The 2024 Blue Ox Virtual Band Competition winning artist! You’ll be able to catch their performance on the Backwoods Stage on Saturday, June 29th (time tba)

*Thank you to all who entered. We had a very strong group of submissions from across the Upper Midwest and beyond. All entries will be considered as performing artists for the Blue Ox 2025 festival.

Emmy Woods (she/they) was born and raised on an old dirt road in rural North Dakota and currently resides in Saint Paul, Minnesota. With hints of country, folk, and blues, Emmy’s songs showcase her knack for storytelling, her strengths in musical artistry, and an impressive vocal range and ability. When asked to summarize her music in three words, Dr. Kyle Smith replied, “Queer Farm Vibes.”

While Emmy has been writing songs for over 20 years, her first collection of songs, tristia bella, as well as her albums The Manifold and Delirium were not released until 2020. Since then, she’s formed a band, Emmy Woods & The Red Pine Ramblers, and the group continues to gain momentum with their genre bending sound.

2024 Virtual Band Competition Artists:

(Listed in alphabetical order).

Competition voting closes Thursday, March 14th at 11:59 PM CDT

Casey Penn Band – Benton, Arkansas

Based in Central Arkansas, Casey Penn is an award-winning songwriter and a newer artist on the Mountain Fever Records label. Casey’s first three singles have enjoyed good airplay and have included “Chasing Rainbows,” which debuted at #18 on the Bluegrass Today weekly chart; “Little Lives;” and “We Go Together Like a Guitar and a Fiddle,” which recently spent seven months on the Bluegrass Unlimited Top 30 Chart.

Penn’s debut album, One Step Away, released in 2023 with a successful album-release celebration at The Station Inn in Nashville, Tenn. See clips from the show and more on YouTube (@caseypennmusic). Also, follow Casey Penn Music on Facebook and Instagram to learn more.

Emmy Woods & The Red Pine Ramblers – St. Paul, MN 

Emmy Woods (she/they) was born and raised on an old dirt road in rural North Dakota and currently resides in Saint Paul, Minnesota. With hints of country, folk, and blues, Emmy’s songs showcase her knack for storytelling, her strengths in musical artistry, and an impressive vocal range and ability. When asked to summarize her music in three words, Dr. Kyle Smith replied, “Queer Farm Vibes.”

While Emmy has been writing songs for over 20 years, her first collection of songs, tristia bella, as well as her albums The Manifold and Delirium were not released until 2020. Since then, she’s formed a band, Emmy Woods & The Red Pine Ramblers, and the group continues to gain momentum with their genre bending sound.

Hemma – Eau Claire, WI

Hemma is a nickname for Hannah Hebl who comes from a family of singers and has spent the last decade carving her own path as a troubadour in the country, folk and jazz scenes of the Upper Midwest. Sometimes with a full band, many times a soloist, she’s known to spellbind the audience with a stunning voice that paints a pastoral longing passed down from artists like Neil Young and Joni Mitchell. She is finding her voice as a balladeer with lyrical prayers disguised as songs that offer protection in reincarnation, sustained love over distance and the courage to recognize ancestral addiction as a shadow to befriend and a curse to break.

She has most recently opened for S. Carey, Barbaro, The Cactus Blossoms. Her debut full length album Abalone Sky will be released in November and was produced by Sean Carey in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

JANAKEY – Eau Claire, WI

Janakey cut his teeth as a folk artist in the Midwest DIY circuit, honing his blue-collar heartbreakers in basements and bars across the frozen tundra and beyond. Then a landmark 2023 link with the Eau Claire noise rock band Gash unearthed a joyful and unholy country rock sound, thereafter simply called Janakey. Eclectic but tried-and-true, Janakey’s fuzzed out honky tonk recalls the classics with a dose of rock realness, easy to love, hard to miss, and impossible to forget.

Lou Carver & The Wet Stetsons – Eau Claire, WI

The Wet Stetsons are a group of country-bluegrass and odd folk rooted musicians. Lou has been involved in the music scene of Eau Claire for over 5 years but has recently formed a tight group of musicians to become the Wet Stetsons. Mostly playing original tunes, the Stetsons sure can get the crowd grooving with their tunes and old fashioned renditions of some of the best bluegrass, country and folk/blues artists of the past century. The lead guitar picking wizardry of Andrew Simser mixed with the rockabilly, Hank 3 upright bass playing of Jayson Minor and the rickety tack-tack of Jeff Johnson’s washboard, make this band a train hoppin, boot stompin, hot doggin of a good time!

North Fork Crossing  – Bozeman, MT

Founded in early 2021, North Fork Crossing has quickly made their presence known all around Montana. Most notably in the beautiful Gallatin Valley where they live. Their genre resides somewhere in a strange untapped musical realm between Traditional Bluegrass, Psychedelic Rock, Americana, and Folk. The quintet – Cade Slayden (guitar), Ryan Kelly (mandolin), Rabi Phelan (upright bass), Silas Rea (fiddle), and Matt Hickey (banjo) are drawn to having Bluegrass reach a new younger generation of people, priding themselves on their unique sound being the “evolution of string band music”.

Rianna Marie – Lancaster, WI

Rianna Marie is a folk artist originally from rural Wisconsin, now splitting her time in the music city Nashville, TN. Her writing focuses on introspection and knowledge of oneself. Heavily influenced by nature and the world around us, her music is sure to stir a longing for freedom and adventure. “I hope my music can bring people together by shining light on the small moments and feelings we all share”. Some career highlights so far include opening for Danielle Bradberry & Jameson Rodgers, her debut EP “Nascar”, and writing “Man’s Best Friend” released by Savannah Burrows, now streaming on CMT.

Ross Thorn – Duluth, MN

With a pastoral upbringing in northern Wisconsin, Ross Thorn’s music emanates as a warm and soulful hymn, waking up optimistically beside a snow-covered window. His sharply crafted lyrics—distinctly reminiscent to the likes of Jason Isbell—reveal internal struggles of empathy, questions of human character

Sandhill Strangers – Madison, WI

The Sandhill Strangers are a Madison-area String Band aimed at marrying the time-honored aesthetics of traditional acoustic music with an open-minded, contemporary approach. The quintet draws primarily from the language of bluegrass, while also incorporating elements of folk, old-time, Irish, jazz, country, and rock for a rich musical vocabulary.

Consisting of Greg Beaudoin (Banjo), Marin Danz (Fiddle, Guitar), Clay Knoll (Bass), Alex Weldy (Guitar), and Jesse Yang (Mandolin), the Strangers call upon their well of talent, voices, and perspectives to round out their original repertoire.

Stone & Snow – Cincinnati, Ohio

Named “Best Folk/Soul Artist” at the 2022 Richmond International Film + Music Festival, Stone & Snow is a Cincinnati-based Americana pairing of songwriters and multi-instrumentalists, Karen Bridges and Clint Thomson. In 2012, they began a collaboration filled with close harmonies and thoughtful lyrics. They gave it a name that gives a nod to the mountain landscapes of the West– Stone & Snow. They have recorded and produced five studio albums to date.

Karen and Clint are passionate about elevating women in music. Through hosting performances for women artists, their work collecting data on the gender balance in their local scene, and Karen’s involvement in the “Girls Rock!” franchise, Stone & Snow is invested in seeing more women grow and thrive in the music industry.

The Bottom of the Barrel – Oklahoma City, OK

Birthed in the heart of Oklahoma, The Bottom of the Barrel continues to charm countless crowds with their unique blend of bluegrass and rock music. Driving acoustic instrumentals and powerhouse four-part harmonies foster the Indie Rockgrass band’s signature sound as they enthrall audiences with a repertoire of songs that span the vast emotional spectrum of the hard-working class of America, painting pictures of everyday life with tales of heartbreak, drinking, and the pleasure of surviving both (despite their best efforts). The pulsating exuberance of their live shows, along with the spirited nature of their music, have rightfully placed them in the local spotlight as they’ve been featured on several local news programs and podcasts. Their latest album, Sober, was released in 2023 and is available on all major streaming platforms.
As always, bottoms up!

Violet Wilder – Kenosha, WI 

Somewhere around 2013, three best friends (Kimberly, Melissa, & Jayna) and a few other friends formed a 7-member indie folk group called The Oscillators. The initial band had a 7-year run but ultimately disbanded due to conflict. A tumultuous split, the three core girls reconvened to figure out the direction in which to continue. They dug deep to re-define how they wanted to sound and write moving forward, and thus Violet Wilder was born in 2020. The name Violet Wilder nods to the girls’ roots, with the violet as Wisconsin’s state flower and ”wilder” partly referencing Laura Ingles Wilder, a distant relative of Melissa & who was also born in WI.