STORY JAM MUSICIANS
Sarah Marie Young
Sarah Marie Young (songwriter, vocalist) is an award winning (Montreux Jazz Competition, Thelonious Monk Competition) singer, songwriter and musician. She has been featured with Postmodern Jukebox, Playing For Change's "Skin Deep" video with Buddy Guy, and has played festivals on tour all over Europe and Brazil. With four albums out, Sarah also sings with the acoustic group, The Oh Yeahs, and is a songwriter for the Story Jam storytelling series. In 2020, she began producing her own children’s music show, Sarah's Music Room for the National YMCA, and released two children’s EPs in 2021. Her holiday album "The Most Wonderful Time" was released in 2022. Currently you can find Sarah singing around town, and leading Chicago's premier event band, Rendezvous.
Nicholas Barron
Nicholas Barron’s (songwriter) raw energy and charisma have earned him millions of online fans! A prolific artist, he has released ten albums of original music, and he is an accomplished abstract painter. He has opened for Pat Benatar, Michael Bolton, James Brown, Johnny Cash, The Doobie Brothers, Shawn Colvin, The Neville Brothers, and James Taylor, among many, many others. Nicholas' website
Anne Harris
Anne Harris (fiddle) is Chicago based American Roots fiddle player. She has toured extensively and recorded with a wide array of artists including Otis Taylor, Guy Davis, Cathy Richardson, Cracker, Anders Osborne, Living Colour, Vieux Farka Toure, and hippie legends Jefferson Starship.
Dave Hiltebrand
Dave Hiltebrand has been a full-time musician for over 25 years. Since graduating from DePaul University School of Music, Dave has had extensive experience as a performer, composer and studio musician. Highlights include the Broadway National Tour of Jersey Boys, co-writing and co-producing two national top-ten songs, composing work for clients including the Oprah Winfrey Show, Nike and Allstate, and tours to South Africa, Cuba, Spain, Italy and Egypt. His debut solo guitar album Yoguitar, Vol. 1 was released in 2016. Dave is currently an adjunct professor of Digital Music at Elmhurst University.
Stephanie Rogers
Stephanie Rogers (songwriter) is the host, creator, and producer of STORY JAM. She’s been in dozens of rock, pop, and folk bands, and she she has acted in theatre, film, tv, and on commercials. With a theatre degree from Northwestern University, and a master's in writing from National Louis University, Steph leads storytelling classes and workshops for Story Jam Studio.
Learn more.
Shannon Wright
Shannon Wright (vocals) is certified a Chicago diva. She’s sung for many years with various local bands, and she now leads her own event band. A creative soul, Shannon is a photographer, speaker, jewelry designer, and a solo show performer who’s hit show, “Love Shannon, XO” was a recently sold out hit at The Lifeline theatre’s Fillet of Solo Festival.
Danny Shaffer
Danny Shaffer (producer) is Story Jam’s music producer, podcast audio producer, recording guitarist, and recording engineer. He is a veteran of the Chicago music scene, having produced and played with hundreds of bands. Danny has toured, written, and produced music professionally since he was a teenager.
Rafe Bradford
Rafe Bradford (bass) who studied double bass performance at the University of Illinois, has toured and worked with many great jazz, pop, and R&B greats, including Nancy Wilson, Stanley Turrentine, McCoy Tyner, Aretha Franklin, Lou Rawls, and David Foster. On The Tom Joyner Morning Show, Rafe performed with Luther Vandross, Mavis Staples, and many others in the live house band. He was in The Bonnie Hunt show band with Paul Shaffer, The Swell Season, and Dave Koz, and he is famous for playing bass for Patti LaBelle on Oprah’s theme song. Rafe teaches, plays all around Chicago, and he owns music mastering company.
Fred Simon
Fred Simon (keys) has been making music for more than thirty years, composing for records, live performance, film, dance, and television, with instrumentation ranging from solo piano to symphonic orchestra. His recorded work includes seven albums of original music under his name, three albums (as principle composer) with the Simon and Bard Group, numerous appearances on compilations and samplers, and many appearances as side-musician.
Lamar Jones
Lamar Jones (bass) was born to be a musician. A native of Chicago and coming from a musical family, he is a versatile bassist who has performed with a variety of musical groups during his 25 year career. Being a well-rounded musician, Lamar has played various genres spanning from smooth jazz, rock, gospel, r&b, funk and house-music in a variety of different venues from Music halls to outdoor festivals across the US and abroad.
Raised as a Christian, Lamar gained more experience by playing with Gospel bands and artists such as The Thompson Community Singers, Fred Hammond and Kirk Franklin. In addition, Lamar performs with multi-talented contemporary jazz artist Brian Culbertson, along with Steve Cole, Nick Colionne and Michael Manson.
Lamar currently resides in Chicago and has been blessed with two beautiful young daughters. When he is not on tour, you can find him building custom basses and performing in church.
Kari Nelson
Kari Nelson (songwriter and vocalist) has traveled all over the world, lending her voice to special events, concerts, recordings, and as a singer-songwriter. Following in the career of her musical family, Kari graduated from Berklee College of Music, and is now one of Chicago’s most sought-after singers, known for her signature stage presence and monster pipes.
Chuck Lacy
Chuck Lacy (drums) was encouraged to go into music by his talented family. He started playing drums at age 12 for his church and soon began working for various churches and community choirs. He went on to study music in high school learning to read and study different genres of music. In college he began working in local Jazz, Blues, R&B, and Rock clubs as well as working for many cooperate bands. Today he is a working fixture in Chicago’s music scene and beyond playing everything from country to neo-soul. He has worked with: Ana Popovic, Buddy Guy, Keb Mo, Rahsaan Patterson, Avery Sunshune, Regina Belle, Shirley Murdock, Angela Winbush, Miki Howard, K-Jon, Kenya, Mike Phillips, Shana Tucker, Vince Ingala, Steve Oliver, Marion Meadows, Norman Brown, Larry Carlton, Marc Antoine, Phil Denny, Paul Taylor, and many more. He tours with Folk/Rock artist Peter Himmelman, Gospel Legends The Caravans, Edwin Hawkins, Richard Smallwood, Donnie McClurkin, and many more. In addition to being a drummer he is also a songwriter and producer. One of the projects he produced, “Music Made Rhythm” by Kenya, was considered for a Grammy nomination. Another project he co-produced was #1 on the UK Soul Charts. He is also the music director for Just Friends as well as MTV Star Maker runner up Melody Angel. Chuck is equally busy on stage and in the studio drawing on his various influences to create good music. Chuck Lacy is a Sabian Cymbals and Reunion Blues artist.
Liam Davis
Liam David (songwriter) is a multi-talented producer/songwriter/performer with a veritable rock star swagger. Liam has toured all over the world, and he’s been nominated for three grammys as a producer and songwriter. His brilliant songs for Story Jam are always a highlight of the show.
Liam Davis' website
John Bowes
One of the “go-to” guys in Chicago when looking for a soulful sax sound, John Bowes’s (sax, flute) early influences include Rufus, Earth, Wind, & Fire, Tower of Power, Stevie Wonder, Steely Dan, and almost anything Motown. He received musical training at Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA.
John has recorded with and arranged for a variety of bands in Chicago, among them the Grammy-nominated debut CD of the 911 Mambo Orchestra, The Buckinghams, Pete Special, BrotherBrother, Dick Holliday and the Bamboo Gang, Uneek, and The Robert Cornelius 7.
Artists who have called upon John to lend his talents to their concerts include Aretha Franklin, Melissa Etheridge, The O’Jays, The Funk Brothers (Motown Studio Band), Bettye LaVette, The Temptations, Smokey Robinson, Lou Rawls, The Supremes, The Dells, and many others. He can be heard on the soundtrack to the Stanley Tucci film, “The Impostors”. Theater performances include “Love, Janis” (based on the life of Janis Joplin) at the Royal George Theater, Chicago, and “Imagine Tap”, which had its world premiere at the Harris Theater, Chicago.
Samotta Acklin
Samotta Acklin (vocals) is the talented daughter of legend Barbara Acklin. Samotta is a triple threat dancer, singer, actor and a coach and mentor to many.
Andrew Distel
Andrew Distel (trumpet) is a native of Cincinnati, and music has been part of his life for about as long as he can remember. Both his parents are educators and music lovers, and they encouraged their four sons to learn a musical instrument. Andrew, however, was the only one of the Distel brothers who had an abiding interest in music and taught himself to play his brother’s trumpet by imitating Chuck Mangione records. His music journey began in earnest in 5th grade when he joined the school band and started taking private music lessons. He continued his music studies and played trumpet in various bands throughout his years in public school, but singing was also a passion of his, and he found the time to sing in several choirs as well.
Gerald Dowd
Gerald Dowd (drums) has been described as “the hardest working drummer in Chicago” (Richard Milne, WXRT), playing on over 100 albums, and averaging 150 live dates a year around the world. In recent years, he's been releasing solo albums of original material, starting with his 2012 release, Kingsize EP. In 2014, he was the recipient of an IAP arts grant from Chicago's Dept. Of Cultural Affairs/Special Events (DCASE), which led to his first full-length solo album, Home Now, produced by Grammy-nominated producer Liam Davis, and featuring, among others, Chicago legends Robbie Fulks and Nora O'Connor. To celebrate the release, he held a benefit concert (DAY OF THE DOWD) at which he played for 13 hours straight with 16 different bands, raising over $10,000 for the Greater Chicago Food Depository.