Here are some local artists and groups who have played at the Leo Coffeehouse, EdenSong, or other QCB events. To request an update or report broken link send an email to Eric Hansen, web administrator, using the Queen City Balladeers contact form. You can also add information about yourself or your group using the comments form.
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| Ryan Adcock makes music. He has made music since he can remember. He hopes to make music as long as he still can remember. He belts ridiculous verses about what he sees walking down Cincinnati streets; he harmonizes with the radio; he hums and drums himself to sleep. And, on occassion, he gets serious and sits down to carefully craft songs about love, grief, life, and God. |
| Anna and Milovan Beljin , is a father-daughter duet who performs in the Cincinnati area. They play a variety of folk/pop/blues tunes, featuring Anna’ powerful voice and Milovan’s skilled guitar work. |
| Lisa Biales If Rory Block and Allison Krauss had a little sister it would be Lisa Biales. You hear the Folky side of Blues, Jazz Standards and Country music in Lisa’s songs and her voice will stop you in your tracks. Lisa has been referred to as the Norman Rockwell of songwriters with a crystal pure voice. “Just the sweet voice and a guitar, who could ask for more?” Ken Lawrence. |
| The Cincinnati Dancing Pigs have been playing Jug Band Music in town for 35 years, with a long running stand at Arnold’s Bar and Grill every first Saturday of the month. Most of The Pigs have been Balladeers at one point in time or the other, and some of them can even remember when John Denver and Michael Johnson played at Leo’s, and partied with the Balladeers. |
| Chris Collier plays frequently at York St. Cafe along with her “full band,” which includes stellar guitarist Steve Sigsbee. Chris’s songs, like Galaxie 500, are familiar to most Tri-State folk fans. |
| Ma Crow and The Lady Slippers. Ma Crow and The Lady Slippers perform beautiful acoustic music along with sweet harmonies to boot. You’ll want to be sure to catch this alll-girl band sometime soon. |
| Mark Cormican’s songs celebrate the joys and sorrows of everyday life, but with extraordinary voice and lyrics. Mark is a busy performer, playing venues all over southwestern Ohio and Northern Kentucky. |
| Diamond Blue Diamond Blue is an acoustic quartet, featuring guitars, fiddle, mandolin and sweet vocal harmonies. The group plays original music, with a repertoire that reflects their diverse backgrounds and individual members’ styles resulting in a contemporary blend of rock, country, folk and blues. |
| Ellery (Justin and Tasha Golden) has been engaging audiences in what some may refer to as “acoustic conversation” for nearly four years. With a live sound ranging from driving folk-pop tunes to intimate, soul-stirring melodies, and with this husband and wife duo’s voices “ascending and bowing in flawless harmony”, listeners will find themselves drawn in from the opening song. |
| Patrick Ewing is a Cincinnati born Singer-Songwriter, acoustic guitar player with 20+ years experience playing in Cincinnati beer joints, bookstores, art galleries, coffee houses, gin mills, ribs shacks, open mics, after-hours, front porches and back alleys. Original American Music and a slew of covers ranging from blues, to honky tonk, to folk and back. Postmodern musings on real life experiences straddling two centuries. |
| Ellie Fabe is a singer/songwriter in an acoustic/folk m.o. who you might compare to Joni Mitchell even if it’s not exactly true because it would perk up her night. She’s doing her own thing though and for what it’s worth her niece thinks she’s a musical genius (and while this is possibly a stretch, it fits with the self aggrandizing theme here) and performs at the Leo Coffeehouse, often found in the jam circles, and sometimes at the Rohs Street Cafe. Someone there called her a mind blowing lyricist which she liked very much. She’s working on her third album. The second album was a live recording from Leo Coffeehouse in 1985, and the first a 1984 demo tape she didn’t know what to do with. She’s hoping the new CD will be good because three’s a charm and how could it not after taking such a long time? |
| Gwendolyn Speaks a husband-wife duo, have a sound described as “radio-friendly”, “rootsy-pop”, and “dreamlike”. Their influences, which range from Crowded House to Natalie Merchant, combine to result in a unique mixture of great pop hooks and haunting melodies. |
| Greg Hansen is a local fingerstyle guitarist, playing and singing an assortment of familiar and not-so-familiar songs, traditional folk tunes, and original songs and instrumentals. His solo CD, “The Detour And The Open Road” is now available. He also performs with his brothers, Joe and Steve, and sister-in-law Liz, with the Doug Perry Ensemble, and with the New Europa Troubadours. |
| Dave Hawkins an eclectic songwriter who’s been compared to Peter Yarrow, Leo Kottke, Buddy Holly, Steve Goodman, Phil Ochs and Lyle Lovett. He is a crowd-pleasing entertainer and a cross-over artist with a broad base of folk and Celtic fans in the Midwest, New England, Western United States and Europe. He has has led bands for over 25 years, released 13 recordings, and appeared as a special guest on seven more. He often appears with his backup band, Celtic Core. |
| Prudence Hunt writes and performs songs that reflect her life experiences, including a song which has a verse for each of her grandchildren. Prudence’s introduction to folk music back in the 60′s was the inspiration for Wild Carrot’s award-winning “These Songs”. |
| Jim’s Red Pants Jim’s Red Pants performs traditional roots, Scandinavian and Celtic music as well as original selections on hardanger, nyckelharpa, fiddle duets, guitar, mandolins, bouzouki, and tinwhistle. |
| Kyle Meadows is a frequent performer with the Cincinnati Fine Arts Fund and Kentucky Arts Council, Kyle is a distinguished instrumentalist playing an eclectic variety of traditional Appalachian, Celtic, Old-time and popular music. His hammered dulcimer has a beautiful, uplifting and soothing sound. |
| Papa Joe is best known for writing silly songs like Crying on My Pizza, but also writes children’s songs and the occasional serious ballad. He performs at local venues with guitar, banjo and harmonica, and on the canal boat at historical Metamora, Indiana. |
| Janet Pressley the founding force behind Cincinnati’s Blue Jordan Records, has reached almost legend status with her prolific songwriting efforts, familiar to anyone who has even the slightest acquaintance with the local folk/acoustic scene. |
| Chip Roop is a singer/songwriter out of Lexington , KY who makes it up to the Greater Cincinnati area regularly. |
| Rabbit Hash String Band “Rabbit Hash, Kentucky, is where I long to be — cornbread and ‘lasses and sassafras tea!” Warren and Judy Waldron with Russ and Barb Childers urge you to sing along. They specialize in renditions of Skillet Lickers music of the ’20s and ’30s as well as other old-time fiddle and banjo favorites wa-a-ay back before bluegrass. If “down home” is where you long to be, the Rabbits will take you there. |
| Raison d’Etre a trio of ladies from Northern Kentucky, are a sheer delight to hear and watch, whether they are doing one of their own songs, such as the enchanting Queen Anne’s Lace, or an a cappella rendition of Boogie-Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B! |
| The Retread Bluegrass Band has been playing the local scene since 2003 with appearances at The Southwest Ohio Bluegrass Festival, The Silverton Cafe, The Midwest Bluegrass Association, The Famous Old Time Music Company, multiple “Harpin’ & Pickin’” Festivals in Oxford and the Indian Hill Church Fest’s, guest artists with The Blue Ash-Montgomery Symphony, and a benefit concert at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church in Montgomery where they raised over $1,200 for Habitat For Humanity. |
| Jake Speed is possessed of incredible energy, a one-man reincarnation of Woody Guthrie and Ramblin’ Jack Elliot. Jake’s songs have a strong regional bent, with ballads like Railroad Penny and Ludlow Street Rag. |
| Strained Relations is a father/son duo: Greg and Jon Buening. From the viewpoints of 2 different generations, these singer/songwriters weave ballads of love, humor, and humanity in delightful harmony. The duo may be contacted at strainedrelations@juno.com. |
| Tom and Missy Strothers, who live in College Hill, feature mountain dulcimers of several styles and accent those with Bodhran, penny whistle, and recorder. They both teach dulcimer and perform at various festivals and workshops throughout the East and Midwest. |
| Wild Carrot is known throughout the Greater Cincinnati area from their many regular performances at a large number of local venues. They also conduct workshops on topics including music theory, fingerpicking, flatpicking, as well as classical and jazz guitar. Spencer also gives private guitar lessons, and there is great demand for his services in that regard. |
| Dave Wolfenberger has been writing, recording, and performing music for over a decade now. He has been the singer songwriter for such groups as The Marshwiggles and Thom Scarecrow. He has a sound that is an interesting mix of pop, light jazz, and a touch of country with a traditional folk sound, with a strong melodic leaning and folksy charm. |
