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"The first 20 years is just to see if you like it or not," Jerry Lopez, an iconic surfer, joked about the sport and lifestyle of surfing.   Joe Kaplow has always admired and glorified that type of Jedi-like dedication.  After 20 years, Kaplow is pretty sure he likes making music.

Up until now it was easy for California based songwriter Joe Kaplow to be pushed along. At eight he was getting screamed at by Uncle Jim for playing out of time. A few years later found him passing almost every single after school evening getting stoned and jamming with his band in Bondar's basement. Years later again he was studying music at college and having to sink or swim in the sea of talent crowding Boston streets and finally, for the past 5 years, plugging his amp into the outlet of American music heritage, driving around and playing shows in bars, clubs, and coffee shops while figuring out along the way that CDs are lame and that booking pitches should be concise.  It was almost like there wasn't time to stop and think.    

Recently, it seems like all he does is think.  When all the momentum, all the plans, all the validation, all the adventure, and all the money just stop; when the pushing stops, one may find themselves asking, "Why am I doing this?"  An underdog without an over-dog is just a dog.  

Kaplow describes music as his "currency for life. We all have something, or a few things that we do, we work at, we commit to and that's how we pay for our time here.  It's like life is a Ferris wheel at the county fair.  You can't just ride all night.  Every 4 times around you have to stop at the bottom and pay for another half hour or whatever."  

When faced with the question, "Why am I doing this?" Kaplow answered, "because this is how I feel best paying for my time."

The title of his second full length album, Sending Money and Stems, is not just a reference to life currency, but also a description of how the album came to be.  "Normally I would have flown up to Portland and sat in the room with Mike (Coykendall) as he mixed, but because of covid I had to email him stems (raw audio files) and we would go back and forth a few times until we got it right.  When one song was done, I'd text him and be like 'Ok man, next song coming up; sending money and stems!'"

The new album fills in the holes of Time Spent In Between.  It's more band oriented, more groove based, more uptempo, more hifi, and more happy go lucky than his previous work.  "Yeah, Time Spent In Between was a heavy record..."

There's always new challenges for a working musician.  For Joe and almost everyone else, the new challenge is promoting an album release without touring.  Thank God for the internet? But Joe Kaplow will figure it out, just like he figured out figure-8 mic placement or how to use index pages on Squarespace.  He'll keep figuring things out because that's how you keep going. He's pretty sure he likes making music.  He wants to ride the Ferris wheel all night.

After logging thousands of miles hitch-hiking and countless hours busking curbside in cities around the country, Jordan Smart had gained quite a bit of life experience to share with his listeners. Slowly working his way into the hearts of smoky old dive bars and tucked-away mountain music festivals, it came as no surprise to those who had come to know and love his music and message when Jordan joined the ranks of folk singers before him and landed multiple slots opening for Senator Bernie Sanders on his presidential campaign trail. Anyone with a little musical ability can call themselves a singer-songwriter, but Smart is a Troubadour, tried and true, and he earned his chops in the streets of America. 

The folk singer-songwriter was born in Cleveland, and raised in the rolling hills of rural North East Ohio. Smart’s songs evoke rich and timeless imagery not unlike the landscape he grew up in or the many he has visited in his travels. He has mastered the art of lyrically conveying both simple and complex human emotion, often with a good dole of wit. With a sound that is raw yet accessible Smart has made friends and fans throughout the country, and his reach is beginning to extend around the globe. He is currently booking in support of his first full-length album entitled “Heart of It All” released fall of 2017.