Black Jake and the Carnies and Melissa Greener 

Black Jake & the Carnies sets fierce murder ballads and cautionary tales to the beat of an old-time string band. The Ypsilanti septet’s unique blend American folk, bluegrass and punk (dubbed “crabgrass”) sets a raucous pace for original songs about loup-garous, banjo-pickin’ demoniacs and phrenologists on the skids.

The band is made up of a fortuitous collection of friends and neighbors: Black Jake (lead vocals/banjo/songwriting), Gus (fiddle), Brian (guitar), Zach (mandolin), Brother Joe (vocals/washboard), Joe Cooter (bass), and Caleb Lee Johnson (vocals/enthusiasm).

Aboard the rough and tumble gypsy life, Melissa Greener is making it happen as only a girl can who has lived in her van selling songs for a chance.  Her music swells to the territories beyond ‘pop-folk-rock’.

Between her birth town of Detroit and new home of Austin, Greener has lived and performed in Montreal, Halifax, Tel Aviv, and the Jianxi Province of China. While her career has been marked with experiences of her solo bicycle ride across Canada and various travels throughout Europe, it’s the great music cities of the United States that make their way into her songs in the form of American Folk and Country.

Greener moves beyond the basic roots of Americana to embrace the spirit of American pop with influences like contemporary songstresses Shawn Colvin, Lucinda Williams and Ani Difranco, as well as such greats as Simon and Garfunkel, Nick Drake and Joni Mitchell.  Growing up in the mid-west under the wing of a professional vocalist for a mother, Melissa Greener began her musical journey early. She got her first guitar at age nine and would later look to poets like Dylan Thomas and W.B Yeats for the music of words.