JON BUTCHER is a guitar virtuoso whose band the Jon Butcher Axis enjoyed national success in the 1980s, touring with the J. Geils Band and INXS. A Grammy nominee and New England Music Hall of Famer, he released his first album in seven years, “Nuthin’ But Soul,” featuring his original song about racial profiling, “Arrested No Charge,” in July 2025.  

JESSE AHERN is a folk-punk songwriter with a deep commitment to social justice. He has opened for X, the Dropkick Murphys, the Violent Femmes, and more. His latest album, “Mercy,” features the hopeful protest anthem “Someday”: “What if I told you things will change/Not today, but someday?” He recently released the single “The Great Gaslighter.”

JEN TRYNIN is a singer-songwriter who wrote the memoir “Everything I’m Cracked Up to Be” (2006) about her experiences in the music world of the 1990s. In 2018 she participated in Band of their own, an all-female Boston supergroup with Kay Hhanley, Tanya Donelly and others, at the Hot Stove Cool Music fundraiser. Her debut album, “Cockamamie” (1994), featured the original song “Happier,” a frank exploration of prejudice.

TOM JORDAN is a career high school history teacher who sings acoustic covers of classic folk revival-era songs. His reworked version of Tom Paxton’s “What Did You Learn in School Today?” is a satirical takedown of the Trump era and its assault on education.

JOE GITTLEMAN is a co-founder of the long-running ska-punk band the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. He recently formed his new band, the Kilograms, with songwriter Sammy Kay. The as-yet unrecorded original “Psycho Love Affair” is a solo song inspired by the current political climate’s cult of personality: “Oh say, can’t you see?/There ain’t no magic there.”  

ROBIN LANE began her music career around the Laurel Canyon scene in Los Angeles in the 1970s before moving to Cambridge and forming her new wave band, the Chartbusters. They released three albums with Warner Bros. in the 1980s, scoring an enduring hit with “When Things Go Wrong.” ADAM SHERMAN, who co-wrote the resistance song “Show and Awe” with Lane, was the voice of the band Private Lightning in the 1980s and later served as a member of the Nervous Eaters.