With The Hurting Kind, John Paul White has crafted a stunning album that draws on the lush, orchestrated music made in Nashville in the early 1960s. Yet these songs retain a modern feel, whether he’s writing about overwhelming love, unraveling relationships, or fading memory of a loved one.
White lives in Florence, Alabama, not far from Muscle Shoals. He has cultivated a music career in Nashville for two decades, first as a songwriter, then half of The Civil Wars – a groundbreaking duo that won four Grammy Awards before disbanding in 2012.
Because The Civil Wars were so hard to categorize, White has earned a fanbase among indie rock listeners, folk audiences, Americana outlets and AAA radio. So, what will happen if people hear The Hurting Kind and call it country? “Well that doesn’t scare me in the least,” he says. “As a matter of fact, it kind of thrills me.”
Charles Brooks, D.M.A. is a classically trained professional percussionist and vibraphonist, and an accomplished jazz musician and studio drummer currently living and performing in the Muscle Shoals area of North Alabama. He is also a clinician, composer, consultant, audio engineer, and college educator. Dr. Brooks is the Assistant Professor of Audio Engineering in the Department of Entertainment Industry at the University of North Alabama, where he mentors students while teaching and equipping them with the necessary skills to understand how to seek out, recognize, and be fully prepared for professional opportunities in live sound and studio recording, and additionally, he mentors budding musicians in performance and application. He is proficient in orchestral performance, jazz studies and performance, percussion studies and performance, and audio engineering.
Chuck composes, performs, records, mixes, and masters his own original music and plays every string and percussion instrument heard on his albums, which run the gamut from jazz and experimental to hand drumming and meditation. He is known for his improvisational talents and personalized high-energy performances, where he captivates audiences with his wildly innovative drum set and four-mallet vibraphone techniques. He is a nationally featured jazz performer at the University of North Alabama, Louisiana State University, Belmont University, the University of Minnesota-Duluth, Austin Peay State University, the University of Louisville, Western Kentucky University, the Mid-City Jazz Festival (Baton Rouge, La.), and the Duluth Jazz Festival. In 2023, he placed 2nd in the London International Music Competition in Percussion.
Dr. Brooks has over 35 years’ experience in performance, composition, and education, and over 25 years’ experience recording live shows. He holds a Doctorate in Musical Arts with a Composition minor from Louisiana State University, and he is a graduate of the Berklee College of Music Summer Jazz Series.
Born and raised in Florence, Alabama, Alex Wittscheck developed a love for music in his teenage years. This love grew from playing music in garage bands in high school to traveling the United States as a bassist, audio engineer, and tour manager.
Alex has built a career in live music over the past two decades working with artists such as Matthew Mayfield, David Ramirez, firekid, John Paul White, Carver Commodore, Heidi Feek, and Adam Wainwright. The majority of Alex’s film production experience comes from his work with Armosa Studios where he handled production management and all audio for their videos. He graduated in 2019 from Southern Utah University with a Master of Music in Music Technology.
Currently, Alex is fully committed to his job as Lecturer in the Department of Entertainment Industry at his Alma Mater, UNA. In this role, he gets to share his love for live audio with students. Alex still picks up freelance tour management and audio engineering jobs when time allows, such as his recent recordings with Heidi Feek, firekid, and the team behind the music for the PBS show “Reconnecting Roots.”
Bay Simpson is a singer/songwriter from Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Raised up around the studio, and born a performer, Bay could already be considered a veteran in his mid 20s. His first break as a songwriter came at the ripe age of 20 when Kid Rock recorded and released one his songs entitled “Never Enough”. After years of fronting his country rock band “Outlaw Apostles,” and opening for artists such as Dwight Yoakam and Jamey Johnson, Bay is finally coming into his own as a solo artist. Bay Simpson is set to begin carving his own legacy one song and one show at a time.
Born and raised in Natchitoches, Louisiana, Caleb Elliott is far from your typical preacher’s son-turned-musician. With his father a pastor and his mother the church pianist, Elliott was immersed in traditional hymns from an early age, but it was his love for classical cello that would eventually jumpstart his musical career. While attending college in Lafayette, Elliott began playing 4-6 nights a week to support himself, your typical “covers gigs,” as he describes it. During this period of persistent gigging, he released his first EP of original songs in 2012, which had a surprising effect: now, everyone wanted him to play cello on their records.
As a session musician, Elliott began lending cello to all kinds of albums in the Lafayette music scene, culminating in a moment that would change his trajectory and finally move him out of Louisiana. In 2014, singer-songwriter Dylan LeBlanc met Elliott and encouraged him to relocate to Muscle Shoals, Alabama, where he still resides today. Once settled in the Shoals, Elliott became the go-to cellist for an elite collective of collaborators such as Nicole Atkins, John Paul White, members of Alabama Shakes, Maggie Rose, and Cedric Burnside, whose 2021 record I Be Trying won a Grammy for Best Traditional Blues Album.
As a singer-songwriter, Elliott released his debut record Forever to Fade in 2019, followed by Weed, Wine & Time in 2023 (both via Single Lock Records). He has opened for a variety of artists such as Alabama Shakes, Gaz Coombes (Supergrass), Sean McConnell, The White Buffalo, Fruition, and The Secret Sisters (who are featured on his recent single). This year, he follows up Weed, Wine & Time with two new singles, “I Don’t Believe You” and “Slow Burn,” in which sonic influences like Harry Nilsson and Louisiana’s own Bobby Charles can be heard woven throughout Elliott’s melodies and arrangements.
When he is not recording and touring his solo project, Elliott is an active co-writer, with writing credits on songs like Mary Gauthier’s “Thank God for You” and Billy Allen + The Pollies “It’s Okay,” which was recruited as the theme song for Netflix’s The Madness. Elliott’s own songs have been featured on the Showtime series Shameless and the Marvel series Daredevil: Born Again. More recently, Elliott has found a love for co-producing records with long-time collaborator Ben Tanner (Alabama Shakes), shepherding in the next generation of folk artists. As a singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, session musician, co-writer, and producer, Elliott invokes a studied and heartfelt multi-disciplinary approach to bringing songs to life.
Janna Malone is Senior Lecturer and Chair of the Department of Entertainment Industry at the University of North Alabama. She received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Commercial Music and a Masters in Business Administration from the University of North Alabama. She teaches music business courses and is the Internship Coordinator for students majoring in Entertainment Industry. She is completing her 29th year at UNA.
Prior to her work at UNA, Malone was employed at FAME Recording Studios in Muscle Shoals, where she served as Executive Administrator of the publishing and production companies.
She is a member of Music and Entertainment Industry Educators Association and serves on the Board of Directors of the Muscle Shoals Music Association. She was recently awarded the UNA College of Arts, Sciences, and Engineering Outstanding Department Chair Award.
Dr. Meghan Merciers is Associate Dean of the School of the Arts in the College of Arts, Sciences, and Engineering and Professor of Music at the University of North Alabama. She is an active soloist and collaborative musician, performing throughout the United States, Europe, Canada, and Mexico. Dr. Merciers is principal clarinetist of the Shoals Symphony Orchestra and frequently takes the stage with her chamber ensembles, Una Duo, Trio Leo, I voci delle leonesse, and Devil Sticks, championing the music of diverse composers and cultures. Her most recent album dropped in March 2025 and features the music of Peter M. Temko.
Meghan is a Silverstein Pro Team Artist and Yamaha Performing Artist and earned all degrees in music performance, with her Doctor of Musical Arts from Michigan State University, Master of Music from the University of New Mexico, and a Bachelor of Music from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Additionally, she is certified by the Performing Arts Medicine Association as an Arts Educator and teaches a Seminar in Healthy Musicianship as a First-Year Experience course at UNA for music majors and minors.