Bill Baird / Mia Wilson / Donald Beaman

Bill Baird has spent decades operating just outside the boundaries of whatever the music industry thought it was doing — drawing inspiration from fellow true believers and beautiful misfits like Arthur Russell, Daniel Johnston, Roky Erickson, and Doug Sahm, while quietly assembling one of the most idiosyncratic bodies of work in American independent music.

His first major act, Sound Team, signed to Capitol Records and Parlophone and became the subject of Echotone, a documentary film that captured both the promise and the chaos of that era. His next project, Sunset, logged endless miles on the road alongside California outfit The Range of Light Wilderness. Along the way, Baird crashed on Flea’s couch, co-wrote songs with Pete Brown, and taught songwriting at the Esalen Institute on the Big Sur coast.

He dropped out of college young, lived out his Kerouac fantasy on the open road, and eventually returned to academia, earning an MFA from Mills College — where Roscoe Mitchell reportedly told him, "You are a testament to the failure of the American educational system."

Baird has released music on Dangerbird, Aural Canyon, Curly, Moon Glyph, in addition to a steady stream of self-released albums. He’s been playlisted on BBC 6 Music and performed across their airwaves, earned Rough Trade’s Record of the Month, and recorded at Abbey Road Studios twice. He has produced albums for Generationals and Garrett T. Capps, and spent six weeks in India shooting The Origin of Sound, a film made for Air India. The city of Austin once declared a Bill Baird Day at City Hall.

Critics have been emphatic: "In the sphere of psychedelic music, Bill Baird is without a doubt one of the top 2 or 3 songwriters in the world," wrote le Village Pop. Tiny Mix Tapes called him "one of the last of the living rock n roll geniuses." The Bay Bridged: "Bill Baird is a genius."

He is currently back home in San Antonio, where he is working on a book about the 1968 World’s Fair for Texas A&M University Press. His newest album, Life Creates Itself, is set to be released on September 25th, 2026 by Royal Oakie Records.

Mia Wilson is the debut album from Southern California singer-songwriter Mia Wilson. Produced by Tim Ramsey (Vetiver, Little Wings, Kacey Johansing), the album blends piano- and guitar-based compositions with lush orchestral arrangements to create a backdrop for Wilson’s introspective lyrics and mezzo-soprano vocals. The album recalls the late ’60s and early ’70s LA records of Carole King, Judee Sill, and Jackson Browne.

Wilson and her partner Skyler Lusteg began writing the songs that would make up the album in 2021, just before meeting Ramsey and drummer Trevor Beld Jimenez (Fruit Bats, Tall Tales and the Silver Living, GospelbeacH) while opening for their band Parting Lines on California’s Central Coast. Ramsey and Beld Jimenez encouraged Wilson and Lusteg to record a full-length album.

The majority of the album was recorded live over three days in 2024 at 64 Sound in Los Angeles with Tyler Karmen (Sharon Van Etten, Alvvays, Richard Edwards) as engineer. The rest was tracked in Ramsey’s home studio, Endless Sound, with one session at Altamira Sound in Alhambra, CA with engineer Carly Bond (Meernaa). David Glasebrook later mastered the album at The Garden Shed in Oakland, CA.

Lead single "It Must Be So Easy" explores existential themes of yearning and desire against a backdrop of piano, strings, and backing vocals by Alina Hardin. "I Want It All" is both a paean to youthful joie de vivre and a bittersweet realization about time, featuring strings by Kaitlin Wolfberg. "Face To Face" features a Bass VI solo by Ramsey, recalling Glen Campbell’s "Wichita Lineman."

Mia Wilson is due for release on November 14th, 2025 on Royal Oakie Records, and will be available on vinyl, CD, and digital platforms.

Donald Beaman is a songwriter, singer, and guitarist based in Northern California who has released five albums since 2015. He performs solo and with a backing band.

• Shared the stage with: Jonathan Richman, Sharon Van Etten, Michael Hurley, Mdou Moctar, Marisa Anderson, William Tyler, Xylouris White, Shannon Lay, Mary Lattimore, Six Organs of Admittance, Little Wings, and more.

Before returning to the West Coast, as a member of The Double he was active in the New York City music scene in the early to mid-2000s. The Double released three albums, including Loose in the Air on Matador Records; recorded a John Peel Session at Maida Vale Studios for the BBC; and toured the United States and Europe.

Beaman’s fifth album, Fog On Mirror Glass, was released on Royal Oakie Records on June 14th, 2024. The album "unfurls with a measured pace, combining elegiac lyrics with minimalist arrangements played with a jazz-like reverential expressiveness" that MOJO called "the dictionary of less is more," evoking Cass McCombs, Will Oldham, and Jake Xerxes Fussell.