Ben Connelly spent the nineties investigating clubs, studios, and late night parties in South Minneapolis and across the Eastern half of the United States with his rock band Steeplejack, who put out one full length and three EPs for a variety of record labels. His solo debut \"Big Red Throbbing Heart\" launched his solo career in 2001. His songs have appeared on college, commercial, and public radio, as well as national television and theatre and film productions. Live he transports audiences across the northern Midwest and East coasts with what Minneapolis\'s City Pages describe as \"furious finger-picking and top-notch tunes.\"

The archetypal resonance of folk songs, spirituals, and fairy tales, the subtle power of lyric poetry, and a raw passion for rock and roll, all pour into to the indie-folk mold of Ben Connelly\'s sophomore CD, \"You Burn Hotter\" to form a beautiful, cracked, joyous, and troubling mess. Connelly\'s passion for storytelling and blazing finger-style guitar are carried on a river of arcane rhyme schemes and bizarre lyrical conceits which live happily next to workaday imagery and chant-like anaphora. Radiant hope wrestles patiently with cynicism and despair. Certainly worth checking out.

Sara Pace resides in Madison, Wisconsin and performs with guitarist, Doug Milks and pedal steel guitarist, Adam Davis. In the fall of 2002, Sara released her debut album, \'self-titled.\'

Draped in pure acoustic arrangements that span a breadth of styles, this album is a lyrical heavy-hitter. Incorporating both fictional storytelling and poetic personal reckonings, \'self-titled\' gracefully tips its hat to topics such as growing better (not older), politeness, and the carousel ride of love.