Big Brother and the Holding Company is an American rock band that formed in San Francisco in 1965 as part of the same psychedelic music scene that produced the Grateful Dead, Quicksilver Messenger Service and Jefferson Airplane. They are best known as the band that featured Janis Joplin as their lead singer. Their 1968 album Cheap Thrills is considered one of the masterpieces of the psychedelic sound of San Francisco; it reached number one on the Billboard charts, and was ranked number 338 in Rolling Stone's the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Country Joe and the Fish was a rock band most widely known for musical protests against the Vietnam War, from 1966 to 1971.

Catherine E. Richardson (born February 21, 1969), who goes professionally by Cathy Richardson, is a singer and songwriter from Chicago, Illinois. Richardson grew up in west suburban Burr Ridge, Illinois and graduated from Hinsdale Central High School in Hinsdale, Illinois. Before starting her music career, Richardson worked as an auto mechanic and as a cashier at her father's gas station. She started her music career full-time in 1990. Millions of American preschoolers have seen her on Noggin's Jack's Big Music Show, and the Cathy Richardson Band has been voted Best Local Band in polls by the Chicago Tribune and Fox News Chicago. She portrayed Janis Joplin in the original cast of the hit Off-Broadway musical "Love, Janis." She also sang Janis' vocal parts for Big Brother and the Holding Company during many of their recent live shows. In 2004, Richardson and art director Bill Dolan were nominated for a Grammy award for best recording package for her album The Road to Bliss. Richardson has been widely reported to be good friends with musicians Dennis DeYoung and Jim Peterik. After owning a house in Elmhurst, Illinois for a time, Richardson now is based in San Francisco. In 2008, Richardson became the new vocalist for San Francisco band Jefferson Starship and appears on the 2008 release Jefferson's Tree of Liberty. On Saturday February 28, 2009, Jefferson Starship begin their tour in Chester, Pennsylvania. The set included many Airplane and Starship songs and others by CSNY and Pete Seeger.

Odetta Holmes, (December 31, 1930 – December 2, 2008), known as Odetta, was an American singer, actress, guitarist, songwriter, and a human rights activist, often referred to as "The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement". Her musical repertoire consisted largely of American folk music, blues, jazz, and spirituals. An important figure in the American folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960s, she was influential musically and ideologically to many of the key figures of the folk-revival of that time, including Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Mavis Staples, and Janis Joplin.

Bessie Smith (July 9, 1892 or April 15, 1894 - September 26, 1937) was an American blues singer. The most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s, Smith is often regarded as one of the greatest singers of her era, and along with Louis Armstrong, a major influence on subsequent jazz vocalists.

Joan Chandos Baez (born January 9, 1941 in Staten Island, New York) is a folk singer and songwriter known for her highly individual vocal style. Many of her songs are topical and deal with social issues. She is perhaps best known for her hit "Diamonds & Rust" and her covers of Phil Ochs' "There But For Fortune" and The Band's "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down", and to a lesser extent,"We Shall Overcome," "Love Is Just A Four-Letter Word" and "Farewell Angelina," "Sweet Sir Galahad" and "Joe Hill" . She remains known for her long relationship with Bob Dylan and her lifelong passion for activism, notably in the areas of nonviolence, civil, human rights and, more recently, the environment. Baez has performed publicly for over 50 years, released over 30 albums and recorded songs in at least eight languages. She is considered a folk singer although her music has strayed from folk considerably after the 1960s, encompassing everything from rock and pop to country and gospel. Although a songwriter herself, especially in the mid-1970s, Baez is most often regarded as an interpreter of other people's work, covering songs by Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Jackson Browne, Paul Simon, The Rolling Stones, Stevie Wonder and myriad other artists. In more recent years, she has found success interpreting songs of diverse songwriters such as Steve Earle, Natalie Merchant and Ryan Adams. She has a three-octave vocal range and a distinctively rapid vibrato.

Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman on May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter, author, poet and painter who has been a major figure in popular music for five decades. Much of Dylan's most celebrated work dates from the 1960s, when he became an informal chronicler and a reluctant figurehead of American unrest. A number of his songs, such as "Blowin' in the Wind" and "The Times They Are a-Changin'", became anthems of both the civil rights movements and of the opposition to the Vietnam War. After a lifetime of writing, recording, and performing, Dylan's latest record—his 33rd studio album—Together Through Life was released on April 28, 2009. The album reached the number one spot on both the Billboard 200 chart of top selling albums, and the UK album charts in its first week of release. Dylan's early lyrics incorporated political, social, philosophical, and literary influences, defying existing pop music conventions and appealing widely to the counterculture. While expanding and personalizing musical styles, he has explored many traditions of American song, from folk, blues and country to gospel, rock and roll and rockabilly to English, Scottish and Irish folk music, and even jazz and swing. Dylan performs with the guitar, piano and harmonica. Backed by a changing line-up of musicians, he has toured steadily since the late 1980s on what has been dubbed the "Never Ending Tour". Although his accomplishments as performer and recording artist have been central to his career, his songwriting is generally regarded as his greatest contribution. Throughout his career, Dylan has won many awards for his songwriting, performing, and recording. His records have earned Grammy, Golden Globe, and Academy Awards, and he has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 2008, a "Cultural Pathway" was named in Dylan's honor in his birthplace, Duluth. In 2008, he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize Special Citation for his "profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power."

Johnny Preston (born John Preston Courville, August 18, 1939, Port Arthur, Texas) is an American pop music singer.Of Cajun ancestry, Preston sang in high school choral contests throughout the state of Texas. He formed a rock and roll band called 'The Shades', before recording his U.S. No. 1 hit single "Running Bear". The teenage tragedy song was written by J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, who had died the previous year in the same plane crash that killed Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens. It was a transatlantic chart-topper, reaching #1 in the United Kingdom in March 1960. The sales of the gramophone record exceeded one million copies, earning Preston his first gold disc. Preston quickly followed up with another hit called "Cradle of Love," and made several other records during the early 1960s that met with modest success. "Cradle of Love" was a hit in both the UK Singles Chart and in Athens, Greece. Preston's "I'm Starting to Go Steady", a song on the flip side of "Feel So Fine",, was released in June 1960. Preston made appearances on American Bandstand and The Milt Grant Show and also The Buddy Deane Show . Preston's pioneering contribution to the genre was recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. He also performed at Dick Clark's American Bandstand Theater in Branson, Missouri. In 2009 Preston performed at the Lamar State College in his hometown.

Bonnie Lynn Raitt (born November 8, 1949) is an American blues singer-songwriter who was born in Burbank, California. Raitt is best known for her recordings of the songs "Nick of Time ", "Something to Talk About", "Love Sneaking Up on You", and the ballad "I Can't Make You Love Me." Raitt is also an avid political activist and has received nine Grammy Awards in her career.

Louis Jordan (July 8, 1908 - February 4, 1975) was a pioneering American jazz, blues and rhythm & blues musician, songwriter and bandleader who enjoyed his greatest popularity from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Known as "The King of the Jukebox", Jordan was highly popular with both black and white audiences in the later years of the swing era. In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked him #59 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

Danny Ray Whitten (May 8, 1943 - November 18, 1972) was an American musician and songwriter best known for his work with Neil Young and Crazy Horse, and for the song "I Don't Want To Talk About It", a hit for Rita Coolidge and Rod Stewart.

Ray Charles Robinson (September 23, 1930 - June 10, 2004), known by his stage name Ray Charles, was a blind musician. He brought a soulful sound to country music and pop standards through his Modern Sounds recordings, as well as a rendition of "America the Beautiful" that Ed Bradley of 60 Minutes called the "definitive version of the song, an American anthem — a classic, just as the man who sang it." He also appeared in the 1980 hit movie, The Blues Brothers. Frank Sinatra called him "the only true genius in the business". In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked Charles number ten on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time and also voted him number two on their November 2008 list of The 100 Greatest Singers of All Time.

Chad Butler (December 29, 1973 - December 4, 2007), better known by his stage name Pimp C, was an American rapper and producer. He was one half of the influential hip-hop group UGK.

John Alvin Ray (January 10, 1927 – February 24, 1990) was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Popular for most of the 1950s, Ray has been cited by critics as a major precursor of what would become rock and roll, for his jazz and blues-influenced music and his animated stage persona.

Samuel Cook, better known as Sam Cooke, (January 22, 1931 – December 11, 1964) was an American gospel, R&B, soul, and pop singer, songwriter, and entrepreneur. He is considered to be one of the pioneers and founders of soul music. Cooke had 29 Top 40 hits in the U.S. between 1957 and 1965. Major hits like "You Send Me", "A Change Is Gonna Come", "Chain Gang", "Wonderful World", and "Bring It on Home to Me" are some of his most popular songs. Cooke was also among the first modern black performers and composers to attend to the business side of his musical career. He founded both a record label and a publishing company as an extension of his careers as a singer and composer. He also took an active part in the American Civil Rights Movement.