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Singer-songwriter, Giulia (Julia) Millanta, is a native-born Italian from Florence who now calls Austin, Texas home.
A creative and prolific artist, she has released seven solo albums, touring nationally throughout the USA and internationally. An accomplished guitarist, Giulia also plays ukulele and sings in four languages. She has been called smart, pensive and cool and credited with psychedelic grooveability whilst “baring her clairvoyant soul” to “deliver musical mojo.”
Giulia began her life in music as a child of eight years when taught to play guitar by her father she began to perform traditional folk songs. She continued to sing and began writing songs and making records. Performing at the Acoustic Guitar Meeting in Sarzana in the spring of 2010 her accomplished guitar style and songs earned her the “New Sounds Of Acoustic Music” award. This led to an endorsement by the renowned guitar makers Eko, choice of the most famous 60’s-80’s era singer-songwriters throughout Italy.
In 2008, she debuted with “Giulia and the Dizzyness” (Cavern Jatt Records.)
Then, in 2011, she released “Dropping Down” (Ugly Cat Music/Audioglobe) distinguished by her maturing skills as musician, producer, writer and arranger.
Deciding to expand her musical borders in 2012 she moved to Austin where she was soon embraced by the music community and its fans as a writer, collaborator and performer in the scene’s most prestigious singer-songwriter venues.
Shortly after she released “Dust and Desire” (Ugly Cat Music/Audioglobe.) Just a couple of years later in 2014 she broke new ground with “The Funambulist” (Ugly Cat Music) Surrounded by a host of new friends and fellow musicians as “between the lines” she conceptualizes the tightrope walk she has been through, writing and singing of all she has experienced, learned and become.
In 2016, Giulia released her fifth solo album “Moonbeam Parade”, 13 self-penned tunes fueled by a new direction on electric guitar. Produced by Giulia herself on her own label “Ugly Cat Music”, with her friend and producer George Reiff, with a stellar band featuring some of the best musicians in Austin, such as Charlie Sexton (Bob Dylan), Howe Gelb (Giant Sand), Glenn Fukunaga (The Dixie Chicks), Gabriel Rhodes (Willie Nelson),David Pulkingham (Patty Griffin) and many more.
In 2018 Giulia releases “Conversation with a Ghost” produced by herself and Gabriel Rhodes. The record also features talents like Marc Ribot (Tom Waits) on electric guitar, Joel Guzman (Paul Simon) on accordion, John Mills (David Byrne) on horns.
2018 was also a great year for awards for Giulia, since she won the Premio Ciampi for “Not You”, her version of Piero Ciampi’s song "Tu no" and was awarded with the Doc's Blues Awards 2018 as BluesWoman of the year by Severn Fm Radio.
After 2 years of collaborations and after touring extensively in the US and Northern Europe, Giulia returns in the studio in early 2020 to record a new album. “Tomorrow is a Bird”, once again co-produced with guitar player and poli-instrumentalist Gabriel Rhodes, features some of the most influential musicians in the Austin music scene. The album is about re-evaluating life, about endings and beginnings, failures and opportunities, about changing direction, trusting that the wind will support your wings and get you where you need to go.
A self-published book entitled “Between the Strings” explores the other side of being a musicians, her life on and off the road, and marks Giulia’s debut as a writer.
In the summer/fall of 2021 Giulia records “Woman on the Moon” (out in April of 2022) The record was almost entirely performed by Giulia and Gabriel with the exception of drum parts.
Some odd instruments were used in these recordings: a wet towel in the bathroom sink, puppet legs against a wooden box, various guitars played with cello bow, Giulia’s naked thighs … The record is a journey of separation and unity, through the masculine and feminine inside of us. In the Spring of 2022, Giulia publishes her first novel “Fratture” with an Italian publishing company names Porto Seguro.
A tour of the US, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Holland will follow both these releases, keeping her on the road till the fall.
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Austin, Texas-based musician, singer, storyteller, and songwriter Guy Forsyth was Born in the Denver City Hospital in Colorado on November 30, 1968 to
Stephen and Vicki Forsyth . After a short time spent discovering that he and college didn't agree, Forsyth joined the circus – or at least the closest thing he could find, The Renaissance Festival. He got a job as a stuntman playing Robin Hood, getting beaten up by an actor playing Little John in an act that ended with Forsyth getting his butt kicked and thrown into filthy water. He has tried to work his way up in showbiz ever since.
While on the road, he would spend the weekends performing and the weekdays healing. He would spend his time practicing guitar, and listening to music in the places they would go like New Orleans, New York, Memphis. On January 10, 1990, Forsyth packed anything that would fit in a U-Haul trailer and drove south on I-35 from Kansas City, Kansas to Texas to make his fortune in the music industry. He found himself playing at Joe's Generic Bar down on Sixth Street in Austin, busking on the West Mall of the University Of Texas Campus and anywhere that would listen.
Today he has played around the world, made 20 or so records, won many awards and helped define Austin music. Forsyth is simply a one-of-a-kind original. He not only writes and sings his own songs, but he enjoys telling the stories behind their inspiration. He is a modern American Songster. Not one song is the same, but they share the same care and craftsmanship. No matter the tune, no matter the rhythm, Forsyth’s music will bring a smile and and make the body move. One could even argue that he was made for this lifestyle—one of endless music and lyrical storytelling.
Blues made him want to play. Forsyth’s first works were electric, raw blues that held nothing back. When he showed up in Austin, he had with him a bandolier of Harmonicas and a carnival barkers voice that could cut through the noise of the busiest night on Sixth street. In 1999 Forsyth & Artie Gold recorded their recorded first Blues album,”Scalpel & Sledgehammer” on cassette tape. “It was recorded at Erik Blakley’s home studio (for $8 an hour), where Artie produced, recorded and paid for it all himself,” said Forsyth. “We sold it at gigs, took some to the Antone’s record shop, there might be a couple still there. I was the Sledgehammer.”
He found himself working his way up from the lowest working man blues clubs to Austin’s Blues Throne, Antone’s. Clifford Antone signed Guy to his prestigious Antone’s Blues Label after Guy’s band landed an every Sunday residency that lasted ten years (Needle Gun, Can you Live Without, Steak), and winning The Austin Chronicle Readers Poll for Best Blues Band for several years running. Clifford Antone’s label suffered some trouble with the Law after being involved with a rather massive marijuana bust and, despite the records being critically acclaimed, the label went into a series of bankruptcies. Frustrated, Guy could not get his own records to sell.
Undeterred, he started The Asylum Street Spankers, an irreverent band that followed him in ecstatic, eclectic, theatrical acoustic display of American musical history, as if Rock and Roll had never happened that took Austin by storm, which was awarded best none of the above band and performed at the Austin Music Awards. While all of this was going on, Forsyth released a live record in Holland on a Dutch Label (High Temperature, Lizard disk) that made such an impact that Forsyth tours Europe almost every year, with North Europen Blues bands routinely covering his songs.
Forsyth’s most recent musical project, The Hot Nut Riveters, is a band that holds their own in a pure acoustic sound mix of eccentric bluegrass-Bluespop/Country Folk and they will be releasing their second album early in 2018 (Torches & Pitchforks part 1: Politics). And, if that wasn’t enough on his plate, Forsyth has been leading his award winning blues band. Over the years, Forsyth’s music had been featured, both live and recorded in favored pubs and bars of Austin, to movies (Waking Life and Hands on a Hard Body, to name a couple). He has been on tour nationwide and internationally, from festivals to shared stage time with the big boys (BB King, Ray Charles, Ben Harper, and John Hammond to name a few). To top his accomplishments, he won the Austin Male Vocalist of the Year Award (2005) and is nominated again for the same title in 2018.
Forsyth’s life is not entirely focused on music, however. He is a firm believer of working together to bring about solid goals and happier times. He played for Bernie Sanders and sang This Land is Your Land with him during the Presidential Election of 2015-16 when he was campaigning in Austin, and is a firm and active supporter for HAAM (Health Alliance for Austin Musicians). To sustain his community on the most fundamental of levels he has taught Tai-Chi in Austin for 10 years to disabled vets, children & anyone else who wanted to learn for free giving lessons to those who wanted to learn, believing that it is a solid way to help center oneself and create balance in life.
“I learned yoga in the park, the community can take care of itself,” he says. “If you can afford to contribute, you should; when I can, I do.” He frequently visits schools to teach music for children, from instruments to lyrics; not just teaching them to play, mind you, but to understand the magic that is at their fingertips. Which is to say, the musician Guy Forsyth is a work of wonder; bright and eclectic as his music with a flair of “What next?” by the end of the day. With both his music and his way of life, he has us seated at the edge of our seats, waiting to see what will happen in the next scene. Forsyth is the proud father of 2 little girls and a compassionate member of the community and is always first to lend a hand.
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Joy Clark is a New Orleans singer/songwriter, lyrical guitarist, and rising star in the Americana music scene. Her melodic offerings have been described as a balm for an anxious heart. Each song beckons the listener, welcoming them with open arms—always advocating for truth, authenticity, self-love, and the courage to boldly tell one’s story.