Santa Barbara songstress Kat Devlin celebrates the release of “REM Cycle”, a 6-song CD. We've featured Kat on many showcases -- she has been playing righteously and regularly along the California Coast since moving from New York three years ago, rocking clubs from the House of Blues in West Hollywood to Santa Barbara’s SOhO. Influenced by like Dolly, Ani, Dylan and Joni, and crooning indies like Belle and Sebastian and Neko Case, Kat has created a country-hipster sound that has attracted the attention of listeners near and far. Check her out at www.katdevlin.com

Special guests on Feb. 7 include Kat's friend Owen Plant (of the Sunshine Brothers), Chicago's Matt Campbell, and local singers Shannon Savage, and Katie Edmiston.

Songwriters At Play showcases are held every Tuesday, 6:30-9:30pm at Kreuzberg, 685 Higuera St., San Luis Obispo. 805.439.2060. The showcase includes one featured act and 5-6 others playing 4-song sets. There is no cover charge. All ages are welcome. The food & beverage menu is posted here: http://kreuzbergcalifornia.com/menu/

HUNGRYTOWN, which is the musical and married duo of Ken Anderson and Rebecca Hall, have been making music full time since swapping their midtown New York cubicles for the hills of New England in 2004. Since then, the couple has been touring extensively, and has released two CDs, the self-titled Hungrytown (2008) and Any Forgotten Thing (2011), both of which receive high critical acclaim and much airplay in North America, Europe and Australia. Learn more at http://hungrytown.net

"Their music mixes the snow of their home in Vermont, the dew on the grass of a cool summer morning in the Appalachians, the hard-scrabble grittiness and pluck of common folk the world over together with the melancholy of lost loves, broken hearts, and shattered dreams, distilling it into an intoxicating, hauntingly seductive blend that you always want more of. Ken and Rebecca’s multi-instrumental artistry’s range and depth is impressive, running from a shy lover’s soft, gentle caress to a hardened, bitter fist shaking against an evil fate, to a wry, ironic, self-mocking sense of humor. Their voices, each a thing of wonder in its own right, when combined completely bowl you over and by turn lift you to dizzy heights of joy and dash you to aching sadness. If you enjoy folk music with substance and style, your appetite for Hungrytown will never be satisfied.”-- Mark Pendleton - Las Cruces (NM) Sun-News

Songwriters At Play holds showcases every Thursday night, 6:30-9:30 at The Porch, 22322 El Camino Real, Santa Margarita, 805-438-3376. The showcase includes one featured act playing a 45-minute set, and others doing 4 songs each. We pass the tip jar during the featured set, otherwise no cover. All ages are welcome. Have a pizza!

Santa Maria's Caitlyn Vassaur has been singing since she was a very young girl participating in school plays and church choirs, and began playing piano at age seven and guitar at eleven. Recently she split her time between the Central Coast and Austin Texas, but now she's back as a full-time Californian. Caitlyn is a familiar face to our showcase audiences -- she did our John Prine Tribute at The Spot (including a duet with Spanky Baldwin on "In Spite of Ourselves") and has played many guest sets at the Porch and other venues. Now she takes the lead role, playing a 45-minute set as our featured act. Preview her music at http://www.reverbnation.com/caitlynvassaur

Songwriters At Play holds showcases every Sunday afternoon, 1:00 – 4:00 pm at Sculpterra Winery, 5015 Linne Road, Paso Robles, CA, 805-226-8881. The showcase includes one featured act and others playing 4-song sets. We pass the tip jar during the featured set, otherwise no cover. For directions go to http://www.sculpterra.com/location.htm

Does Valentine's Day give you the blues? Then you've come to the right place! Paso Robles blues artist Karen Tyler plays the featured set, joined by her friends Valerie Johnson & Al B Blue. Karen and Val harmonize like soul sisters, and Karen's also got the guitar chops to trade leads with Al, too. Karen's song titles include True Love, Love Letters, Lovin' You and Whatcha Gonna Do for Love -- sample some tunes at www.karentyler.com

Songwriters At Play showcases are held every Tuesday, 6:30-9:30pm at Kreuzberg, 685 Higuera St., San Luis Obispo. 805.439.2060. The showcase includes one featured act and 5-6 others playing 4-song sets. There is no cover charge. All ages are welcome. The food & beverage menu is posted here: http://kreuzbergcalifornia.com/menu/

Lost Hills is Archie Logsdon, a poet and songwriter from the Kern River Valley. He's played the Porch many times, loves to talk about how he lived just up the road back in the '70s. His songs of love, death and wandering in the wilderness are evocative of the Southern Sierra region where he grew up and now resides. Clean country guitar picking and plaintive harmonica provide the background for his poetic imagery and gritty stories of faith, betrayal and redemption. "I find my stories out on the backroads of California where the ghosts of cowboys, miners, outlaws and drifters sit around campfires trading lies and baring their souls."

Lost Hills began performing on the San Diego folk scene in the 1980s, when he lived just down the block and across the railroad tracks from Leucadia's seminal Old Time Cafe. His music is influenced by Woody Guthrie, Utah Phillips. Gram Parsons, Townes Van Zandt and John Stewart. He plays at coffee houses, galleries, farmers markets, small town fairs, environmental fundraisers, peace rallies and, as he likes to say, "anywhere my truck breaks down, and any place they're serving beer..." http://www.losthillsmusic.com

Songwriters At Play holds showcases every Thursday night, 6:30-9:30 at The Porch, 22322 El Camino Real, Santa Margarita, 805-438-3376. The showcase includes one featured act playing a 45-minute set, and others doing 4 songs each. We pass the tip jar during the featured set, otherwise no cover. All ages are welcome. Have a pizza!

Our second Songwriters At Play showcase at Laetitia Winery will have three featured performers: San Francisco's Owen Plant (pictured here), Santa Barbara's Phoebe Light, and local bluesmen Billy Estrada and Tony Kirkorian of the band Spoonfed Lightning. Each act will play a 45-minute set. The show runs from 1-4pm on Saturday Feb. 18. The show is free and open to all ages.

Jamaican-born troubadour Owen Plant's style is reminiscent of introspective singer/songwriters from the '70s but also incorporates his Caribbean-ness. Owen's strong vocals evoke the emotional depth of Cat Stevens and the soulful passion of Bob Marley and you can hear Paul Simon and Leonard Cohen in his guitar work. Imagine Bruno Merz, John Mayer, Ray LaMontagne, Jack Johnson and Ziggy Marley around the campfire - but it's one Jamerican with a bunch of pedals and a beard when it's cold and stubble when it's not. Rasta Folk? Reggae Pop? Singer/Songwriter Dub/Ska? He has fronted other projects, most recently as the lead singer of the Sunshine Brothers. www.thesunshinebrothers.com

Phoebe Light was a big hit at last November's Joni Mitchell Tribute Night at The Spot in Arroyo Grande, and she played a guest set last month at Laetitia. She returns with piano and guitar for a featured set of gentle balladry. To preview her songs: http://www.myspace.com/phoebelight

For the last 13 years, Billy Estrada has performed his brand of blues-based, multi-flavored music throughout the Central Coast. He has been described as “combining the vocals of Ray Charles with the guitar of B. B. King while throwing in some healthy doses of blues harp and slide guitar." In 2006, his band Soul Reaction achieved success through local press and airplay with their album, The Beauty of Life, in which all songs were written by Estrada. Billy's bandmate in Spoonfed Lightning, Tony Kirkorian joins him for this special acoustic set. Sample some tunes at http://www.billyestrada.com

The Feb. 18 lineup will also include special guests Rob Kimball, and touring duo Victor & Penny.

Songwriters At Play will host two more monthly showcases at Laetitia on March 10 and April 14. Laetitia is located along Highway 101, 4 miles south of Grand Street exit in Arroyo Grande, or 6 miles north of Nipomo's Tefft St. exit. (805) 481-1772, www.laetitiawine.com‎

Guitarist Morris “Maux” Samuel (formerly of Trees of Mystery) and vocalist Marci Jean front a four-piece band called Prey 4 Phyre. They played a guest set at Sculpterra and left us wanting more, so here they are for a full 45-minute set. Glen Starkey of New Times calls them an "emotionally charged duo (with) stirring, soulful vocals". Preview their tunes at http://www.reverbnation.com/prey4phyre

Songwriters At Play holds showcases every Sunday afternoon, 1:00 – 4:00 pm at Sculpterra Winery, 5015 Linne Road, Paso Robles, CA, 805-226-8881. The showcase includes one featured act and others playing 4-song sets. We pass the tip jar during the featured set, otherwise no cover. For directions go to http://www.sculpterra.com/location.htm

Tim Pacheco’s combination of sensitivity and accomplished prowess on his guitar is striking. His style is often compared to Windham Hill's Will Ackerman, who calls Tim "a brilliant guitarist, a wonderful composer". Last year, Tim celebrated the release of his latest CD "Of Wordless Realms". He's played several of our showcases, and we're pleased to feature him in concert at The Spot. For some samplings, go to: http://timpacheco.com/

Opening our show is husband-wife duo, The Belmores. We'll also have a guest set by touring folksinger Richard Berman, who will be featured at Kreuzberg on Feb. 21.

The Spot is a 50-seat theatre located at 116 W. Branch St., in the village of Arroyo Grande (next to Doc Burnstein's Ice Cream). Tickets are $10, available in advance at www.thespotag.com

"This man has the gift." So said the late legendary folksinger Utah Phillips, after hearing Richard Berman sing at the Kerrville Folk Festival. And Richard has used that gift to write many songs that tell moving, true stories. "Gil's Song", the song that prompted Utah Phillip's appraisal, is the tale of a Wyoming sheepherder's one brief attempt at closeness and its consequences. Humor, too, is part of Richard's performance, as in "Monopoly", his first-person account of the power of that game on behavior, and "The Kids Are Back", his take on the latest stage in family development, both songs from Richard's second CD, Love Work and Play. His third CD, Dreamer, included his first songs of requited love, "A Love Song" and "Here And Now" and the haunting "The Fortune Told". Sample his music at www.richardberman.com

Songwriters At Play showcases are held every Tuesday, 6:30-9:30pm at Kreuzberg, 685 Higuera St., San Luis Obispo. 805.439.2060. The showcase includes one featured act and 5-6 others playing 4-song sets. There is no cover charge. All ages are welcome. The food & beverage menu is posted here: http://kreuzbergcalifornia.com/menu/

Originally from New England, the Sibleys have been at home in the Rocky Mountain West since 1999. Singing for as long as they can remember, Anne and Pete have come many miles from their classical music training to “the people’s music:” folk, bluegrass and traditional music. Using the guitar and clawhammer banjo to accompany their tight harmonies, the Sibleys tell stories about life and love as they see it, and it is this quality that rings true with audiences from coast to coast. Anne and Pete’s music highlights their connection with the landscape, community, family, and even the food they grow and eat. Less than a decade since they released their first album, the Sibleys’ music hit the national spotlight in 2009 with a blue ribbon finish in the “Great American Duet Sing Off ” on A Prairie Home Companion. They have four CDs in current release -- sample some of their music at http://www.anneandpetesibley.com

Songwriters At Play holds showcases every Thursday night, 6:30-9:30 at The Porch, 22322 El Camino Real, Santa Margarita, 805-438-3376. The showcase includes one featured act playing a 45-minute set, and others doing 4 songs each. We pass the tip jar during the featured set, otherwise no cover. All ages are welcome. Have a pizza!