Garrin Benfield's sound has been described as Freestyle Acoustic Rock. His music is a blend of moody, guitar driven rock, blues, and polyrhythmic groove all run through the filter of a very serious Singer/Songwriter. Garrin is first and foremost a guitar player though. His talent shines through as a solo artist when he flat-picks his way through lightning-fast arrangements and also while he uses a Loop Station to create mesmerizing soundscapes.

Singer-songwriter Kate Gaffney honed her skills in her native Philadelphia, jumped from coast to coast, and laid musical roots in Northern California. Gaffney has found her comfortable place within the fertile Bay Area music community, playing with the likes of Dave Brogan (ALO), Chris Haugen (JamBay, Newfangled Wasteland), James Nash and Joe Kyle Jr. (both of the Waybacks) and more bolstered by "the Kitchen Sink Sessions" - a long-standing Thursday night residency at S.F.'s Connecticut Yankee. Her latest album "The Coachman" features contributions from guitarist Steve Kimock, pedal steel ace Greg Leisz and multi-instrumentalist Jackie Greene, whom she met during her days in Sacramento. With her first High Sierra Music Festival nod this year, good things continue to develop for this rising talent. Check out Jambase.com [link: http://www.jambase.com/Articles/20989/Kate-Gaffney-The-Coachman] for the latest from Dennis Cook.

After concluding a summer tour with longtime collaborator Ben Harper and his band the Innocent Criminals, critically hailed singer/songwriter Tom Freund has completed a new album with Ben as producer and featuring such guests as Jackson Browne on piano and vocals. The 30-date summer run provided Tom and Ben the opportunity to rekindle songs from their 1992 Pleasure and Pain album as well as spark ideas for a new studio record. This follows Tom's two independent releases of the past 3 years, "Copper Moon" and "Sweet Affection."

LA Weekly recently commented, "While Ben Harper found success with his folkie soul, Tom Freund has looked more to the Tom Waits school of the raspy sing-talk,and after two solid albums on his own Surf Road Records, his Copper Moon is set
to get him the recognition he deserves."

A sought-out standup bassist, the talented, versatile Freund plays most of the stringed instruments as well as piano on his albums. He also receives support from some terrific musicians. Matt Johnson (Jeff Buckley, Rufus Wainwright) and Michael Jerome (Richard Thompson, Blind Boys Of Alabama) sharedrum duties and X's D.J. Bonebrake plays the vibes. Ben Peeler (The Wallflowers, Shelby Lynn) provides some astounding electric and acoustic lap steel playing, while renowned producer/arranger Jerry Yester (Tom Waits) contributes string arrangements. On his debut record, North American Long Weekend Tom scored guest appearances by legendary jazz organist Jimmy Smith and studio virtuoso Jon Brion.

"Sweet Affection" is the title and lead off track on Tom Freund's latest EP/CD, which encompasses three new songs from the studio along witha live set recorded at a Sweet Relief Benefitin Santa Monica, California. 50% of the proceeds go to Sweet Relief: A Musicians Fund, started by Victoria Williams a decade ago. On the cd, she sings on two songs, "Gentleman Of The Shade" and the stirring "Can't Cry Hard Enough", the latter was captured live via cellphone with Victoria who had fallen ill and could not attend the concert listed on the album as a
"cellular duet." She called Tom's soundtrack oriented EP: LA Fundamentalist Music,"a classic." Tom's talents have also been drafted by Brit rocker Graham Parker, both as an opener and a musical director on tour and in the studio.

Freund spent the mid-'90s touring with the indie rock cult faves The Silos. In 1998, he released his debut album North American Long Weekendon Red Ant/Mercury. The record received an avalanche of critical accolades, most notably in The New York Times in which Ann Powerscalled it an "unexpected gem" and ranked it #3 in her year-end best-of poll. 2001's Sympatico drew even more raves. No Depression proclaimed that Freund "captures slices of Americana in a way that many attempt, yet very few actually master." Freund also is a favorite of NPR's Weekend Editionand has been championed by Los Angeles' powerful KCRW-FM, where he performed live on Morning Becomes Eclectic.

Tom writes all his own material and his songs continue to be featured on such prime time TV shows as Las Vegas and One Tree Hill as well as such films as Me and Will and 12 Bucks. Steven Spielberg's SHOAH Foundation also used three of Tom's compositions for their Giving Voice video. In 2001, he won a Telly Award for the music behind a National Public Service Announcement concerning child abuse. He continues to tour North America and Europe playing with his band or doing solo shows.