Olivia Ellen Lloyd

• Americana
• Country

Olivia Ellen Lloyd will try anything once. From flight attendant school in Dallas to producing theater in New York and teaching in Guatemala, Lloyd sought adventure but struggled to find a greater sense of purpose – until she found her way back to music. Channeling that restless spirit, she writes songs that dig deep for hope in the face of hardship.

Her debut album, Loose Cannon, has been streamed over 1 million times while she has been crossing the country playing shows, winning songwriting contests (like Kerrville in 2023) and generally eating life down to the rind. She also works as an in-demand side woman, singing backing vocals for the likes of Lizzie No, Emily Scott Robinson, and Renee Rapp during her 2024 performance at the All Things Go Festival in Forest Hills, Queens.

Lloyd has spent the past three years doubling down on her efforts to build community within the Alt-Country and Americana scene while deepening her working partnership with Mike Robinson, an in-demand sideman known for touring and recording with the likes of Sarah Jarosz, Railroad Earth, Teddy Thompson, Iris Dement, Lindsay Lou, Bella White, Zach Bryan, Jobi Riccio and Ryan Beatty. Mike served as her producer and primary instrumentalist on this project.

Together they crafted an album that refuses to be placed in a narrow genre definition, focusing instead on building songs that paint a picture of liberation from oppressive patriarchal and paternalistic forces.

She is also a newly inaugurated member of the Resistance Revival Chorus, a collective of more than 60 women, and non-binary singers, who join together to breathe joy and song into the resistance, and to uplift and center women’s voices.

Sweet Petunia

• Alt Folk

As a child, Mairead Guy (they/them) was surrounded by Celtic and old time musicians, learning decades-old songs and spending Thursday afternoons watching their parents play music in Richmond’s local Irish pub. At a similar time, though hundreds of miles away, Maddy Simpson (she/her) was falling asleep to The Essential Simon & Garfunkel in her mom’s car, internalizing the duo’s close harmony vocals and dreaming of making music of her own.

The two met in Boston during college, when they quickly discovered their voices fit together in a way almost familial. After a few hours of sharing songs and old stories, Sweet Petunia was born. The name was a no brainer, taken from a nickname that Mairead’s great grandfather called all his grandchildren, and in no time at all Simpson and Guy were playing anywhere they could – opening for hardcore bands in Allston basements, taking to the stage of festivals such as FreshGrass (2019) and In Between Days (2023), and most recently touring as much as possible in Mairead’s Honda CRV.

The duo have grown into their own as both powerful songwriters and harmonizers as well as lightning quick players, beginning every set with explosive double banjo action. Unapologetically queer and unafraid to get loud and angry, they craft music that is informed just as much by their contemporaries in Boston’s punk & DIY scene as it is steeped in rich folk tradition.