Music Performers

Clearly Guilty is currently comprised of two buxom babes, Libby Green and Lora Williams. Since 2012, the members of Clearly Guilty have worked tirelessly to hone their skills as songwriters and musicians, striving to bring a welcoming and memorable experience to any stage. All of their lyrics, melodies, harmonies, and jokes have exclusively been written by their past and current roster of band members. Across 5 albums and dozens of unrecorded tunes, their songs have covered a full pantheon of different topics. 

Brimstone Rhine is both an imaginary rockstar (the alter-ego of fantasy writer and audiobook narrator C. S. E. Cooney) and the name of a band currently consisting of Cooney, her brother James, and her husband (SF/F author and game designer Carlos Hernandez). Brimstone Rhine has crowdfunded two EPs and produced one full album. Cooney’s SF musical Ballads from a Distant Star was performed at NYC’s Arts on Site in 2023 and Cooney and Hernandez were Guests of Honor at the NYC-area con HELIOsphere in 2024.

Chuck Shiring and Brenda Shaffer-Shiring are a match made in fandom. They met as members of Starfleet International’s (now-defunct) Pittsburgh-based U.S.S. Potemkin, and got to know one another as members of its fanfiction-writing workshop. They started filking at Shore Leave, about 20 years ago, and haven’t stopped since. In addition to Shore Leave and Confluence, they’ve performed at Philcon and the Festival of the Living Rooms, and have had a couple of songs on Filkcast. They’re both avid readers and enjoy following sf media. They live in Lower Burrell, PA, have one son (also called Chuck), and both work for a certain local bird-themed supermarket chain.

Hailing from the city of brotherly love, the nerdcore hip-hop group known as Heroes 4 Hire are convention elite panelists and party conductors. The dynamic duo at the heart of the group consists of Ray Riley (the Shinigami) and Tray Digga (the Legendary Super Saiyan). They are often accompanied by their elite otaku unit, “The Heroes’ League,” a team that specializes in theatrical-esque presentations. H4H is best known for their animated performances and hardcore delivery. Their carefully crafted lyrics and nerdy references leave villains rethinking their day jobs.

Toby Danger is a rag-rag group of elder Millennials writing funny rock and roll songs and making them family friendly because their wives told them to. Like “Weird” Al with distortion, The Aquabats with slightly less outfit coordination, or Tenacious D without the sex appeal, Toby Danger is mixing up slick riffs, huge drums, and an exciting (if a little out of breath) stage show. (from Cleveland OH)

Twill Distilled DC/NoVA-based Twill Distilled (who was anointed with her stage name by the legendary KRS-One) does graphic design as her day job, but since 2014 has written and performed nerdcore hip-hop as her passion. She has performed solo at BitGen, MAGFest, MAGStock, and MAGWest and has performed at Confluence and many other conventions as former member of Wreck The System. Her eclectic sound and inspirations (described by her MAGStock biographer as “singularly Twill”) are highlighted on her recent albums “POWER” and “I N V A D E R”. She has collaborated with many other fannish musicians, has guested on numerous podcasts, and wrote and drew an SF webcomic titled “INVADER: The Adventures of StarHopper and Husky” for a while.

Maddie Cardoza (they/she) is a queer singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Providence, RI. Their music falls somewhere between dreampop and indie folk, and their songs are love letters to existence, nature, and the bonds of community. Along with their solo endeavors, they sing and play keys/sax/clarinet as a member of the band Field of Embers (Providence, RI), and they also play horns with Hooly J Chan and the Wicked Queer Puppet Theater (Westport, MA).

Provience’s Nathaniel Johnstone has been known to accompany himself (on his own songs of myth, magic, mystery, and science fiction) using piano, guitar, clarinet, and/or violin, though not necessarily all at the same time. His vibrant sound crosses boundaries and borders, resulting in a blend of European, Middle Eastern, and South American music with Jazz, Rock, Surf, Folk, Gothic, and Steampunk influences. He performs and tours all over—you never know where you might catch him if not here at Confluence!

Sirens & Liars is a powerhouse female vocal duo that covers songs from the video games you know and love. Known for their haunting sound and tight harmonies, Alyx (soprano) and Ashley (mezzo soprano) blend their voices seamlessly to create a mesmerizing and unforgettable performance experience. From Fallout to Cyberpunk, Hades to Skyrim, they do it all—and quite stylishly!

Tre Watson is a musician, composer, and audio engineer coming out of Baltimore whose compositions span styles from hip-hop to future funk, rock, metal, and pop. He has contributed tracks to games such as id Software’s Doom Eternal and Riot Games’ League of Legends and has also created cover tunes and videos that pay homage to music from anime, video games, and other Japanese and Western pop-culture phenomena, leaving a lasting impact on audiences worldwide.

WASD is a Baltimore-based metal project taking inspiration from the soundtracks for classic PC games that include Diablo, Quake, Command & Conquer, and Unreal Tournament, among many others. They’re coming to Confluence…and maybe a LAN party near you!

With performance ASL for select concerts by Judi Miller

Judi Miller has been active in the filk community since the 1980s. She won the Pegasus Award for Best Performer in 2006 and 2017 and was admitted to the Filk Hall of Fame in 2017. Judi is best known for her sign-language musical interpretation, which she has done for concerts at our conference and elsewhere for many years. She was our 30th Anniversary Honors Guest in 2019 and we are very glad that she can be with us again.

Music-Programming Coordinator
W. Randy Hoffman a member of the Filk Hall of Fame, has been coordinating Confluence’s music programming for three decades. When he isn’t at a concert or convention either appreciating or wrangling performers, he does business analysis for the Enterprise Reporting team serving the State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs and fields trouble tickets from diplomatic posts around the world.
He has written an enormous number of songs, has won numerous songwriting contests, has been nominated for seven Pegasus Awards and has been running the music program at Confluence—which he considers his home convention—since 1995. (Well, he also lives with his parents near Williamsport, PA, and plays board games with them when they aren’t too busy watching Fox News.)

Sound Technicians:
Mark Peters has been a member of the filk community since at least 1999. In addition to running sound here at Confluence and at Ohio Valley Filk Fest (OVFF) and Marcon in Columbus, OH, he is a member of the OVFF convention committee, often providing a calm voice in a sea of chaos. Mark has a passion for filk, advocating for filkers and other performers who might be overlooked or not as well-known as they should be. He was inducted to the Filk Hall of Fame in 2022.

Roberta Slocumb has been a member of the filk community for many years and has run the music programming at Marcon in Columbus for the past decade or so.