Primal Rhythm was created by Sue Balaschak initially as a solo project for recording records and teaching hand drum workshops. Sue’s firsthand drum CD, “Primal Rhythm 1” received national publications and is featured in the Cleveland documentary “Return of the Cuyahoga” which aired on PBS. She decided to bring her solo records to life and create a kick ass all female drum ensemble. They first surfaced the festival circuit in 2011- 2013 and have returned once again to Chrysalis Moon 2025.
Two of the original members, Dawn Fritz Heartsong, on percussion and Michelle Clark, laying down the bottom on DunDuns, have returned to tribal rock your world.
IPMA (International Pagan Music Awards) Best Male Artist winner in 2019, 2020 and again in 2024, Brian Henke composes and performs his music like a painter putting images on canvas, a kind of sonic shaman, drawing his inspiration from the world around him.
His unique guitar style has been called everything from Folk to New Age to Neo-Classical to Pastoral or as Brian likes to call it “a big stewpot of everything, stirred up, simmered and served to taste.”
Brian has just released his latest vocal CD “There Beneath the Stars”….2 more vocal albums and one instrumental are written and partially recorded.
He has also released seven instrumental solo guitar and harp guitar albums, two celebrated compilation albums. The Woodchooper’s Ball which benefit’s the Cleveland Ohio area homeless and the Green Album which is still benefiting The Rainforest Trust, one group CD, and three previous vocal albums and….is working on a musical play with writer and playwright Byron Ballard called “Forevermore”.
He is also a part of the recently released compilation CD to benefit Womens reproductive rights featuring 19 Pagan artists called The Red Album. The 19 artists include, S.J. Tucker, Mama Gina Lamont, Celia Ferran, Alexian, Spiral Rhythm, Crow Women and many, many others.
Throughout all of his music is an undercurrent of spirituality and mysticism that Brian says is very much a part of the creative process. Because of this he has received radio air play all over the world on shows as varied as WKSU’s “Folk Alley”, International Pagan Radio and John Dilberto’s “Echoes.” A winner of many acoustic and electric guitar awards, he has also been a finalist in the prestigious National Fingerstyle Contest in Winfield, Kansas, the National Guitarmageddon regional finals in Boston and in New Age Reporters Top 10 for 2006 and 2010.
“Brian’s fretwork is masterful, elaborate and he makes every note count…His compositions are harmonious, sometimes complicated, but always engaging…Brian Henke’s music is organic, mesmerizing and best of all magic.” – RJ Lannon – New Age Reporter
Dance with the Fireflies, the album, is fae-magickal throughout its 12 tracks, and it’s easy to discern Henke’s most prominent spell-casting tool: his stunning virtuosity on acoustic guitar, harp guitar, and his Gibson Les Paul.
Henke is an awe-inspiring picker whose genre is known as “fingerstyle guitar,” and he’s in the same league with such giants as Alex de Grassi, Will Ackerman, Leo Kottke, and those guys. – Rick De Yampert – Wild Hunt