Devonne Harris aka DJ Harrison was born in Petersburg, VA in 1988, and grew up in Chesterfield County. He became interested in music at a very young age, as his father was a radio disc-jockey throughout the 1980s. His musical taste was further seasoned with his parent’s record collection, eventually learning the rhythm section instruments from said records: drums as a toddler, followed by piano, bass, guitar, and certain horns in middle school. He joined the Thomas Dale High School marching band in 2002, which introduced him to an array of teachers and peers that were involved in different styles of recording (4 track cassette machines, production software, etc). He went on to attend Virginia Commonwealth University’s jazz studies program, where he would pick up a more scientific approach to songwriting by building his songs methodically through researching and experimenting with new sounds. It’s here at VCU that Harris would meet a long list of life-long collaborators such as John D’earth, Matthew E White, Calvin Brown, and Charles Owens. It is also during this time when he befriended the members of Butcher Brown, a band in which he holds the keyboard chair. Butcher Brown has gone on to share the stage with artists such as Kamasi Washington, Terrace Martin, and Robert Glasper. DJ Harrison’s contributions can be heard on works by Butcher Brown, Nicholas Payton, Pink Siifu, and Dionne Farris, while also capturing the attention of many notable artists like Questlove, Madlib, and Tyler the Creator. His current solo ventures are housed underneath the Stones Throw Records label of Los Angeles, CA, as well as Jellowstone Records of Richmond, VA.

Peter McElhinney has written about the Richmond, Virginia music scene for Style Weekly and other publications for over twenty-five years. Mostly focusing on jazz and other modern improvised music, he has also covered classical, world, and other genres. In that role he has interviewed and profiled both are and world-renowned musicians, including Sonny Rollins, B.B. King, Pat Metheny, Itzhak Pearlman, Rene Marie, and dozens of others. Because writing about music tends to collapse into either taste-bound poetic impression or academic dissection, McElhinney’s approach is to focus on the artists as much as their creations. For several years he has been building skills in photography, documenting the players, venues, and events that make RVA music unique. He is also a long-time participant in Downbeat magazine’s iconic Jazz Critics Poll. Despite having a degree in journalism from Penn State University, McElhinney’s professional life has primarily focused on emerging information technologies, with working in research, consulting, and marketing strategies. He has held executive roles in multiple startups, most unusually as the Chief Operating Officer for a planned but never built Hard Rock Hotel resort in Panama. His most recent role is as the marketing lead for zero trust cybersecurity innovator StealthPath.