Roots Run Wild: Roots Run Wild strikes the perfect balance between sweetness and ferocity with their blend of unique instrumentation, robust styling, and powerful vocals, creating a distinct flavor seasoned by Americana, bluegrass, reggae, and folk while frequently sneaking into pop territory with their catchy melodies and hooks. Known for their vocal teamwork, songwriters KT Lee and Kelly Ann Fernandes use music to explore the challenges of finding your own way, healing from trauma, personal growth, relationships, and developing a rich inner life and sense of self, always expressing a love of music itself and its incredible restorative power. The band’s debut album Roots Run Wild was released in 2024.
Pumpkin Head Ted: Just over 30 years ago in a downtown New Bedford haunt named Kricket’s Club, a pick-up band consisting of Tom Short, John Neiman, and Mike Lavoie, played the 6-10 songs they all knew, all night long. From these humble beginnings, a New Bedford musical institution was born, soon to be called: Pumpkin Head Ted. Over the last 30 years, the band has gone through several permutations in both personnel and repertoire, but has now settled into a core group of members consisting of Tom, John, Jason Smith and Giulio Manfredonia. The band has played all over New England during this time. Though loosely fitting under the Americana genre, Pumpkin Head Ted feeds on a steady diet of blues, jazz, country, swing, Afro-Latin, rock and roll, show tunes, punk, alternative, and any other eclectic sounds that may catch their ear. Pumpkin Head Ted has released two CD’s, Swamp Yankee from 2000, and The New Bedford Knockabout, from 2010. The newest member, Eric Costa, from Pearly Baker band fame, has been adding his amazing keyboard skills to the PHT sound.
Maddie Cardoza: Maddie Cardoza (they/she) is a queer singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Providence, RI. Their music falls somewhere between dreampop and indie folk, and their songs are love letters to existence, nature, and the bonds of community. Along with their solo endeavors, they sing and play keys/sax/clarinet as a founding member of the band Field of Embers (Providence, RI), and they also play horns with Hooly J Chan and the Wicked Queer Puppet Theater (Westport, MA).
