Starry Plough’s Singer-Songwriter Showcase

Margot Wagner combines elements of folk, indie-rock, americana, and women’s chorus in her playful songwriting. Notably influenced by the work of Joni Mitchell, Nick Drake, Gillian Welch, and Aimee Mann, her songwriting incorporates vivid lyrics, lush vocal arrangements and alternative guitar tunings.

Margot Wagner began recording and touring as a singer-songwriter in the early 2000s when she was signed to a small record label in the Midwest. Recent studio albums include The pearl and the magpie (2023), Letter to the World (2025), and Weather Changes (October 2026) Margot is currently completing another full-length album of original indie-folk songs that will be released later this year.

Colin Cotter is a multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, recording artist, and creative-at-large from the San Francisco Bay Area. He has played gigs from coast to coast in the USA, toured internationally in Canada, Ireland, and Spain, and teaches regularly at some of the top folk music camps in the country.

The main musical endeavors in Colin’s life at the moment include an edgy, electro-acoustic adventure with fiddler / violist Ryan McKasson that the two are calling Old Growth Graveyard; duos with fiddlers Sumaia Jackson and Adrianna Ciccone; sideman backing guitar work; solo performances; and exciting-but-occasional collaborations in formations such as a 4-piece featuring Colin on voice and guitar, Sumaia Jackson on 5-string fiddle, Tristan Clarridge on cello, and Anna Colliton on bodhrán or an intergenerational-acoustic-groove-energized trio called Joe Craven & Frisky! with Joe Craven and Sumaia Jackson. He has released several albums with the bands he co-founded, MAC (Perfectly Manufactured Reality, 2018) and A Thousand Years at Sea (4 releases between 2009-2014) and has multiple new releases in the works with his current projects.

Colin grew up fully immersed in music. When he was four years old, his mom gave him a fiddle and began teaching him to play the tunes she had learned herself as a child, building on several generations of a family tradition in Finnish folk music. Immediately upon attending fiddle camp a few years later, he fell in love with the Scottish and Irish traditional tunes and songs that would come to play a lead role in his ongoing musical journey alongside Americana, rock, pop, funk, and a wide array of improvisational jam bands (for lack of a better term). When he needs to put a label on the music that this organic mélange of influences produces, he often goes with, “California Celtic.”

In addition to being a fine fiddler and singer, Colin is an accomplished self-taught guitarist, having taken to the instrument both for the practical purpose of accompanying himself singing and out of a deep affinity for sitting in the rhythmic belly of the beast when playing with fiddlers. Over the years, he has crafted a unique approach to expressing on the instrument that he couples with an effort to artfully indulge spontaneity and seek adventure as much as possible in the music he makes.

Libba found meaning in music, in its essence, she found comfort. Going through a catharsis with music is a healing salve. Libba lost her father at the age of 22, and she has since helped listeners navigate through the ups and downs with the roller coster of melodies. Born and raised in San Francisco CA, her reach in pop is intwined with character and reality. 

Amber Fornoles is a 26 year old singer songwriter from the Bay Area. With pop, folk, alt, rock, and jazz influences, her music cannot be bound to one genre. Inspired by artists like dodie, Conan Gray, and Ella Fitzgerald, she began to write her own music in 2017 and post them on YouTube. Her video “A Very Bisexual Song” reached over 77k views, kickstarting her music career. The studio version appeared on Spotify's "Fresh Finds" and "Pop Fresh Finds" editorial playlists. Amber’s debut studio album “Handle With Care” released August 28, 2026. The album perfectly captures her experience with OCD as well as her wide range as a songwriter. Her goal is to write for the emotional. She takes pride in writing raw and vulnerable music, as if she is writing a journal entry with a melody. She hopes you can join her on this journey towards expressing herself through music.