AIDA ADE
Informed by her own work as a trauma-informed therapist, St. Louis native Aida Ade makes ethereal, inspirational songs that delve into mental health and self-connection. The release of The Unbreakable Aida Ade at the start of 2024 kicked off an unbelievable year for the singer-songwriter, filled with memorable sets at the St. Louis CITY SC Block Party, Music at the Intersection, SLAM Underground, and Webster Groves High School. A year later, Aida Ade has truly come into her own as a neo-soul queen of the St. Louis music community with an aesthetic approach that encourages others to explore their own gifts and talents. From the top of her first EP, 2017’s Soundwheel, to “Nothin’ But a Dream,” the final track on her most recent release, Aida Ade’s work is rich with reflection, self-discovery, and a distinct-yet-gentle approach to the acoustic guitar. She recently celebrated her 31st birthday with an open jam session at the Hi-Hat with the Dhoruba Collective—a party befitting a beloved figure in the St. Louis music community.
SIR EDDIE C
Although Sir Eddie C identifies as a rapper, his approach to rolling out new music incorporates performance art, alternative marketing, and community activism. In 2020, the St. Louis–based artist released “lil Black boy,” a single that snowballed into a fundraising effort of the same name in collaboration with the Village PATH. After blowing past the initial goal of $1,000 in less than 24 hours, the Lil Black Boy Campaign ultimately raised close to $16,000 to provide Black men with free therapy sessions. From using lowercase letters in his song titles to featuring the colors of the Belleville flag on each new release, Sir Eddie C takes an aesthetic approach that looks even better under a magnifying glass. His songs provide plenty of depth for those who like to dig a little deeper into the music, but for everyone else, the bold veneer of color choice is enough to lock down a very specific vibe. From dressing up as a pastel-clad midcentury ice cream man to promote his gelato EP in 2022 to acting out a mysterious, tongue-in-cheek disappearing act in the lead-up to 2024 release spaceship, it’s no wonder that Sir Eddie C continues to sell out area venues such as The Dark Room, Sophie’s, and Central Stage.
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NICK GUSMAN & THE COYOTES
Whether Nick Gusman is playing a solo gig at a bookstore or packing the Old Rock House with his full band in tow, the St. Louis native knows how to kick up dust and start a ruckus. A storyteller above all else, Gusman spends much of his time writing short stories, poetry, and songs while finding ways to blur the lines between all of his creative endeavors. Just as the Missouri River meets the Mississippi, Gusman’s work merges musical styles in a way that feels canon to the landscape of Americana. While his first album, Dear Hard Times, in 2018 featured more than 20 musicians from throughout the St. Louis region, Gusman hit pay dirt when he formed Nick Gusman & the Coyotes and released a self-titled record in 2021. Sure, coyotes have to be resilient and use their hunger as a driving force to survive, but these wild jackals are also known for howling and yipping late into the night. With Sean Kamery on fiddle, Justin Haltmar on bass, Tony Hall on keys, Garrett Rongey on lead guitar, and Jeremy Reidy on drums, Gusman assembled a genre-blending lineup of versatile musicians who create a raw and raucous aesthetic that nods to local forebears such as Wilco, the Bottle Rockets, and Uncle Tupelo. Recorded live at Native Sound after months of touring, 2024’s Lifting Heavy Things is proof positive of Gusman and company’s approach to hard and gritty grassroots music with a collection of vignettes, daydreams, and chance encounters in song form.
JANET EVRA
An internationally acclaimed British jazz chanteuse and double bassist lives among us in St. Louis, where she writes songs with her husband (guitarist Will Buchanan), continually plans her next recording projects, and performs on local stages when she isn’t playing overseas jazz festivals. The world-hopping, UK–born Janet Evra is a sensational creator and interpreter of an array of jazz styles who draws applause for her enchanting vocals and inspired bass playing, as heard on 2018’s Ask Her to Dance, a delightfully breezy set of vocal jazz featuring pianist Adam Maness; 2022’s Hello Indie Bossa, featuring classic samba beats mixed with modern backbeats and instrumental brocades played by fellow St. Louis jazz all-stars; and her latest, Meet Me in Paris, inspired by French jazz and new wave cinema, which transports Evra and her listeners by way of her sweet but sultry voice, subtly percussive arrangements, flitting instrumental passages, and romantic colors that evoke a flaneur promenading on Parisian streets.
STARWOLF
St. Louis synth-disco band Starwolf made a yacht-size splash last year with the release of their terrific new album, Tropical Disco, which is filled with intricately arranged funk-jazz odysseys and impressively polished yachternative instrumentals that sound like the dreamy, soft-dance grooves and smooth-jazz-fusion songs of yesteryear. Indeed, the trio of bassist/vocalist Chris Rhein, guitarist/keyboardist Max Sauer, and drummer Tim Moore draw their throwback sound from their passion for 1970s funk, disco, and jazz. It’s a recipe that has proven to be infectious: The band went viral last year when a clip of their groovadelic single “Get Down Tonight” reached more than 600,000 views on TikTok. With a meticulous approach to pristine, deeply musical song architecture in the studio, Starwolf is attracting some collaborative heavy hitters, including renowned Italian keyboardist Marcello Cassanelli and David Bowie bassist Tim Lefebvre. The band recently expanded their live ensemble and brought their scintillating grooves to life at last September’s Music at the Intersection and to an intoxicating album-release bash at Off Broadway.
BLOND GURU
St. Louis indie-rock band Blond Guru are fronted by the Gregorys, the brother-sister team of Noah (him, vocals and guitar) and Hal (her, keys and vocals), who started the band not long ago when they were students at Lindbergh High School. Despite their young age, Blond Guru and their three bandmates mix sounds from the alternative rock of a generation before their time: Early R.E.M.–style college rock; swooning Cure-ish melodies; Pavement-esque slacker-rock; swirly Nirvana chord progressions; and basement-rocking, Strokes-like murk. Blonde Guru’s excellent new sophomore album, The Purpose is to Entertain, is a 10-song tour through the band’s influences, and it’s fun to identify the post-punk, garage-rock, lo-fi, jangle-pop, and goth-lite wells from which the band’s music springs. Whatever their inspirations, they’ve got it down to an impressive amalgamation of their own; for this album, they wanted to get back to basics. “We knew the second album was going to be stripped back,” Noah says. “Just go for the riff.”
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GRAHAM CURRY
If you crave astoundingly great, blisteringly fast, impossibly clean acoustic guitar runs, then you’re in luck. St. Louis is home to one of the finest bluegrass guitar pickers on the planet, Graham Curry. Moreover, the Webster Groves High alum leads a fiercely tight picking party with Missouri Fury, featuring banjoist Alex Riffle, mandolinist Sam Aubuchon, fiddler Gerald Jones, and bassist Will Miskall. These boys are steeped in traditional bluegrass—all the Osbornes and Stanleys and Wilburns—but make no mistake, Graham & Co. can play with such dizzying ground speed and improvisational prowess that they’ll flip your wig and make a mess of every bluegrass festival tarp from here to Telluride. In addition to being a flatpicking champ, Curry is also a talented singer and songwriter, so his sets are a winning mix of standards, deep cuts, and stellar originals.
DAVE GRELLE’S PLAYADORS
As St. Louis’ ivory-tickler-in-residence, piano stud Dave Grelle plays with The Mighty Pines, Sean Canan’s Voodoo Players, and the Funky Butt Brass Band; holds down the keys in tribute heavyweights Celebration Day and Street Fighting Band; and records with the area’s top vocalists—among them Anita Jackson and Joanna Serenko. But after years of making everyone else sound good, it was high time he put his name at the top of the marquee. He’s done so with his own fabulous soul-jazz outfit, Dave Grelle’s Playadors. Composed of the tippy-top players in town, the Playadors are a rotating bullpen of ringers, including the legendary Dee Dee James on guitar, Ben Reece on saxophone, Adam Hucke on trumpet, and many more. With a mix of brilliantly reimagined covers and blazing originals, the group is a showcase for not only the most talented instrumentalists in town but also St. Louis’ most accomplished singers, including Neil Salsich, Sya Collins, Taynka Mimi, and others. A Playadors Family Affair extravaganza—featuring all Playadors, past and present—is planned for this summer.
BRIAN OWENS
Truly the “music man of St. Louis,” Brian Owens is a Grammy-nominated singer and dedicated community activist who has performed on The Today Show, Entertainment Tonight, and even during the seventh-inning stretch of a World Series game. The Ferguson-based soul singer’s work is built on a foundation of gospel music, but his creative endeavors are interdisciplinary and span across genres. Brian Owens developed a signature vocal style informed by a diverse musical upbringing, from growing up singing in the church to his years in the US military performing with the Air Force Band of Mid-America. His father, Thomas Owens, is an accomplished soul singer in his own right, and in 2013 the father-son duo collaborated on a cover of Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come” that has amassed well over 100 million streams to date. Whether rocking an audience on stage or working tirelessly behind the scenes to advocate for others, Owens wears many hats: ambassador for Music at the Intersection; music director for the World Chess Hall of Fame; and founder of Life Creative Group, an entity that provides opportunities and mentoring to young creatives in the St. Louis region. Among his many endeavors, Owens still makes time to produce short inspirational videos on social media that address issues such as embracing change in times of uncertainty.
BROCK SEALS
Between the limited-edition St. Louis Cardinals baseball jersey he designed for Black Heritage Day at Busch Stadium and his recent sold-out collaboration with Marc Jacobs, Brock Seals had a breakout 2024, punctuated by the drop of his latest full-length album. Released in October, Let There Be Light is an eight-song culmination of the St. Louis native’s conscious and vibrant approach to songwriting that also features friends and fellow musicians Zado, Khiro Kano, Sir Michael Rocks, Najii Person, Amaris, and Tre Cool. A self-described “old soul,” Seals builds songs on the foundation of R&B and soul from the ’70s, but his sound is a fresh distillation of modern hip-hop. The rapper’s multidisciplinary multiverse seems to know no bounds, and he even enters a feedback loop where he listens to unfinished songs while painting and then stops to make notes when new ideas or inspirations arise. Seals started off 2025 by curating Blessed by the Ancestors, an art exhibit that showcases the profound links between artists of present-day St. Louis and their ancestors. The exhibit, which opened on January 31 and runs through April 30, is hosted at Beatnik Bob’s inside the City Museum. From working on murals throughout the city to packing venues such as Atomic by Jamo alongside like-minded musicians, Seals is the rare artist who synthesizes sonic dream-weaving with a visual aesthetic that provokes imagination.
JOANNA SERENKO
We all know about 15 minutes of fame, but Kirkwood native Joanna Serenko’s early brush with stardom was rife with challenges she could not have predicted. The St. Louis–based songwriter’s 2020 run on NBC’s The Voice was disrupted by the sudden lockdown of COVID-19. Still, Serenko placed ninth, an incredible feat for the then-18-year-old who was a fresh face on the scene. Lauded for a vocal tone befitting a singer with decades of experience, Serenko produced her breakout single, “Best of Me,” in 2021. It rightfully earned her more than 1 million plays and led to a stellar collection of songs released the following year with the same name. By infusing R&B into clever songcraft, Serenko achieves an old-school feel that has all the cozy vibes of a throwback while still sounding inventive. The young singer will spend much of 2025 touring the continental United States—one quarter of the country for each quarter of the year—with her romantic partner and most trusted musical companion, Tyler Dale, in tow.
EMILY WALLACE
St. Louis is packed with powerhouse vocalists, but one gal spends more time flexing her chops on stage than any other singer in town—and she’s become the go-to choice to command the mic for many of the area’s top musicians. Just in the past couple months, Emily Wallace has played a series of mesmerizing solo-acoustic shows, including a Spotlight show at The Dark Room; she was the featured vocalist in the Funky Butt Brass Band’s annual Brasstravaganza Christmas shows; she performed with El Monstero at a sold-out Pageant concert; she made like Stevie Nicks with the Hard Promises and handled those Robert Plant banshee screams in Voodoo Led Zeppelin—among many other musical feats. Perhaps you first saw her a few years back as one-half of the Sleepy Rubies (a reunion show for those two can’t be far off). More of Wallace’s original studio recordings will be coming out this year, but in the meantime, she’s probably on a stage near you tonight, blasting that blue-diamond voice.
