Squeakie and Vagabond Empire

The Sunblock Boys are a San Francisco based trio, playing deep cut Country classics from the 30's to the 80's, with a dash of Honky-Tonk twisted rock covers. RL Butterfield (bass, vox), Brendan Ahern (drums, vox), and Vincent Courtoy (guitar, vox) will get you stomping with their twanging bops and shuffling jams.

Squeakie is a ramshackle country band who have settled in the East Bay of California. They croon about tales of vengeful wives, wronged lovers, down-&-out clowns, and growing up queer in the American South. Squeakie is country music with a charming, earnest, and humorous delivery.

Vagabond Empire is an expansive new solo project for acoustic guitar, banjo, and vocals, born from the ashes of critically acclaimed "bluevelvetgrass" string band Three Times Bad, whose American Sojourn record was named "Album of the Week" on Mike Morrison's AmericanRoots Radio for its "huge originality (and) mastery of their instruments."

Wide-ranging and genre-elastic, Vagabond Empire's massive set list combines dynamic originals with updated classics for the 21st century. The music digs deep into 100+ years of American roots traditions and then some, from Tin Pan Alley and early jazz, to Gypsy swing, folk, blues, bluegrass, country, honkytonk, soul, rock, and more.

After the Plague, a debut studio recording of original songs, will be released in June 2025. The album is a deep dive into heartbreak, grief, compassion, and resilience that speaks to our precarious times -- and the joyful noise of collective uplift through the healing power of music.