John Elliott is a singer, writer, musician and producer whose music has been described as “post-Seinfeld, post-9/11 eyebrow rock,” “tear at your heartstrings, folksy” and “surreal and trippy, cool kind of pop thing.” The San Diego Troubadour says: “John’s well-crafted, concise and very catchy songs get in, make their statement, kick you in the teeth and get out before they start talking too much.”

Heavily influenced by Dylan and Springsteen, his songwriting is frequently compared to Paul Simon's and his voice has been featured on Grey’s Anatomy, NPR and Neil Young’s “Living With War” website. He just released his fifth album, American in Love. He and his band, John Elliott and The Hereafter, have developed an international following and were just signed to Garland Lane, an independent record label in Los Angeles. Elliott released his sixth album exclusively on vinyl and the World Wide Web (no CDs!) on June 22nd.

In addition to performing his own material, John is also a producer. One of his most recent projects is "Not Afraid of Nothing," the eighth record (!) by his good friend, 18-year old Anthony da Costa. No stranger to Common Ground, the Pleasantville NY-based da Costa has appeared at Common Ground more often than any other single artist. Despite his relative youth, his list of achievements is long and impressive—so much so that he even has his own Wikipedia page, which sums his bio up concisely, as follows: "  Anthony da Costa (born 1991 in Bronx NY) is an American singer-songwriter based in Pleasantville, NY. He performs frequently at coffeehouses, theaters and festivals across the Northeast and beyond. He names Ryan Adams,^[1] Dan Bern, and Josh Ritter as some of his biggest songwriting influences. Anthony's song "Poor Poor Pluto" about the loss of Pluto as a planet has become a cult-hit along the folk music circuit, as well as "Dolly and Porter", the love story of two country music superstars, Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner. Anthony is also known for his work with Abbie Gardner, a dobro player and singer/songwriter from the band Red Molly. Their first duo album, Bad Nights/Better Days, was released in May 2008."