For the past seven years, John Craigie has taken his unique musical style across the western United States. He stays true to the essence of folk music, and the traditions of the seminal writers of our past century. With timeless melodies and insightful lyrics-interspersed with witty storytelling-his songs take many poetic turns before bringing you back home. His themes range from social commentary to personal empowerment, political satire, and modern love. He has traveled all of this planet, having played in all 50 states and beyond, bringing his music to the world.

Matthew Grimm emerged from the cauldron of the 1990s New York rock scene as frontman and primary songwriter of the leftist roots-rock band The Hangdogs, who, at their zenith of besotted spectacle, were actually listed periodically as one of the city\'s attractions by The New Yorker. Grimm issued five records with the Dogs, the last two of them good, before returning to his native Iowa in 2004. There, he honed his sound into a scimitar of power-pop, punk and clown-hammer-subtle metaphor in two solo records, Dawn\'s Early Apocalypse and The Ghost of Rock & Roll, the former helmed by multiplatinum producer Pete Anderson (Michelle Shocked, Dwight Yoakam, The Meat Puppets, Rosie Flores). Neither CD went platinum. Along the way, he lent his voice to the anti-war and labor movements where invited, the latter inspiring an ancillary repertoire of original union songs and revved-up classics of the genre, highlighted by his anthem \"One Big Union,\" which he has played at labor actions from the steps of the Iowa capitol in Des Moines to rallies for locked out workers in Keokuk, IA, and Metropolis, IL. He also wields a voluminous and bizarre rep of cover songs said to include tunes by AC/DC, Buck Owens, Gladys Knight & the Pips, the Muppets, the Smithereens and, once when he was kind of drunk, \"Rhinestone Cowboy.\" Grimm, a onetime award-winning business journalist, relocated to Madison in 2011 to help tally recall signatures.