Cora Sone is a light heavy band from Baltimore. The trio features singer-songwriter Abby Becker on guitar, Patrick McMinn on modular synth, bass and keys, and Sam Balcom on drums. They achieve a dreamy, glitched out, stuttering, and utterly unique sound by sending Becker’s lead vocals through the modular synth. The band started with a question: what happens when two people are playing one instrument at the same time? The result is a perennial sound experiment, a playful dialogue where nobody knows what’s going to happen next. This essential sense of possibility and disruption serves as a vehicle for songs about imminence, the ethics of love, and heartbreak in the face of the every day world. Cora Sone has appeared with lauded Baltimore artists including Eze Jackson, War on Women, Wume, and Haint Blue.

Mobtown Live is Baltimore's favorite public-access style variety television show. April 4, 2020, the very beginning of the pandemic, I produced, co-hosted, and performed for The Great Baltimore Telethon with The Mobtown Ballroom. This very early online event was a 16-hour fundraiser for Baltimore artists and gig workers freshly out of work. I booked more than fifty acts in less than two weeks, and the event raised over $17,000 for participating artists. The Telethon was an exercise in performance art; part of the fun was to watch our skeleton crew of four descend into madness as we stayed live for 16 hours straight. The event featured dancers, puppeters, Drag Queen story hour, magic, taxidermy, music, crafting, cocktail making, hula hooping, etc. My role was as producer, curator, one woman house band, MC, and production manager.
This glorious event evolved into a weekly live stream variety TV show, Mobtown Live produced by myself, The Mobtown Ballroom, and Matt Hachi Reid. Mobtown Live airs weekly, Wednesday evenings live at 7PM. The program is a gesture at connection, at holding our community together while elevating the artists we love. So many have said, this is my first performance in 6 months. My artistic world is not a solo project; my work is in creating, maintaining, and elevating the community that I love and respect here in Baltimore. Previous guests include Mayor Brandon Scott, Comptroller Bill Henry, Eze Jackson, Bobbi Rush, Zeb Bangash, Jonathan Gilmore, Baynard Woods, Landis Expandis, and many more.

There will be dancing. There will be puppets. There will be story time, magic, taxidermy, music, crafting, drinking, and maybe even a word from our moms. Clear your busy, busy calendar because this is the most insane event I have yet to produce. Link in my bio, love to all

Fondly known as every puppet's favorite band, Trucker Talk started as the house band for the episodic puppet show "The Motherload" and has gone on to score an international award-winning short film, collaborate with Light City artists large scale installations, and even play music without puppets. Loosely styled as an experimental chamber group or "chamber transport" Trucker Talk is the product of four fiersome artists having way too much fun. Our members are Jessica Keyes (saxophone/flute/synth), Greg Bowen (drums/keys at the same time), Rich Kolm (bass and yips) and Abby Becker (violin/vocal effects/vibraslap). Our original album Dreams and Nightmares, the story of a single night's sleep, is forthcoming.

In November 2019, I produced and performed in a remount of the Talkings Heads classic 1983 concert film Stop Making Sense. With a core band, a different lead singer on each song, horn section, lights, projections, film, and staging this ambitious, two night show was not so much a restaging as a performance art piece. I put my heart into producing this show and was deeply involved in casting, artistic direction, promotion, and performance. It was my priority to cast a lineup that brought an unlikely, powerful group together and honor those artists by encouraging them to make the performance their own. Our team included rappers, punks, and Peabody grads, as well as dancers and theater techs. We sold out the Ottobar, raised over $4,000 for The Baltimore Harm Reduction Society, and produced a show BmoreArt called “a booster shot” for the city.

The first ever Baltimore Mixtape Music and Arts Festival took place, May 4th - 5th, 2019 in Station North. This event, featuring over 60 acts, almost every single one of which is from Baltimore City and represented a glimpse into the rich diversity of musical genres and artistry our city has to offer. From hip hop to punk to country, we brought them together in a curated, mind blowing single weekend of celebration and inspiration. This was our love letter to the city; it's our way of holding up our community to say we are worthwhile. After the city shuttered, threatened, and drove the DIY world in Baltimore so far underground that we were effectively silenced, a lot of us wondered if that era was over. Even though I've been playing music in the city for years, I can't pretend to claim a particular scene as mine. But I was asked by a couple of friends who wanted to show that energy, that something-from-nothing spirit that is still thriving in the city and I said yes. I was deeply involved in booking and curating the diverse lineup, developing the concept, managing meetings and the production team, press (I wrote the copy, mission/vision, and press release for the festival), promotions, budgeting, permits / licensing, interfacing with venues, ticketing, logistics, stage managing, and performing. We managed to pay every single artist who took a risk playing this first-year event (despite heavy rain the second day) and year two is currently in the works.