Stefan George Memorial Songwriting Competition

Carlos Angeles Olmeda – 1st Place Winner

Fryeberg, ME

Carlos Olmeda invites listeners on a vibrant journey across cultures, genres, and languages. An award-winning singer-songwriter (SDMA Adult Acoustic Alternative, H.A.T. Award, WMWV Songwriters Contest), Carlos brings a spirit of adventure and connection to every performance. With a deep love for the craft, his music moves fluidly through a multi-cultural landscape—blending styles, stories, and sounds that reflect both personal experience and shared human emotion.

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Tashi T – 2nd Place Winner

Durango, CO

Tashi Trueheart (it’s a family name, believe it) grew up in the mountains of Colorado. They are inspired by the intense landscapes that they have called home. Tashi’s music explores themes of loss, longing, and the mysteries of where time, movement, death and re-ecounters take us.

Although their musical background was more classical and jazz leaning, Tashi has since embraced writing songs within the folk/Americana traditions, inspired by the likes of Gillian Welch, Townes Van Zandt, Sarah Jarosz and Bonnie Raitt, to name a few.

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Lane Norberg – Third Place Winner

Portland, OR

Lane Norberg is a singer-songwriter from Portland, OR. Growing up in Montana, he took lessons learning to play piano and drums, but didn’t begin playing the guitar or singing until college. During these years, Norberg began to play and record cover songs, but soon he was writing and performing his own music and quickly began to gain fans in the area. After graduating from college in 2016, Norberg shifted his focus towards his music career, and got connected with Basecamp Recording Studio, a recording space located in beautiful Bozeman, MT, where Norberg recorded his first EP: “Under the Trees”.​

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Ben Reneer

Phoenix, AZ

Ben Reneer is a self-produced indie-folk singer/songwriter who loves almond butter very much. He grew up in Utah, and currently resides in Phoenix, AZ. His childhood influences include Peter Gabriel, Coldplay, and Pete Yorn. More recently he’s been drawn to the delicate songwriting of Donovan Woods and Gregory Alan Isakov. Ben’s mom forced him to take piano lessons as a kid – which Ben violently resisted. But her persistence paid off – he may have won some battles, but she won the war. Ben worked as an industrial designer after attending college, but now applies his technical and creative mindset to his songwriting and music production.

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Kam Bugger

O Fallon, IL

Kam recently released four independent acoustic singles — a collection of original songs that are professionally produced while staying true to her raw, rootsy essence. Recorded in St. Louis, these songs reflect the lifeline of themes she loves to write about, grounded in honesty, freedom, and real life experience.

She’s currently working with the legendary Jeff Huskins on a series of three new full-band songs, marking the next chapter of her sound. The first release, “Snake In The Grass,” was recorded in Dolby Atmos at BMG Studios in Nashville and is slated for release in early 2026.

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Lydia Shae

Cincinnati, OH

Lydia Shae is a Cincinnati singer-songwriter who’s spent over a decade writing and performing around the Midwest. With roots in bluegrass and pop, she focuses in on straight-forward songwriting and story telling about life and its events. Inspired by the songwriting of artists like Brandi Carlile, The Avett Brothers, and Taylor Swift, she strives to bring unfiltered emotion into her lyrics. With the addition of Josh Belcher (guitarist) and Zach Sabatelli (drums/percussion), the three blend their music styles and experience to create a fusion of folk-pop and indie sounds.

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Ryan David Orr

Lakeside, AZ

Ryan David Orr has been writing and performing original music across the US and abroad for over 25 years. John Popper, frontman for the band Blues Traveler, once referred to Orr’s music as “Tender, powerful songwriting.”

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Sarah Adams

Los Angeles, CA

Sarah Adams is a sapphic folk, Americana, and rock artist originally from South Carolina, now based in Los Angeles, California. Influenced by musicians such as Brandi Carlile, Eva Cassidy, and Sara Bareilles, Adams’ music cracks you right open. Winner of the 2024 Great American Song Contest (singer songwriter category), Sarah’s warmth and tenacity on stage will captivate you, and her lyrics will linger with you long after you see her perform. Sarah commands a stage whether she’s playing solo with her acoustic guitar, duo with her hand percussionist, or full band.

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Admiral Radio

Performing 8:30pm-9pm

Admiral Radio, the award-winning folk/Americana act from South Carolina, is the creative partnership of Coty Hoover and Becca Smith. Named after their old wooden radio, this husband-and-wife team blends heartfelt harmonies, storytelling, and raw sincerity. Having met while waiting tables in the Lowcountry, their sound is straightforward yet powerful—rooted in tight vocal interplay, finely picked acoustic instruments, and songs that explore the quiet hustle of ordinary life and the dogged optimism that drives it all. Recently signed by Too Fine Records out of Nashville, this national touring act hopes to leave listeners better than they found them.

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The Brothers Reed

Performing 6pm-6:30pm

With their comedic brotherly banter, impeccable harmonic expression, and widely varying influences, a Brothers Reed performance will have you reflecting on lost lives and lovers, laughing hysterically and leaving completely entertained. The bros will soothe your soul with songs that are familiar yet original. Whether they are finger picking their way through a lamentable ballad or bringing you around full-speed with a barn-burning bluegrass number, The Brothers Reed are masters of their craft.

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Stefan George

The Tucson Folk Festival songwriting competition began in the early 2000s by a passionate group of songwriters and performers. Today, the competition is in tribute to one of those founders, Stefan George.

Noted for his outstanding songwriting, Stefan George had a passion for music that drove him to excel in virtually every musical endeavor he set his sights upon. And there were many, even within the confines of our so-called folk music festival where he played with so many different ensembles and configurations including the String Trotters, Arm and Hammer, White-bread, Songtower, BK Special, Four Corners, the Ditchriders and, of course, under his own name and that of his beloved partner, Lavinia White.

While Stef was already making a name for himself throughout the late 1980s and ‘90s, and often playing in primetime slots at the festival, for 20 years he could still be seen backing his mother, Emilie, usually in the hot mid-afternoon sun, whose sets were part performance and part history lesson of Eastern European folk music and traditions that she grew up with and were so much a part of her life. While it would be both difficult and redundant to add to what has already been written about Stefan, it should be noted he and Emilie were as much a part of this festival as any one or two people could be.

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Brian Lopez

Singer and songwriter Brian Lopez has been influential in defining the desert noir sound of the American Southwest over the past two decades. The Tucson native, often compared to Elliott Smith and Nick Drake, bridges genres from indie and art rock to Americana, psychedelia, folk, cumbia, and chamber pop. Over his career Lopez has toured with indie bands Calexico and Giant Sand, pop legend KT Tunstall, and the French bossa nova band Nouvelle Vague. His recently released fourth solo album TIDAL exudes the famed desert romantic’s sweet magnetism and characteristic Southwestern pop psychedelic tendencies. A sweeping sense of majesty, which Lopez has called “the exotic beauty that’s exclusive to the Sonoran Desert—desolate, desperate, yet gorgeous,” is woven into the fabric of TIDAL. The result is a lush, dreamlike collection of songs and guitar-driven storytelling that will take you on a sonic journey to the heart of the American Southwest.

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Coty Hoover

Coty Hoover is a South Carolina singer-songwriter. He is one half of Admiral Radio, the award-winning folk/Americana duo he shares with Becca Smith. The group’s sound is rooted in heartfelt harmonies, plainspoken storytelling, and acoustic arrangements that feel both classic and intimate. Hoover grew up in Lake Wylie in upstate South Carolina, taught himself guitar in high school, and later studied Spanish at the College of Charleston before continuing on to graduate study at the University of South Carolina. As a songwriter and performer, he brings warmth, sincerity, and a quietly compelling presence to Admiral Radio’s music, helping shape a duo that has earned recognition for its emotional honesty and finely crafted songs.

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Eric Ramsey

Arizona Blues Hall Of Famer Eric Ramsey is the Winner of the International Blues Challenge as well as the Memphis Cigar Box Guitar Award for the outstanding guitarist in the Solo/Duo Category. He’s a three time Champion of the Phoenix Blues Society’s Blues Showdown, a two time Finalist at the Telluride Blues Challenge. He’s a Winner of the Stefan George Memorial Songwriting Contest sponsored by the Tucson Folk Festival, Winner of the Peoples’ Choice Award at the Wildflower Arts and Music Festival, a Finalist in the Al Johnson Songwriting Competition, and has been tapped for the prestigious Songwriter’s Showcase produced by Tempe Center for the Arts, filmed for PBS distribution. He’s been a 4x featured performer at the Dripping Springs (TX) Songwriter’s Festival, has garnered numerous accolades for his songwriting, and performs at concerts and festivals nationwide.

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Grace Rolland

Grace Rolland is a Mesa, Arizona–based singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist performing as Rising Sun Daughter, a project that blends expansive soundscapes with deeply introspective songwriting. Classically trained on cello and raised in a family of musicians, she developed her craft across piano, guitar, and voice, cultivating a distinctive ear for texture, tone, and poetic lyricism. Rolland first gained national recognition as a cellist and vocalist with the acclaimed folk-Americana band Run Boy Run, winners of the Telluride Bluegrass Band Competition and featured performers on A Prairie Home Companion. Her solo work as Rising Sun Daughter, including the debut EP I See Jane, explores themes of longing, identity, and connection through a rich sonic palette that bridges acoustic warmth and atmospheric depth. An evocative performer and thoughtful composer, Rolland brings a nuanced perspective to songwriting rooted in both tradition and exploration.

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Nancy McCallion

Nancy McCallion is a Tucson-based songwriter and vocalist best known for fronting the genre-blending folk-rock band The Mollys, whose Celtic, Norteño, and Americana influences earned international acclaim and a devoted following. Raised in a richly musical, cross-cultural environment, her songwriting reflects a distinctive blend of Irish trad, Southwest sounds, and roots rock storytelling. Since The Mollys disbanded, McCallion has continued to write, record, and perform as a solo artist, releasing multiple albums and forming The McCallion Band with her brother in 2022. Her work—featured in film, television, and global compilations—pairs sharp, intimate lyricism with a style often likened to Lucinda Williams and Tom Waits.

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