We are excited to announce the musicians who will be performing at our Open House on Tuesday, August 15!
Dr. Jamee Mae Berg, Music Cognition Lab Member!
Jamee Mae is a singer-songwriter from Los Angeles, California who lives in Nashville, Tennessee. Jamee launched her solo career in 2016 with her debut EP, “Fly,” which won the Akademia award for best R&B/Soul EP. Jamee has performed in several high-profile events, including the Genius Loci Music Festival, the Lucidity Music Festival (recurring performer), and the LoveLife:Livestream event, which included performances by Rachel Platten and Andy Grammer. Jamee has recorded in the famous EastWest studios and has worked with Grammy-Award winning producers Jamey Heath (OPOPP Productions, EP “Fly”) and Paul Hoyle ("Letter to the World"). Jamee Mae's music video, “Candle,” was selected by the Lady Filmmakers Festival and Holly Shorts and screened at the legendary TCL Chinese (formally Grauman’s Chinese) Theatre in Hollywood, California. Recently, Jamee Mae’s songs, “Follow Me" and " Oh My," were featured in the short film, “She Was,” which won best Experimental Short at the 2019 L.A. Live Film Festival. Jamee Mae is a Vanguard Audio Labs Artist. [Source: Dr. Berg's Spotify page]
Noah Fram, Music Cognition Lab Member!
Noah is a composer, singer-songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. He’s written musicals, chamber pieces, and concept albums drawing on musics from opera, jazz, and chamber music to hip-hop, bluegrass, and classic rock. His most recent composition, Triptych, was premiered in Nashville by the Nashville Chamber Music Society in May, 2023. [Source: conversation with Noah Fram. See also: https://www.noahfram.com/]
Kate Kelly
Growing up on the Gulf Coast exploring its shores and wetlands, Kate Kelly, a now Nashville-based soul, folk, and Americana-influenced artist, invites her listeners to dig into the roots of her image-invoking writing just as she once dug her fingers into the roots of the earth in Alabama. Music was synonymous with childhood from the start, but when she obtained a scholarship through Bayfest, a music festival originating in her hometown Mobile, she used the funds to purchase her first guitar at age 15. Journaling and acquainting herself with the artist-instrument relationship was simultaneous, and when her journal entries morphed into songs and her guitar-picking found its way around melodies, songs became a self-healing medicine for Kate, and still are. Kate Kelly began sharing her remedies in 2016 with her debut EP New Heartbeat, and in 2018 she released her first full-length record The Wonder Of It All, which she wrote during a difficult period. Retreating into a child-like inner solace, safe from the pain and confusion she was experiencing, Kelly turned to an exploration of nature and life’s innate beauty as her lyrical thesis. Through her music, Kelly makes themes of losing innocence, heartbreaking revelations, and relationship growing pains feel lighter and more reachable. Her voice doesn’t hide behind facile affectations and contains a pleasant warmth nostalgic of Feist and early-career Ingrid Michaelson. She’s currently co-writing and making plans for new releases. More recently inspired by artists like Phoebe Bridgers, she’s exploring a more indie-folk, ambient sound, and her most recent single “Quiet as a Mouse” reflects this new direction. [Source: Kelly's website]
Crys Matthews
Already being hailed as “the next Woody Guthrie,” Crys Matthews is among the brightest stars of the new generation of social justice music-makers. A powerful lyricist whose songs of compassionate dissent reflect her lived experience as what she lightheartedly calls "the poster-child for intersectionality," Justin Hiltner of Bluegrass Situation called Matthews’s gift "a reminder of what beauty can occur when we bridge those divides." She is made for these times and, with the release of her new, hope-fueled, love-filled social justice album Changemakers, Matthews hopes to take her place alongside some of her heroes in the world of social-justice music like Sweet Honey in the Rock and Holly Near. Matthews began performing in 2010, but cemented her acclaim at Lincoln Center as the 2017 New Song Music and Performance Competition grand prize winner. That year she also released two new projects—her album of thoughtful songs on love and life called The Imagineers, and her EP called Battle Hymn for an Army of Lovers, which tackles social justice themes. Matthews also won the People’s Music Network’s Social Justice Songs contest at the Northeast Regional Folk Alliance. Loyal fans quickly followed as Matthews racked up performances at large music festivals and prestigious venues across the country including the Sundance Film Festival, Kerrville Folk Festival, and locally at venues like The Birchmere, TheHamilton, Millennium Stage at the Kennedy Center, and Jammin' Java. Crys Matthews's thoughtful, realistic and emotional songs speak to the voice of our generation and remind us why music indeed soothes the soul. [Source: Matthews' website]
Julie Mazzone, Music Cognition Lab Member!
Julie Mazzone is a pop singer-songwriter currently living in Nashville. Julie grew up on Long Island and has sang for as long as she can remember. In elementary school, she began taking piano lessons and taught herself how to play acoustic guitar in high school. After college, Julie moved to NYC and played in the band “Party of Two”, sharing the stage with her cousin, Melissa Allen. Julie relocated to Nashville in 2021 and released her first song as a solo artist in May 2022. [Source: Mazzone's Spotify page]
Daniel Tashian
Daniel Tashian is an American songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist. He has spent ten years writing and producing for Big Yellow Dog Music. Tashian's music career began when he was 19 years old and signed his first deal on Elektra Records. His first album was produced by T Bone Burnett, and he also started a band called The Silver Seas (originally called The Bees) in 1999. The success of that band lead them to an appearance on Later... with Jools Holland. In 2018, he co-produced Kacey Musgraves' critically acclaimed album Golden Hour in addition to co-writing 7 of the album's 13 songs, including "Slow Burn", "Happy and Sad", "Love is a Wild Thing", and the album's title track, "Golden Hour". Tashian received two Grammys, one ACM award, and one CMA award for his work on the album. Other production credits include Tenille Townes' Living Room Worktapes EP, Jessie James Decker's On This Holiday album, and work for artists including A Girl Called Eddy, Trent Dabbs, Emily West, Lily & Madeleine, Lissie, and Sad Penny. Other notable songwriting credits include his first number one song, "Hometown Girl" by Josh Turner, "White Horse" by Tenille Townes, "Good Night" by Billy Currington, and "The Bees" by Lee Ann Womack. He has also had several sync placements in hit TV shows including Pretty Little Liars, Nashville, Reign, and Scorpion as well as the film Our Idiot Brother. His band The Silver Seas also placed a song in the Breaking Bad TV series. In 2019 Tashian released I Love Rainy Days, a children's album for which he wrote and produced all the music and painted all associated artwork, following in 2020 with Mr. Moonlight, another children's album. In July 2020, Tashian collaborated with Burt Bacharach on the EP Blue Umbrella. [Source: Wikipedia]
For more information about the Open House, click here! We're excited to see you.
