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Recently named Best Folk Performer in the Philadelphia City Paper Music Awards, Adam Brodsky is one of the more distinct voices of folk in Philadelphia today. Adam Brodsky sings and strums the same way he writes relentlessly and without compromise saying what everyone else wishes they could say. His music is a voice for oppressed rights, oppressed cubicle workers and oppressed boyfriends everywhere, writing with a brash sense of humor and a healthy respect for the roots of American Folk Music.

That respect has been highlighted this year. Adam spent the summer presenting a program called A Brief History of Folk Music at 30th Street Station in Philadelphia. Sponsored by Smithsonian Folkways, the program offered an overview of the folk tradition including murder ballads, cowboy songs, sea shanties, antifolk and protest songs.

However, he is best known for his outrageous style, clever wordplay and a gift for performance. He leaves an unforgettable impression and a lot of laughter in his wake.

Adam has spent this year touring the East Coast and Midwest. In Philadelphia, he sells out premier listening rooms including The Point and Tin Angel. And he has had the honor of playing with performers like Kris Kristofferson, Kinky Friedman, The Holy Modul Rounders, Moxy Fruvous, Hamell on Trial, Jill Sobule, the Dave Brockie Experience (GWAR without the masks), Dan Bern and Robbie Fulks.
He has performed at major venues along the east and west coast including:

The Khyber and NorthStar - Philadelphia, PA
East End Cafe - Newark, DE
Club Passim and Kendall Cafe - Cambridge, MA
Rosebud and Club Cafe - Pittsburgh, PA
Iota Club and Cafe and the Metro Cafe - Washington, DC
Happy Endings and Armory High
(formerly Styleens Rhythm Palace) - Syracuse, NY
Mohawk and Nietzsche's - Buffalo, NY

antifolk: (an-ti-fok), n., v., adj. a subgenre of folk music. uniting the traditions of folk music with those of punk rock. Opposed to the caramelized sounds pop folk, antifolk embraces the traditions of Woody Guthrie and Joey Ramone and Dock Boggs. See Adam Brodsky.

http://www.adambrodsky.com
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Butch Ross can't do anything right.

He plays the mountain dulcimer.
He plays it standing up like a guitar.
He holds it upside and strung backwards.
And Butch Ross plays rock n roll on it.

Despite all this wrongness, somehow it all sounds just right.

Okay, sure, he plays his own funny, poignant songs and some traditional mountain tunes, but somehow, in Butch's hands, they rock, too.

Besides, it's pretty clear that Led Zeppelin always intended for "Stairway to Heaven" to be played on the dulcimer. It just took Butch to figure it out.

Butch Ross was given a mountain dulcimer for his birthday a few years ago, at the time the regionally touring singer/songwriter had no idea of the impact the instrument would have on his career. "I thought it's be cool to have one around the house, but I found myself playing it more and more. It had made music fun for me in a way that I hadn't felt since I first picked up the guitar."

More than "making music fun," this primitive mountain instrument began to open doors for him too. Not long after adopting the dulcimer he met Robert Force a musician, producer, independent label owner and all-around hippy who had once written a best-selling book on the mountain dulcimer. He saw in Butch "a spirit, talent and vision" that he last saw in his own idol; 60's folk-icon Richard Fariña. Almost immediately, he offered to sign him to his Blaine St. Records and produce, for free, his debut CD "the Moonshiner's Atlas."

The dulcimer has opened other doors for Butch Ross as well: a full-ride scholarship for a graduate degree in folk studies, a quickly-earned reputation amongst the dulcimer community as one of the most innovative and exciting players on the scene, endorsement offers, including one builder who working with him on a "Butch Ross Signature Model," opening slots for wide variety of performers from Hayseed Dixie and Little Country Giants to the Jazz Mandolin Project, Great Big Sea and the legendary Jean Ritchie. Additionally the dulcimer has found him invited to play festivals and clubs in England, Scotland, Ireland, Sweden, Belgium, Germany and most recently Budapest, Hungary.

Sean Phipps of the Chattanooga Times Free Press says, "His set consisted of folk songs and various instrumentals, including blistering version of Richard Thompson's '1952 Vincent Black Lightning' and The Beatles' 'Eleanor Rigby.' We're lucky to have such a talented, interesting musician living in Chattanooga."

http://www.butchross.com
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Butch-Ross/55431615966
http://twitter.com/#!/butchross
http://www.myspace.com/butchross