HuDost & Alright Alright

Doors 7PM/Show 8PM

Long before praise from NPR, Billboard chart rankings, and prestigious awards, a moment of magic set HuDost into motion. In her Montreal apartment, a teenage Moksha Sommer was immersed in the poetry of Rumi when she impulsively joined friends on a spontaneous trip to North Carolina for a Rumi Festival hosted by Turkish Sufis. There, amidst the spinning dancers, Jemal Wade Hines was playing frame drum when Sommer’s voice pierced the crowd—a sound that jolted his heart awake. In that moment, HuDost was born.Since that fated encounter, Sommer and Hines have woven their lives together—partners in music, activism, parenthood, and love. As Representatives for ONE (a nonprofit dedicated to ending extreme poverty) and collaborators with various humanitarian organizations, they live their values out loud.

Together, they’ve discovered the transformative power of combining music and activism—a fusion that shifts hearts and changes realities. Their upcoming album, The Monkey in the Crown, will be released in 2025. Past albums have earned critical acclaim and significant chart success, reaching #4 on the Canadian National Folk/Roots Chart, #9 on the US Folk Radio Charts, and #24 on the Billboard Folk/Americana Sales Chart. Their work has earned them an Independent Music Award for Social Action Song and two Best of Nashville awards in 2020.

Their sound is shaped by genre-defying collaborations with GRAMMY-winning producer Malcolm Burn (Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris) and GRAMMY-winning mixers Oz Fritz (Tom Waits, Bill Laswell) and Vance Powell (Jack White, Chris Stapleton). Whether performing as a duo or with a full band, HuDost incorporates guest musicians and dancers from diverse backgrounds. Their instrumentation includes vocals, harmonium (Indian pump organ), NORD keys, guitars, live looping, dulcinet, percussion, and ambient sonic textures.Musically, HuDost bridges worlds—blending pop and rock with Sufi influences, Eastern European folk traditions (Bulgarian, Croatian, Macedonian, and Balkan), and the poetic richness of Farsi, Turkish, and Arabic music. Their sound is borderless, immersive, and deeply human.

Their music also gives voice to life’s raw truths—struggle, healing, and transformation. In 2008, Sommer underwent brain surgery to remove a tumor. The recovery forced her to relearn language, regain sight, and navigate seizures, ultimately deepening her understanding of music as a path to healing. In 2013, she and Jemal welcomed their son, Kaleb. In 2022, their second child, Sylvan, was born. These personal milestones—joyful and painful—infuse their work with a rare emotional authenticity.

“HuDost makes music for the sacred and the profane…driven by Sommer’s lush expressive alto and Hines’ skilled strumming and electric guitar licks…as sacred as a church service, without the identifiers which can separate and shame non-believers.”— Kristi Wooten (PurePop, Rolling Stone, Newsweek)HuDost’s music invites listeners to feel deeply, think critically, and connect meaningfully. It is a soundtrack for empathy, awakening, and the revolutionary act of loving out loud.

A duo adding new life and complexity to the concept of a family band, husband and wife Seth and China Kent of Alright Alright create orchestral folk for the open-minded and poetry for the broken-hearted. Though their songs often bear a deep sense of tradition, Alright Alright aren’t afraid to experiment with boundaries, testing the limits of genre and expectations for content. The pair share a genuine love of words, evidenced by their tendency to play with a mix of simple and unique language in elegantly rhymed lines: Muscatine, Muscatine / Why you gotta be so mean? / Pearl of the riverside / in the flood where my brother died. They are often inspired by the rich history of places they visit as well as by familiar haunts in their hometown of Denver, Colorado. From southern industrial towns to street signs to abandoned cars on I-70, there is a sense of rootedness that lends depth and dimension to their songwriting. These songs are as real as your kitchen table. Yet there’s also a striking vulnerability present, an openness and willingness to connect that draws fans from around the world to reach out and feel held by their music.

Part of the appeal of Alright Alright’s sound comes from the contrasting vocal styles: Seth’s Dylan-esque warble feels like a throwback to a brighter, purer moment in folk music’s past, while China’s lush alto tempers that brightness with a husky richness (imagine grey skies shifting over cornfields). At times direct and innocent à la Sondre Lerche, other times intricate and vast, their music combines hints of great folk duos like Simon and Garfunkel (in the lighthearted, layered melodies of “Trying to be Free”) with moments of complete originality. The songs incorporate classic folk and Americana elements as well as more pared-down moments of fragile piano. Comfortable in both love and grief, Alright Alright’s music is as comforting and as surprising as family life can be. “I think I write music for myself, to heal myself, and I write music for people who need it,” says China. Seth agrees: “It’s an act of identity and empathy.”

For Alright Alright, music making and family life are so intertwined that it’s sometimes hard to differentiate. Seth and China each prefer to write songs in relative solitude, then trade those distilled ideas with each other, allowing the song to grow in the other person’s hands. “We feel lucky to have the level of trust it takes to do this… to entrust your creative work to another person takes more than love– it takes an enormous amount of respect.” While China often writes “from the outside looking in,” touching on the struggle to own and exert creative power, Seth’s writing tackles the subject from a slightly different angle: “I am constantly reminding myself to belong. That I do belong. Yes, I belong.” Sometimes their songs feel like introductory anthems designed to remind listeners that they are part of this world, and they are welcome here.

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