Cary Hudson is a singer-songwriter, former Oxford resident and front man for Blue Mountain, who has released six solo albums including his latest, Town and Country (Daddy Rabbit Records) He was chosen as one of the Top Ten Alternative Country Guitar Players by Gibson magazine and continues to tour and write songs in a career spanning 30 years. Hudson lives in New Orleans and hopes to someday, “whistle like Professor Longhair.”

Hope Clayburn’s funky saxophone, flute chops, and soulful vocals have heralded her arrival on the Memphis music scene. Her band, Soul Scrimmage, mixes soul and funk with Afrobeat and reggae. The band has released a 6-song EP called, ‘Love is on The Way.’ The Soul Scrimmage ensemble has had a revolving cast of players over the years but the current line-up includes guitarist Robert Allen Parker Jr., bassist Khari Wynn, trumpet player Victor Darnell Sawyer and drummer Paul Taylor.

Dennis Covington is author of two novels and four nonfiction books, including Salvation on Sand Mountain, a finalist for the 1995 National Book Award. His articles have appeared in The New York Times, Vogue, Esquire, Georgia Review, Oxford American, and other periodicals, and his work has been widely anthologized in the US and translated into eight languages abroad. His most recent book is Revelation: A Search for Faith in a Violent Religious World. Born in Birmingham, Ala. Covington has taught creative writing at Texas Tech University since 2003.