Temple Mountain

Temple Mountain, a soulful Long Island singer-songwriter, blends the introspective depth of Elliott Smith with the dynamic sounds of John Mayer, Dave Matthews Band, and Ed Sheeran. His journey has taken him from the vibrant music scenes of NYC and Austin to a reflective hiatus in New Hampshire, where he rediscovered his passion for music.

With a background in psychology, Temple Mountain weaves human complexities into his songwriting, creating a captivating exploration of the human condition. His performances promise a profound connection with audiences, whether in intimate listening rooms or lively bars throughout New England.

Volkert Volkersz

Volkert Volkersz is a singer/songwriter and guitar player that has been performing folk, pop, blues, originals and guitar instrumentals since the 1960s. Additionally, he enjoys doing music for children as "Opa Volkert." Opa means grandpa in Dutch.

Volkert's biggest influences include Peter, Paul and Mary, Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, the Beatles, James Taylor and John Fahey. Since moving to New Hampshire in 2016 he has been the featured performer at numerous open mics and other venues. He has also been a regular at farmers markets and library story times. He performs positive, family-friendly music, often with a touch of humor. Volkert has written more than 350 songs and instrumentals, with two of his songs receiving airplay on the NHPR Folk Show. He has written songs about love, peace, gratitude, creativity, life in New Hampshire and his native Pacific Northwest, farming, aging, the weather, insects, cars & trucks, Robert Frost, and spirituality. Recently he has been in the recording studio working on a full album of original songs for children. Many of these were inspired by his grandchildren.

Volkert is the former host of the DubHub Open Stage (in Dublin, NH). In recent years he has appeared at the Keene Music Festival, the Children and the Arts Festival in Peterborough and the "Notes" series hosted by Wendy Keith in Jaffrey. Born in Amsterdam, Volkert was raised in Seattle. For 39 years he was a school music teacher and school librarian in western Washington State. He has performed at the Northwest Folklife Festival and the Bumbershoot Festival in Seattle. Since the pandemic, Volkert has posted more than 180 songs to his YouTube channel (originals, covers, children’s music and guitar lessons). One of these videos (a song for children) has exceeded 68,000 views. Several more range from 1,000 to 20,000 views.

Click Horning

The Lake Sunapee, NH region has always had more than its share of musicians. Maybe it's the mountain air or maybe it's the scenery, but something keeps them coming back. Just ask Click Horning, New London's singer songwriter who left when he was seventeen for the Big Apple. Twelve years, a record contract and an album later it was time to come back. Early influences were Bob Dylan, Gordon Lightfoot, Peter Paul & Mary, as well as rock and roll and R&B that he listened to growing up.

Click's music has taken him across the country several times, to the Rockies and to the deep south . Click has produced two more solo albums and two albums with his band Night Kitchen , a "get up and dance" band composed of Click on lead vocals and rhythm guitar, Gerry Putnam on lead guitar, Dinty Child on electric rhythm guitar and keyboards, Dana Flewelling on drums and Dave Doran on bass.

Click began playing guitar at boarding school, influenced by other guitar playing students, one in particular being Gram Parsons. Click persuaded his grandmother to finance a bottom-of-the-line Gibson guitar (a combination birthday and Christmas gift). "I had been spending all my spare time practicing on a friends guitar, but soon found I had to have my own."

He began playing folk songs, but after hearing Gram and writers like Bob Dylan, he decided to try his hand at writing songs. "It was the perfect blending of poems and music that intrigued me. I've always loved lyrics that tell a story."

Tommy Crawford

“My music weaves americana and roots of all kinds - traditional folk, neo-folk, rock n roll, blues, country, jazz, bluegrass, and more. I hope my tunes, from the silly to the gut-punching, surprise you and move you. As a composer I write music for plays, musicals, and more. I'm very interested in experimental musicals that push the boundaries of form and blend concert performance and theatrical storytelling.”

"Composer Tommy Crawford supplies arresting music, as moody and unpredictable as the story." (Heisenberg at Northern Stage) — Seven Days VT

Nate Goyette

Nate Goyette's wistful, folk-tinged indie-rock turns even the most banal experiences into poignant vignettes of modern American life. Through his earnest yet restrained delivery, Nate's wry storytelling dissects these common occurrences without ever devolving into complete ironic detachment. Instead, he invites listeners into his world- the creeping dread of high school reunions, the nauseous optimism of a night out, the shifting emotions attached to family photos and home movies- and encourages them to find the bigger truths in even the littlest things.

Nate has performed around the northeast and has shared the stage with a diverse range of artists including Peter Lehndorff, Belle-Skinner, Ian Galipeau, and Perch Hapland. He is one of two multi-instrumentalists in Dylan Patrick Ward’s backing band and plays drums in Emma’s Secrets.

White Mountain Ceili Band

White Mountain Ceilí Band is Dexter Harding on the tenor banjo, Fiona Howell on the flute, Siena Kaplan-Thompson on the fiddle, and Mike Levine on the guitar and occasional concertina. They play Irish, Scottish and Cape Breton instrumental music with warmth and joy, as well as the occasional song.

Dexter first came to Irish music when he played for contra dances around the valley, and the session at May Kelly’s deepened his focus on the Irish tradition.

Fiona grew up playing flute through Mountain Top Music Center, and went on to study music at Loyola University. While in New Orleans she began playing at Irish sessions, and now plays and sings with a few groups around New England.

Siena grew up playing classical violin and viola and switched to fiddle in college when she discovered the Boston Scottish and Cape Breton music scene.

Mike has played a wide range of musical styles, from classical to rock, and more recently bebop. He and Siena have both enjoyed branching out into Irish music with the White Mountain Ceilí Band.

E J Tretter

E J Tretter, a volunteer with the Sunapee Coffeehouse team for six or seven years, is also a gifted singer, songwriter and guitarist.

He has been playing the guitar for fifty years, has played numerous styles in different bands, and has performed as a solo artist.

He has crafted many original songs, displaying a somewhat unique perspective on the individual's journey through life's challenges and rewards.

As a finger picking guitarist he's also written instrumental pieces in the style of John Fahey and Leo Kottke.

As someone who learned to play guitar in the 1960's and 1970's, there's lots of nostalgia in his playlist of cover songs.

Halley Neal Group

Halley Neal is an award winning folk singer and songwriter whose live shows center on themes of positivity and peace. The formerly-Nashville-currently-Boston-based artist is often joined by her backing band of upright bass and fiddle. Halley’s lyrical folk-Americana songs are met with her soaring vocals and an upbeat bluegrass inspired instrumentation. Halley has gained national recognition from touring across the country to listening rooms and folk music venues and from her performances at festivals, notably the Kerrville Folk Fest, Rocky Mountain Folks Fest and the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. Halley released her most recent solo record “Beautiful and Blue” to critical acclaim on September 30th, 2022. Her live shows are remembered for her effortless vocals and honest lyrics.

The Co-Conspirators

The Co-Conspirators is a Hemmingford, QC based duo playing folk/singer-songwriter music with elements of country, rock, blues, gospel, bluegrass, spiritual, and general roots music. With heavy emphasis on vocal harmonies, this duo had been compared to The Weavers, Ian and Sylvia Tyson and Richard and Linda Thompson. They perform mostly original music along with some traditional and contemporary covers.

Founded in 2012 by singer/songwriter/guitarist Will Richards, The Co-Conspirators really took off when Richards met Katherine Simons and they began performing together. Simons comes from a very musical family and is a classically trained french horn player and percussionist. Her pure, angelic voice stands in contrast to the more raw style of Richards'.

"Whether about social injustice, tales of travel, or love lost or found, The Co-Conspirators' original songs always bring life and light to a room." — Alberni Valley News

"Training a modern-day lens on folk’s deeply rooted tradition of storytelling through songs that orbit around hardscrabble characters, troubled lives, social injustices, personal struggle, and more." — Find Your Sound

Kray Van Kirk

A fine finger-style guitarist with a precise baritone, Kray Van Kirk has a Ph.D. from the University of Alaska, but he set science aside to write songs, tell stories and summon heroes.

"We are driven by myth and the seasons of the heart," he says, "and the stories are all true. There is a dark cave inside each of us, and monsters of all kinds lurk there, all the more lethal for being hidden. The quest is to journey inside, render the monsters powerless, find whatever it is that burns at the core of your soul and bring it back into the light. In a world divided it is critical to write songs and tell stories that show absolutely everyone they get to be the hero. Nobody is left behind."

Thus his songs: Thunderbird resurrects the Phoenix in an empty desert diner in the American Southwest (yes, the Phoenix drives a Thunderbird), The Queen of Elfland plucks Thomas the Rhymer from the English-Scottish border in 1250 and drops him and the Queen into a subway car, The Library Song has Superman moonlighting among the stacks, Rosa and Hector ride through Sherwood Forest on canes and a wheelchair, and The Midnight Commander celebrates an insane old man leading the city of New York to take up arms (and underwear) against hatred.

Of this charming, Quixotic, and decidedly eclectic performer, the Borderline Folk Club in New York wrote “it is what every singer-songwriter should aspire to.