If nerditude had a formal name, it would be Grace Morrison. A pianist, accordion player, cranberry grower, coffee devotee, and unapologetic expert on all things New England, she channels her many passions into a trademarked sound she calls Saltwater Country—a blend of folk storytelling, country twang, and the spirit of Cape Cod. A 2026 SERFA Official Showcase Artist, Morrison writes songs that balance vivid imagery, emotional honesty, and a distinctly coastal perspective. Her music has earned recognition for its authenticity, humor, and ability to make the deeply personal feel universal.

Andrew Pauls is an award-winning songwriter, community-builder, a cyclist, and sometimes a gardener. He is fascinated by the small stories that scaffold our lives– the tiny triumphs and tragedies that shape us into who we are. Andrew is in love with the world, and each of his hand-crafted songs reveal his curiosity about everyday things. Andrew invites listeners to join him in a state of wonder– as if he were pointing at the sky and shouting, “wow, look at the moon!”

With her “emotive voice and plainspoken storytelling” (Nashville Scene), Stephanie Sammons was named a Kerrville Grassy Hill New Folk Winner (2026), and the Wildflower Al Johnson Performing Songwriter Grand Prize Winner & People’s Choice Award (2026). She’s also a 2026 Rocky Mountain Folks Fest Finalist and Songwriter Serenade Finalist. Sammons has built her reputation in the Americana and Folk worlds not through noise, but through precision. As a singer of subtle emotion, she chooses clarity over clamor and substance over spectacle, with each lyric offering a quiet revelation.

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Lyndy Butler is a songwriter & storyteller from the red desert of Southern Utah. Her music carries the spirit of lonely highways, late-night kitchens, old hymns, and the changing moon. Lyndy has showcased at the Rocky Mountain Folks Festival, The Kerrville New Folk Festival (2017, 2019), & the Wildflower! (2019) She was named a top-five finalist in the 2025 Telluride Troubadour contest and is thrilled to be returning to the Folks Fest Stage.

Indie artist Joel Van Horne has been releasing his songs under the moniker “Covenhoven” from his home here in Colorado since 2013. With 5 albums to his name, the acclaimed multi-instrumental singer-songwriter has taken his songs across the globe, touring across the United States, Canada, and Europe. Born and raised in Denver, Joel still gladly calls the front range home. His songs have now been streamed over 10 million times.

Comfortable in both love and grief, China Kent’s music is as nourishing and surprising as family life can be. Writing from a core of interior richness, her songs satisfy a need for healing and consolation, affirmation and confession. China is a 2-time Kerrville New Folk finalist and a 2026 Songwriter Serenade finalist, and lives in Denver with her two teenage children and her hot pilot husband, Seth, with whom she leads the Americana band Alright Alright.

Logan Vath is a Norfolk, Virginia based songwriter, originally from just up the road in Western Nebraska. He has played extensively on the east coast and southeast and is thrilled to be amongst fellow songwriters a bit closer to home. Most recently, Logan was a Kerrville New Folk Winner and is most often found being a dad and husband and writing songs that draw from those two titles.

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The Silo Sisters is a songwriter supergroup of multi-instrumentalists Bonnie Sims, Phoebe Hunt, and Melody Walker. The trio first came together in 2023 inside the silo at the Planet Bluegrass Ranch.

Ingrid Avison lives in the mountains outside of Boulder where she writes most of her music on the floor of her cabin with her dog, Olive, close by. She found songwriting late in life at the age of 34 after being broken open by heartache, a surgery and a psychedelic desert experience. Now, she writes about everything from grief to IUDs.

The day he turned 16, Jason David Hicks made one of the best decisions of his life and sold the truck his parents gave him for his birthday to buy a guitar and an amp, a decision that older Jason has continually and repeatedly thanked himself for. Jason David Hicks is a singer, songwriter, guitarist, and founding member of the Blue Canyon Boys. He’s been struck by lightning, scalped, a lifelong teetotaler, and has had more dreams of bears, snakes, lions, whales, and precognitions than can be counted by a classroom full of feral kindergarteners. For almost 25 years Jason has traveled the world with the Blue Canyon Boys, entertaining audiences of all shapes and sizes, sharing stories, singing songs, and beating up his old guitar whilst weaving himself into one small part of Americas great musical fabric. Trucks come and go, but the gift of music is forever.

Colorado-based singer, songwriter, and pianist Pamela Machala (“MOCK-uh-luh”) is known for her finely crafted pop-folk songs. With influences ranging from jazz and soul to musical theater, Pamela’s songwriting combines boldly vulnerable lyrics, feelgood funky grooves, and a distinctive blend of melancholy, hope, and goofiness. She has received the Grand Prize in the SongDoor International Songwriting Competition, and has opened for artists such as Lisa Loeb and Danielle Ate The Sandwich. Colorado Daily calls Pamela’s songs “incredibly catchy, yet deep and heartfelt.”

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