Taylor Swift is a famous American singer and songwriter spanning across multiple genres. She started her career at just 14 years old and has been successful since the start. Having sold over 200 million records worldwide, Swift is one of the best-selling musicians of all time. Some of her accolades comprise of 11 Grammy Awards (including 3 album of the year wins), an Emmy Award, 34 American Music Awards (the most for an artist ever), and 55 Guinness World Records. She has also scored 8 Billboard Hot 100 number-one songs, including "All Too Well (10 Minute Version)" - the longest ever to top the chart. Souldier is proud to have Taylor Swift wearing our own signature "Dresden Star - Cinnamon" guitar strap in her "All Too Well (10 minute version)" that she performed live on Saturday Night Live.
Chris Stapleton is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. As of 2018, Stapleton has amassed credits writing and co-writing over 170 songs. As a vocalist, Stapleton sang lead in 2 bands before he started recording as a solo artist (The SteelDrivers, and The Jompson Brothers). His solo debut, the critically acclaimed studio album titled "Traveller" (2015), reached number one on the US Billboard 200 and was certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). His second studio album "From A Room: Volume 1" was released in May 2017, and earned him a second CMA Award for Album of the Year and also a Grammy Award for Best Country Album.
Eric Johnson is an American guitarist, vocalist, composer, and multi-instrumentalist. His 1990 album "Ah Via Musicom" was certified platinum by the RIAA, and the single "Cliffs of Dover" won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance. Johnson is best known for his electric guitar skills, but he is also a highly proficient acoustic, lap steel, resonator, and bass guitarist, as well as an accomplished pianist and vocalist. He plays many musical genres, including rock, blues, jazz fusion, soul, folk, new-age, classical, and country. Guitar Player magazine has called Johnson "one of the most respected guitarists on the planet."
Panic! at the Disco is an American rock duo, formed in Las Vegas, Nevada in 2004. Since its conception, the band's line-up has included Brendon Urie (lead vocals, guitar, piano), and Spencer Smith (drums). The band has been described by critics as a variety of genres, most commonly pop punk, alternative rock, and baroque pop.
Johnny Marr is an English musician, songwriter, and singer. He first achieved fame as the guitarist and co-songwriter of The Smiths, who were active from 1982 to 1987. Marr formed his first band at the age of 13. He was part of several bands with Andy Rourke before forming The Smiths with Morrissey. Since then, Marr has been a member of The Pretenders, The The, Electronic, Modest Mouse, and The Cribs. He has become a prolific session musician, working with names such as Talking Heads and Hans Zimmer. Marr released his first solo album, The Messenger, in 2013, followed by two more albums, Playland, and Call the Comet. Marr's autobiography, Set the Boy Free, was published in 2016. Marr was voted the fourth best guitarist of the last 30 years in a poll conducted by the BBC in 2010. He has been described as "arguably Britain's last great guitar stylist."
Tom Petty was an American singer, songwriter, musician, record producer, and actor. Petty was the lead vocalist and guitarist of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, which was formed in 1976. He also played the lead role in other bands, as well as being a solo artist. Petty had many hit records. Some hit singles include: "Dont Do Me Like That," "Refugee," "The Waiting," "Dont Come Around Here No More," and "Learning to Fly." Solo or with the Heartbreakers, Petty had hit albums from the 1970s through the 2010s and sold more than 80 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling muic artists of all time. Petty died on October 2, 2017 at the age of 66, one week after the end of the Heartbreakers 40th Anniversary Tour.
The Lumineers are an American folk rock band based in Denver, Colorado. The founding members are Wesley Schultz (lead vocals, guitar) and Jeremiah Fraites (drums). The Lumineers emerged as one of the most popular folk-rock/Americana artists during the revival of those genres, their popularity growing in the 2010s. The band's sound draw heavily from artists such as Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, and Tom Petty. The Lumineers are known for their energetic live shows and several international hit singles such as, "Ho Hey," "Stubborn Love," "Ophelia," "Angela," and "Cleopatra." The band has since become one of the top touring bands in the US and is also just as popular in other countries.
George "Buddy" Guy is an American blues guitarist and singer. He is an exponent of Chicago Blue, who has influenced generations of guitarists including Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Keith Richards, and many more. In the 1960s, Guy played with Muddy Waters as a session guitarist at Chess Records and began a musical partnership with blues harp virtuoso Junior Wells. Guy has since won eight Grammy Awarads, a Lifetime Achievement Award, a National Medal of Arts Award, and a Kennedy Center Honors award. He was also ranked 23rd in Rolling Stones magazine's "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time." Clapton himself once described Guy as "the best guitar player alive."
The Dave Matthews Band is composed of Matthews, Stefan Lessard, Leroi Moore, Boyd Tinsley, and also Carter Beauford. The group is most commonly known for the unmistakable sound that is a more pop-oriented incarnation of the Grateful Dead crossed with the world beat explorations of Paul Simon and Sting. Dave Matthews developed a strong word-of-mouth following in the early nineties by touring the country constantly, concentrating on college campuses.In addition to amassing a considerable following, their self-released recording, "Remember Two Things", sold well for an independent release, and then shortly thereafter, they were drawing the attention of major labels. Quickly after the debut of their independent recording, The Dave Matthews Band signed with RCA then released their major-label debut, "Under the Table & Dreaming", in the fall of 1994. By spring of 1995, the album had launched the hit single "What Would You Say" and sold over a million copies.
Adele is not one for being pigeonholed. She has broken through the music industry at a relatively young age, particularly owing it to her distinctive voice. She was born Adele Laurie Blue Adkins on May 5, 1988 in Enfield, North London. She came from a non-musical family but a very supportive one. Adele said that her mother used to set up a stage show for her in their own home with Adele being the performer and her mother's friends being the audience.
The War on Drugs is an American rock band from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, formed in 2005. The band consists of Adam Granduciel (vocals, guitar), David Hartley (bass guitar), Robbie Bennett (keyboards), Charlie Hall (drums), Jon Natchez (saxophone, keyboards), Anthony LaMarca (guitar), and Eliza Hardy Jones (keyboard). Founded by close collaborators Adam Granduciel and Kurt Vile, The War on Drugs released their debut solo album "Wagonwheel Blues" in 2008. Vile departed shortly after its release to focus on his solo career. The band's second studio album "Slave Ambient" was released in 2011 to favorable reviews and a lengthy tour.
The two-man duo comprising the Black Keys, singer/guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney, were in their early twenties when their debut, The Big Come Up, was issued in 2002. From Akron, OH, they play close-to-the-bone, raw blues-rock, the only instrumentation being Auerbach's guitar, Carney's drums, and the occasional organ. Auerbach had a fine, mature, lived-in blues voice for one so young, and the group's material worked in funk, soul, and rock influences from the likes of Jimi Hendrix and James Brown that avoided undue repetition of the overdone chord progressions and stock riffs common to so many such acts.
Portugal. The Man is an experimental indie rock four-piece centered on frontman John Baldwin Gourley’s abstract musical approach and corresponding upbringing. He was raised in a sort of technological isolation: his log cabin home in the winter wasteland of the fringes of Wasilla, Alaska was powered by a generator and had no telephone. Both of his parents helped completely immerse him in the unique lifestyle that comes with a land of seasonal darkness and perpetual cold with their jobs as dog sled mushers. Gourley’s innate curiosity and individual spirit combined with a fascination with science fiction and experiences of homelessness create a distinctly transcendent sound that is always open to interpretation and change.
Aerosmith was one of the most popular hard rock bands of the '70s, setting the style and sound of hard rock and heavy metal for the next two decades with their raunchy, bluesy swagger. The Boston-based quintet found the middle ground between the menace of the Rolling Stones and the campy, sleazy flamboyance of the New York Dolls, developing a lean, dirty riff-oriented boogie that was loose and swinging and as hard as a diamond.
Wilco leapt from the grave of Uncle Tupelo, the Illinois roots outfit that almost single-handedly wrote the New Testament of alt-country. Like his former Uncle Tupelo partner Jay Farrar, Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy was smitten with Gram Parsons, Doug Sahm, Roger McGuinn, and other icons of hippie twang. But unlike Farrar, Tweedy had a yen to broaden his music's stylistic reach, and with Wilco, he's incorporated everything from Beach Boys harmonies to kraut rock rhythms to postpunk distortion flares.
MGMT is an American psychedelic rock band based in Brooklyn, New York, founded by Benjamin Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden. After the release of their first album, the members of their live band, Matthew Asti, James Richardson, and Will Berman joined the core band in the studio. Formed at Wesleyan University and originally with Cantora Records, they signed with Columbia Records and Red Ink in 2006.
Jason Mraz is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. He rose to prominence with the release of his debut album "Waiting for My Rocket to Come" (2002), which spawned the single "The Remedy (I Won't Worry)," that reached the top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. After this, Mraz releases many more hit albums with Grammy Award winning songs such as "Make It Mine," "Lucky," "I'm Yours," and "I Won't Give Up." Mraz is also the recipient of 2 Teen Choice Awards, a People's Choice Award, and the Hal David Songwriters Hall of Fame Award. Mraz has sold over 7 million albums and doesn't plan on stopping any time soon.
Gark Clark Jr. is an american musician from Austin, Texas. He is best known for his fusion of blues, rock, and soul music with elements of hip hop. In 2011 Clark signed with Warner Bros Records and released The Bright Lights EP. It was followed by the ablums Blak and Blu (2012) and The Story of Sonny Boy Slim (2015). Throughout his career Clark has been a prolific live performer, which has been documented in two releases: Gary Clark Jr. Live (2014) and Gary Clark Jr. Live/North America (2017). He has shared the stage with big names such as Eric Clapton, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, B.B. King and The Rolling Stones. In 2014, Clark was awarded a Grammy Award for Best Traditional R&B performance for the song Please Come Home.
Life as a musician means continual evolution. Over the course of a career, any band worth paying attention to will pursue a sound, a direction, until it triggers a different idea and they’re chasing some other distant dream. With their sixth album, The King Is Dead, The Decemberists illustrate the power that comes from this kind of creative call-and-response.
Modest Mouse is an indie-rock band based around songwriter Isaac Brock's Pixies-influenced guitar and philosophical lyrics. After a string of critically-acclaimed singles, EPs, and LPs the band broke out with 2004 single "Float On" and LP Good News For People Who Love Bad News. Their name comes from a passage describing "modest, mouse-coloured people" in the Virginia Woolf story The Mark on the Wall.