Hillery Lynn, Birgit Burke, and Pryce Taylor make up the local Laramie band Whiskey Slaps. Hillery has been playing guitar, singing and writing songs most of her life. Birgit has been writing songs, singing, and playing various musical instruments most of her life as well. Their songwriting, guitar playing and mandolin playing lift elements from 1920’s blues, old-time, Appalachian folk and country western. Pryce Taylor joins on electric and upright bass, grounding the songs with solid rhythm.
Ben Markley is a composer and jazz pianist. He is also a visiting Assistant Professor of Music for the University of Wyoming Music Department. Scott Turpen is a saxophonist and Professor at the University of Wyoming Music Department, teaching Jazz Studies. "And The Wind Came" was written and composed by Ben Markley.
Born and raised in Sandpoint Idaho, identical twins Katelyn and Laurie Shook make up the Indie Folk-Pop bandShook Twins. They now reside in Portland, Oregon. Kyle Volkman and Niko Daoussis form the core quartet.
Hailing from the mountains and plains of Northern Wyoming, Luke Bell’s music is shaped by his lineage of ranchers, tobacco farmers and ministers. This young singer-songwriter naturally brings us a blend of the old time blues/country sound and contemporary lyricism about poverty, loss, hardship, and redemption.
Pianist Chi-Chen Wu is a recitalist, chamber musician, and soloist. She teaches piano at the University of Wyoming. Here’s part of a recent recital performance, featuring the first movement of Alexander Scriabin’s third piano sonata, composed 1897-98.