Best Local Folk Act

JEFF EVANS, AKA CHICKENS & PIGS, can keep a room wrapped around his little finger by way of his epic, self-effacing tales of hard luck with happy-go-lucky charm. At each and every performance, listeners chuckle on the edge of their seats and wonder: How much more fun can this get? Evans’ lanky presence and limber strum and bark come across like an unholy hybrid of Keith Richards and Captain Kangaroo. His songs are obsessed with food and animals, and usually cover both in each go-around. The more frantically he plays, the more mistakes he makes. But he rolls with them in the most endearing ways. The ramshackle pace of his songs, coupled with his “aw shucks” rural humor is as compelling as it is hilarious.

www.myspace.com/chickensandpigs

To confine ELISE WITT to the narrow realm of “traditional folk” would be a mistake. True, those are her roots, and she’s careful not to lose sight of folk’s long-standing role in social change. Her “Open the Window” is destined to become a new signature song for change, in fact. With Witt, the notion of song that’s communal, rather than just performed by an artist, is important. But Witt’s absorption of song traditions from across the world -— what she describes as “global, local and homemade songs” -— says more about what folk represents in the 21st century.
<a href-“http://www.mindspring.com/~emworld/”>www.mindspring.com/~emworld/.

DANIEL CLAY doesn’t travel the same dusty roads as folk shouters Woody Guthrie or Bob Dylan. His stark and stylish strumming and ominous songwriting offer a welcome sense of malevolence to the craft. Whether singing from the rooftop of the Mattress Factory Lofts or mesmerizing audiences at gallery shows with religious melancholy, Clay is a man in black, pursued by a cloud of the same color. He’s a sinner in the hands of an angry God. Only his voice will set him free.
www.purevolume.com/danielclay.