, to name just a few. Becca has released collaborative records that blend her original music with the world-renowned Secret Trio, as well as with the illustrious Attacca Quartet (with whom she was co-nominated for a 2023 GRAMMY for Best Arrangement, Instruments and Vocals with violist Nathan Schram). Becca has performed and recorded with many of her musical heroes, including Brad Mehldau, Laura Mvula, Michael McDonald, Snarky Puppy, Chris Thile, Antonio Sánchez, Alan Hampton, Gretchen Parlato, Louis Cole, Vince Mendoza, Brian Blade, Metropole Orkest, Tim Heidecker and Ambrose Akinmusire, among many others.  Her upcoming album, Maple to Paper (GroundUP ’24), is an illuminating glimpse into her most private moments of grief and transcendence, rendered with both stunning clarity and heartfelt devotion to music’s alchemical powers. In a profound shift from the highly communal nature of her past projects—including her Grammy-nominated 2020 LP Wonderbloom, Maple to Paper showcases Stevens’ ability to captivate the listener with the barest of elements.  Working at her home studio in New Jersey, she slowly dreamed up a stripped-down sound rooted in her spellbinding guitar work and raw yet luminous vocal performance. Recorded live with no overdubs and mixed by Stevens’ frequent collaborator Nic Hard (Snarky Puppy, Huntertones), Maple to Paper offsets its exacting minimalism with an emotional force that envelops the listener right from the outset of the record. In the Summer of 2024, Becca makes her Broadway debut in ILLINOISE, a musical based on Sufjan Stevens’ Illinois, book written by Justin Peck and Jackie Sibblies Drury

Lauren Calve has been undergoing a metamorphosis in her life, a massive shift.  You can hear it seeping through every song, oozing out of every lyric, and feel the shedding of her skin with every note on her first full-length album Shift.  The subtle and understated yearning in her voice, the intonation in her haunting vocals and delivery, Calve is longing for something more.  Through the ten-track collection of songs, she invites the listener to come along on her journey of self-discovery and change, demonstrating a musical masterclass in the art of emotional storytelling.   Shift was recorded in Nashville at 3Sirens Music Group with producer, engineer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Dex Green (Margo Price, Aaron Lee Tasjan, Allison Russell).  He brought heavy hitters into the studio: drummer Fred Eltringham (ACM Drummer of the Year, Drumeo Country Drummer of the Year, Sheryl Crow, Willie Nelson), guitarist Audley Freed (Sheryl Crow, The Black Crowes), bassist Robert Kearns (Sheryl Crow, Lynyrd Skynyrd), drummer Marlon Patton (Larkin Poe, Lera Lynn), bassist Jared Reynolds (Ben Folds), and Joe Costa on the board (Ben Folds).  “Nashville’s home to some of the best musicians in the world,” says Calve.  “But I felt like I got to work with the best of the best.  It wasn’t just their technical ability, they approached every song with true artistry and infectious enthusiasm.”   During this process Calve learned that she liked putting herself in uncomfortable situations.   From embracing a different sound to recording in Nashville for the first time with “musical Jedis” as Calve calls them to trusting the unconventional fourteen month writing and recording process, she was thriving on pushing herself outside of her comfort zone. In turn, Shift was the catalyst for major paradigm shifts in her life.  After finishing the album, she ended an engagement and six-year relationship, she stopped drinking after years of failed attempts, and the writing process forced her to examine the ways she had limited herself.  “Ultimately, I made this album, but it remade me,” says Calve.   The sound reflects the environment in which the songs were written, in quarantine, mainly, and therefore in periods of silence and self-reflection.  The result is a collection of songs that include “Shift” with its dramatic imagery of a literal tectonic plate shift and asteroids colliding in space that illustrates her state of mind when it builds into an expression of what it feels like to her in the middle of an emotional shift.  “Everything At The Same Time” is the North Star of the album.  The lyrics were written based on alchemical opposites - she was really into medieval alchemical theories at the time.  When combined, these pairs of opposites create magic.  “Subtle Alchemy” most represents her musical shift.  “I love the ethereal, dynamic production and arrangement, both of which are in perfect step with the lyrics and theme of the song.  This song explores the alchemy, or magic, in our everyday observations and interactions; it’s a theme that feels emblematic of my songwriting,” says Calve.