Ana Vinagre is one of the area’s best known, and most respected Fadistas. Born in Portugal, she immigrated to New Bedford as a young woman with her husband Jose. Both had been members of folkloric dance and music ensembles and they have continued to perform at area Portuguese restaurants, community events, and in festivals and concerts around the nation. They take great pride in their culture and enjoy teaching American audiences about the tradition of Fado music, a genre that developed in the port city of Lisbon and was performed at waterfront clubs and bars frequented by sailors and seamen.

For the past 25 years Jon Campbell has been writing and performing music based on the wide range of experience available to those people living in coastal regions, the tourists, the cuisine, the fisheries, cranky Yankees and an assortment of humorous and poignant characters. Jon has been a recognized Rhode Island State Council on the Arts Folk Artist since 1982, and he has been involved in a large number of recording projects both as performer and producer. He is presently retired from a 25 year career in the motion picture industry, and yes, he did work on The Perfect Storm, in addition to many more major releases.

“Old Zeb,” “Song for Gale,” “Song for The Bowdoin,” “John,” “Get Her Into Shore,” “Selling The Isabel”–just a few examples of the extensive song bag of some of the best contemporary ballads from New England and along its shores you will find in modern folk music today. Larry Kaplan songs have been performed and recorded by many respected artists and audiences around the world–poignant stories in song, written in the truest folk tradition, honest, highly singable… always memorable.

New Bedford Sea Chantey Chorus–Hosted and organized by the Schooner Ernestina, this 43-member chorus was created in 2001, and is made up of some of the Ernestina’s most vocal volunteers. The repertoire includes a variety of chanteys and songs that reflect the rich maritime heritage of New Bedford and the region. Sea Chanteys were traditionally sung as work songs on board sailing ships both as a way to pass the time and as a means of helping establish a rhythm for various types of work aboard the ship. As a sampler of musical traditions connected to New Bedford Harbor and the New England seafarer, their performances feature the chanteys of the Yankee sailor, along with the ballads and ditties of global mariners and coastwise fisher folk in North America, the Cape Verde Islands, and the British Isles.

Tom Goux- For over four decades, Tom Goux has been collecting and performing chanteys, ballads, and ditties of the New England seafarer.  A resident of Cape Cod, he has made a specialty of the songs and poetry of the Yankee mariner, bringing to life the salty sentiments of deep-water mariners, intrepid whalermen and coastal fisherfolk.  Accompanied by concertina, guitar, Hawaiian guitar and ukulele, his selections span three centuries of music and verse commemorating the American maritime epoch.

In addition to his solo performances, he is leader of the Rum Soaked Crooks, well known to festival audiences throughout the region, and is the founding director of the 35-voice New Bedford Harbor Sea Chantey Chorus, now in its 17th season.

Charlotte Enoksen’s father emigrated from Norway’s Loften Islands and pursued the work of generations before him, owning two fishing vessels, F/V Porpoise and F/V Louise.  Once married to a fisherman, Enoksen’s poetry often reflects the lives of those left on shore.  Her work is both creative and cathartic, a “song without accompaniment.” Currently a social worker, Charlotte has also worked in journalism, advertising, public relations and fundraising.

Joanne Doherty– Born and raised on the Southcoast with the working waterfront in her blood, Joanne spent her childhood climbing on her father’s scallop boats and painting them for summer jobs. For the last fifteen years she’s been performing throughout New England spinning her magic on a wide variety of songs selected from an eclectic catalogue of folk, blues and old standards combining her deft & delicate stylings on guitar and ukulele with a rich smooth voice.