Alma Russ | John Howie, Jr | Caleb Caudle

“Stirring your very soul, sending flutters through your heart and shivers down your spine, the voice of Alma Russ makes an immediate and lasting impact…” – Saving Country Music

Alma (pronounced AL-MUH) is a singer/songwriter out of Western North Carolina, playing “patchwork music”: country, folk, & Appalachian styles pieced together. She enjoys playing guitar, banjo, & fiddle, and was an American Idol Contestant in season 16.

ABOUT JOHN HOWIE, JR:

In 1995, John Howie Jr.’s honky-tonk band, the Two Dollar Pistols, emerged out of the North Carolina alt-country explosion that gave the world Whiskeytown and the Backsliders, among others. The Pistols spent twelve years traveling around the United States and Europe, making records for the esteemed Yep Roc label with an updated, soulful take on old-school country and honky-tonk sounds.

Over the course of seven albums – including a series of duets with Grammy nominee Tift Merritt – Howie and the band developed a sizable following, packing clubs on the East Coast and being flown to festivals in Europe, while the band’s albums regularly appeared on the Americana chart. In that time, the Pistols shared the stage with a veritable who’s-who of country music legends, including Merle Haggard, Billy Joe Shaver, Dale Watson, BR-549, the Derailers, and many more, and were invited to play at Opryland in 2003.

ABOUT CALEB CAUDLE:

On his latest release, Sweet Critters, there are sometimes shadowy arrangements that creep and lurk, Caudle continues to mine both the brightest and murkiest corners of his imagination, finding that purest of points where tenderness and grit collide, inspired by musical heroes like Buddy Miller and Guy Clark, and mentors like Elizabeth Cook and John Paul White. It was White who Caudle tapped to produce Sweet Critters, along with Ben Tanner, at the duo’s Florence, Alabama studio Sun Drop Sound. “I was very excited to work with Caleb on this record. Iʼve been a fan for years and count him as a friend,” White says of working with Caudle. “Heʼs a stellar songwriter, so I knew heʼd bring the goods. And he did.” The album features Allison Russell, Aoife O’Donovan, John Paul White and Caleb’s own touring band.

He has played Stagecoach, Cayamo, Luck Reunion, Mountain Stage, Merlefest, Americanafest and recently supported Marty Stuart, Steve Earle, Hayes Carll, Elizabeth Cook, Brent Cobb, Charles Wesley Godwin and Ray Wylie Hubbard among many others.