The Small Ponds are Caitlin Cary (founding member of Whiskeytown, Tres Chicas) and Matt Douglas (singer and songster for The Proclivities). Once a teenager with traditional Scottish fiddle chops, Laura Cortese has since grown into a songwriter who draws on diverse musical influences ranging from Otis Redding to Neko Case while being informed by formal training at Berklee College of Music.

Guitarist, songwriter, vocalist, and producer Jimbo Mathus grew up in Clarksdale, Mississippi. He first caught the publics ear in the 1990s with the hyper-ragtime vaudeville act, The Squirrel Nut Zippers. Since then, he's combined the myriad styles of deep roots music in a type of alchemy - blues, country, gospel, and soul all go into the equation equally.

The Late Comers and Storm Front share band members who have played from D.C. to Poland. They each have diverse experience and styles, from country to jazz to hard rock. Their repertoire includes blues, southern rock, jazz, and rockabilly songs ranging from sad to soulful.

Demolition String Band is not string band per se, although it started out as one. The Hoboken/NYC based outfit incorporates the sounds of folk, country rock, bluegrass, hillbilly, and even pop in their music which is played and sung with heartfelt sincerity and inspired musical fire. The Moaners are well known to everyone here in Chapel Hill - that's why there's no "About Us" section on their website for lazy slackers like me to copy. If you haven't seen them yet, hurry up before they outgrow us. The Pneurotics' music walks the line between straight up exuberant heart pounding rock, and twangy, melancholy alt-country with a balance of bouncy power pop.

Louise Bendall (of Watermelon Sugar) and Elizabeth Freeman (of Apple Chill Cloggers, & Piedmont Allstars) have so much fun playing music together that they figured they might as well make it official and form "a band." After performing together on several occasions, Elizabeth realized Louise had never tried a chocolate martini and quickly rectified the situation. Louise oh so very much enjoyed her first chocolate martini. It made her feel cool, tingly, smiley, giggly and inspired to write a song called (what else?) "Chocolate Martini Therapy." Elizabeth loved the new song, said it was groovy and made her smile. And voila, a band.

Nominally, Robert Griffin is a jazz pianist. Sure enough, he'll wrap all seventeen of his fingers around God Bless the Child or My Funny Valentine with the best of them. But when he starts improvising is when his voice rises above the pack, like listening to someone who speaks perfect English, but with a hint of some unplaceable foreign accent you can't quite trace. To be sure, one hears "jazz" when Robert sits down at the keyboard, but there are cryptic hints of alien waters tributaries from the baroque traditions, bays of blues, estuaries of folk, and pools of pop. He comes by all these influences honestly, but the deepest aquifers in Robert Griffin's musical vocabulary spring directly from the red clay of North Carolina. He'll be joined this evening by Stu Cole of Squirrel Nut Zippers fame.

Jokes & Jokes & Jokes writes self-aware songs about middle-class despondency, substance abuse, material culture, race, and economics.

Transmography packs an industrial thwamp of experimental rock that coheres in abstract rhythms and explosive instrumental freak-outs on guitar, drums, bass, synth and electronics. La Snacks have been compared to such indie luminaries as Archers of Loaf, The Hold Steady and Pavement. Kn_iv_es is experimental.

Great Big Gon brews up a twangy blend of electrified porch picking, finger licking, roots rocking, western swinging, honky tonking Americana all garnished with a pinch of cajun.

A Rooster for the Masses are moody Brit-influenced dance-pop that sounds like it stems from that same uneasy period in the early 80's that found Gang of Four experimenting with disco, and Joy Division morphing into New Order. Plumerai mix shoegaze, gypsy/european folk, post-punk, and filmscores behind sultry and heartfelt vocals.

If you could hear The Adrian Outfit's mid-western charm, with new-age, witty songwriting, it might solve your problems - for the next hour.

Tim Stambaugh has been a fixture on the North Carolina bluegrass scene for nearly two decades, and he's bringing along his ace band for us!