Rachel Baiman/Cristina Vane

“When I was a kid, my dad was in this tiny fringe political group called the Democratic Socialists of America” explains songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Rachel Baiman.

“That was considered extreme, something I didn’t tell my friends about. Now my generation has had to wake up to the intensity of our own economic oppression. We sit around talking about how anyone affords to buy a house, and how we can get rich people to pay for our albums”, she laughs.

Baiman finds hope in this shared experience as a mechanism for activism. On Common Nation of Sorrow, Baiman’s third LP, she tells stories of American capitalism, and the individual and communal devastation it manifests. “The reality is that the vastmajority of us are being taken advantage of by the same brutal economic and political systems. Maybe that shared oppression is a place in which we can meet and fightback”, she explains.

While she has had no trouble with lyrical honesty in the past, Baiman’s previous records,“Shame,” and “Cycles,” have been experiments in musical growth and change. On “Common Nation of Sorrow”, she has found a production style to match her straightforward writing. Baiman displays a certain self-awareness and comfort with the inability to be all things, while simultaneously pushing to new heights with her message, and delivering a heartbreaking, albeit beautiful, assessment of her country.

Cristina Vane is an Americana artist out of Nashville. Her signature bottleneck slide guitar playing, travis picking, and clawhammer banjo are tied together by her silky, powerful voice and her vivid songwriting. Born in Europe to a Guatemalan mother and Sicilian-American father, Vane’s musical perspective is decidedly unique and authentic. Her debut release, “Nowhere Sounds Lovely” was produced by Grammy-award winning drummer and producer, Cactus Moser (Wynonna Judd). Vane’s latest album, “Make Myself Me Again” was released April 2022,  and was co-produced by Brook Sutton, Jano Rix (of the Wood Brothers) and Cristina herself, and and charted the AMA as well as a few Alternative Country charts. Cristina has an extensive touring history and has provided direct support for: Bob Weir, Wynonna Judd, Molly Tuttle, Nikki Lane, Jerry Douglas,Cass McCombs, Town Mountain, Duane Betts and Willi Carlisle. Vane sold out her 2021 Station Inn debut and was featured in the Bank of America ad for Ken Burns’  “Country Music” documentary. She was an invited guest for Billy Strings’ String the Halls 3, has appeared on Travis Book’s Happy Hour and The Woodsongs Old-Time Radio Hour .