Fresh from its Oakland Art & Soul Festival appearance, Whiskerman is the brainchild of 24-year-old singer Graham Patzner, who honed his ideas into the current group to portray his edgy, hallucinatory soul songs. Backed by his brother Lewis Patzner (of Judgment Day) on cello and trombone, Charles Lloyd (Cash Pony) on guitar and sitar, bassist Will Lawrence, and drummer Nicholas Cobbett, Patzner takes to the stage wildly wielding guitar, violin, piano, and a voice that’s both powerful and vulnerable. The resultant sound is a fusion of a simple folk backbone, classical, art-rock, and jazz. The lyrics dig deep into familiar subjects of love and loss, but then wander further out... into the territory of ghosts, and beyond to the archetypal landscapes of a vivid hallucination... before arriving back safely into a lover’s arms

Powered by the strikingly soulful vocals of Xandra Corpora, San Francisco’s Con Brio (“with vigor, or spirit”) blends old-school grit with new-school sophistication for a sound that’s wholly their own. Saxophone and trumpet roll over thick organ grooves while electric guitar, upright bass, and drums keep heads nodding and the dance floor moving. Formed in 2009, Con Brio immediately took to the stage and the studio, with a heavy schedule of local shows and the recording of their 2010 debut CD, “From the Hip.” Since then the band has toured from Seattle to San Diego and earlier this year released an album recorded live in San Francisco, “The Bay is Burning.” Corpora is joined by keyboardist Micah Dubreuil, saxophonist Mike Hirsch, bassist Jonathan Kirchner, and drummer Andrew Laubacher..