Gerry Hundt
Gerry Hundt is a respected veteran of Chicago’s blues scene, performing regularly at Kingston Mines, Buddy Guy’s Legends, regional roadhouses, and overseas. Album credits include Delmark, Blind Pig, and Blue Bella Records, garnering headline appearances at Chicago Blues Festival and Montreal Jazz Festival. In addition to original music crafted with an eye to tradition and taste, his repertoire spans the gamut of American music, from Son House and John Hurt to Tom Waits and John Prine. When not fronting his trio, he often performs as a one-man-band of varying scale, balancing foot-percussion grooves and nimble guitar while deft harmonica soars and chugs along.
Impulsive Hearts
Chicago's "sad-surf" indie-rock band Impulsive Hearts shared their third album Fit 4 The Apocalypse last year via legendary indie-rock label Cavity Search Records (Elliott Smith, Helio Sequence), with a remaster of their debut album Sorry In The Summer expected to be released in Spring 2025.
Echoing the likes of Best Coast and Dum Dum Girls, band leader Danielle Sines says her all-women band adds a "hint of indelible Midwestern sadness" to the garage pop sound it has dialed in over the course of a decade. Of the group’s latest music video, Atwood Magazine wrote “Impulsive Hearts’ Fit 4 the Apocalypse is the Chicago indie rock band's boldest, warmest, and most ambitious offering to date.”
Sines leads the group with brooding, captivating vocals, fuzzy guitars and fierce, catchy-as-hell songwriting. The band creates larger than life, Spector-esque sounds, with Max Cohen on bass, Rachael Farinella on drums, and Adele Nicholas shredding guitar.
As a staple in the Chicago music scene for the past decade, Impulsive Hearts has received plenty of local acclaim across their body of work, including nominations as "Best Rock Band" in both the 2024 and 2023 Chicago Reader polls.
“Danielle's songs are studies in contrast, sweet melodies and then distortion and rage.”
– Jessica Hopper, Chicago Tribune
“After a few dozen listens to opening jam I Wannabe Gone, this wolf is sure Impulsive Hearts always have sand between their toes. Their echoey, languid jams have a touch of Beach House—that is, if Beach House were produced by Phil Spector.”
– Gossip Wolf, Chicago Reader
Chris Walz
Chris’s passion in discovering the music he now plays came from listening as a boy to the radio - including the “Bluegrass Ramble” on WCNY in upstate New York. Radio being the window into a new musical landscape broadened the young Chris Walz’s desires, passions, and indeed aptitudes, resulting in him becoming the respected and multi-dimensional artist he is today.
During his youth, excited by hearing various programs from bluegrass to blues, it was one particular night that ignited Chris to figure out how to play fingerstyle on the guitar: he heard an entire show of Mississippi John Hurt music, and this was the genesis of Chris’s style he plays on this album. You’ll also hear strains of his favorite artists, along with his other influences including Blind Willie McTell, Stefan Grossman, and John Renbourn. Chris’s resonant vocals, his intuitive prowess on the guitar as his sole accompaniment, and a selection of songs that Chris puts his own unique stamp on, culminates in how these artists have helped shape Chris while honoring them all.
Lisa DeRosia
Lisa DeRosia has been playing and singing in Chicago since her time with The Corn Kings, Eden Deluxe, and Lush Budgett. She performs a mix of country, folk, rock, and jazz standards, along with original songs at venues throughout the city. One reviewer praised Lisa’s notable work with her band Lush Budgett, saying it has “as much passion and authenticity as Dolly Parton or Loretta Lynn. A winning combination of heart-melting vocals, engaging songwriting, and brilliant playing.”
Sponsored by: Horner Park Advisory Council and Ravenswood Manor Improvement Association