Rock Hearts

Rock Hearts formed in 2013, bringing together five veteran bluegrass players from southern New England, and is based in Charlestown, Rhode Island. Founding member Joe Deetz plays banjo, with Alex MacLeod on guitar and lead vocals, Billy Thibodeau on mandolin, Rick Brodsky on bass and Austin Scelzo on fiddle.

Deetz played with Joe Val's New England Bluegrass Boys and has recorded with John Herald. MacLeod grew up around the music through his parents and fronted regional bands including Northern Lights. Thibodeau, a Maine Country Music Hall of Fame inductee, started out with his father in the Kennebec Valley Boys.

Their first album, Starry Southern Nights, was released independently. In June 2022 they signed with Nashville's 615 Hideaway Records, which released Wanderlust and then Unfinished Bridges. MacLeod wrote the title song of Wanderlust about growing up as a military kid, and the album features Michael Cleveland on fiddle, Dale Ann Bradley on a gospel duet and Jonathan Edwards singing "Don't Cry Blue," his 1971 hit.