For over two decades, rob Hinkal and Heather Aubrey Lloyd have crisscrossed the nation as ilyAIMY (i love you And I Miss You) playing everything from bait shops to biker weeks to clothing-optional resorts, folk festivals, heavy metal festivals, coffeehouses and colleges across all 48 states of the contiguous United States, plus Canada and Mexico. They perform award-winning original songs with soulful, powerful male / female harmonies and a percussive, clawhammer-like acoustic guitar that drives the heart of the band. Their infectious energy and rapid-fire lyricism is softened with cello, amplified by Irish bones and bodhran, beatboxing, djembe, and thickened by didgeridoo, synths and keys creating “an acoustically roiling, combustible attack on the usual singer/songwriter fare”.
Their energetic brand of new-folk has garnered honors from the Bernard/Ebb Songwriter Awards, Mid-Atlantic Song Contest, Kerrville Folk Festival, the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, Washington Area Music Awards, Rocky Mountain Folks Fest, Telluride Bluegrass Festival, National Association for Campus Activities, the Northeast & Southeast Regional Folk Alliances, FOLK Ontario and more. They are three-time winners of the Washington Area Music Association Winners for Best Contemporary Folk Group and are known for combining their award-winning songwriting, tight male/female harmonies, signature intricate slap-style guitar work, ukulele, percussion and an eclectically humorous stage show into an exquisite package.
Depending on the setting, ilyAIMY can be anywhere from a duo to a six-piece band that includes any combination of: Kristen Jones on electric cello & harmony vocals, Rowan Corbett on percussion (bones, djembe, cajon), guitar, banjo, vocals & didgeridoo, Sharif on piano & bass, and Joey Jenkins on drum kit/percussion.
rob Hinkal
“rob Hinkal is arguably the most important figure to local music in the Baltimore / DMV area. His legendary innovative band ilyAIMY continues to explore the finer points of rough house folk music that pulses with energy, wit and an iconoclastic irreverence. rob is also the resource and inspiration for so many local songwriters and musicians.”
Jay Keating, President of Songwriters Association of Washington (saw.org)
Hyperbole aside, someone once told rob that what he does to his guitar is illegal in three states. They meant it as a compliment. They went on to say that “rob is that perfect combination of complete proficiency combined with punk rock ‘fuck you’”. And he took THAT as a compliment too.
As a songwriter and performer, more official compliments have taken the form of honors from the Mid-Atlantic Song Contest (Gold, 2020), Kerrville Folk Festival (Grassy Hill New Folk Competition), the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival (Emerging Artist, Most-Wanted Artist), Washington Area Music Awards (multiple WAMMIES for “Best Contemporary Folk Group”) and others.
“Percussive, rhythmically driven guitar that freely composites fingerpicking, classical melodies, running bass lines, harmonics, & hard-charging chords. [Rob’s] vocals are needled & gaunt, with the jittery energy of a dockyard stray on speed”
– Allzah
Living on the road for five years with his partner Heather Aubrey Lloyd gave rob a healthy Love for his home town of Baltimore, MD, where he now Lives with his wife, cellist Kristen Jones, and their Very Large Cat. rob spends his Life fronting his band ilyAIMY and pushing hard to be the trouble that he’d like to see in the world, creating community and music within his band ilyAIMY’s fanbase and his award-winning, nationally-recognized open mics. He is the technical director of Institute of Musical Traditions, the executive director of FocusMusic, and a freelance audio and video engineer working closely with additional clients when and if he sees fit.
“With rob’s uncanny vocals & distinctive annunciation & the unbelievable percussive playing style, there’s a lot to listen to…”– Shea Carver, Encore Magazine
Additional Bio…
rob Hinkal was raised with a healthy conflict of influences: his father’s NASA roots engendering an interest in science, exploration and practicality while his mother’s profession as a teacher instilled an idealistic passion for education and community-building. From there he was fortunate enough to be part of Maryland’s arts and science magnet program where he discovered a love of, and later a career in the arts. First at Suitland Center for the Arts University High School (where he later taught) and then Maryland Institute College of Art (where he discovered music and songwriting – graduating with a degree in Illustration).
On September 2nd, 2003 he put all of that to the side to go on the road as a musician. What was initially envisioned as a year-long road trip escalated into a five year exploration of the United States playing music, maintaining freelance web, graphic design, and illustration projects from the road as well as doing portraits of fans and friends.
Living out of a car with no fixed address for five years was an exhausting exercise in balancing a (tiny) budget and determining one’s own fate – but in 2008 he came home to the unique environment of Baltimore, MD. With the context of having traveled broadly over the United States and Mexico rob was inspired to create a number of successful open mics in the uniquely diverse Charm City scene with a focus on drawing disparate cultures and genres together – an effort he was recognized for by DCMusicDownload, Shure Microphones and the Library of Congress. The Smithsonian Institution, citing the “social power of music”, added his open mics to their Year of Music in 2019. In 2020 his work was further recognized with grants from Baltimore and the Maryland State Arts Council as he sought to support and preserve these communities through streaming and virtual events throughout the COVID pandemic.
He has worked hard to create diverse, safe and inclusive music communities through his work with his own open mics, Institute of Musical Traditions, Takoma Park Folk Festival and as the Executive Director of Focus Music. (professional resume here)
Between rob and his partner Heather Aubrey Lloyd, their band ilyAIMY has received accolades from Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, Kerrville Folk Festival as well as the Washington Area Music Awards and more. Most recently rob won a Gold in the category of “Freedom Songs” from 2020’s Mid-Atlantic Song Contest. Additionally, rob’s visual work has appeared on numerous CD covers and posters in the DC metropolitan area.
Currently rob is working with artists literally from all across the world to present streaming shows and showcases in a broad variety of formats as ilyAIMY writes new music in preparation for recording their 11th album.
Heather Aubrey Lloyd
“Heather Aubrey Lloyd’s unmistakable voice is a full-bodied instrument
that channels grit as readily as vulnerability.
The kind of vocal presence that doesn’t just carry lyrics
but carves them into the space around it.” – Amplify The Noise
For two decades, Heather Aubrey Lloyd’s performed anywhere that might make a good story; bait shops, biker weeks, even clothing-optional resorts – a recovering reporter whose love of the journey evolved into equally adventurous songwriting. Her “sing-me-the-phone-book” voice pairs with finger-picked guitar and hand percussion. Best known with Baltimore’s ilyAIMY, Lloyd’s gained national recognition as a Falcon Ridge Folk Fest Most-Wanted Artist and Top-4 Telluride Troubadour. In the DMV, she’s a Grand Prize Winner of the prestigious Bernard Ebb Award, the “Girlfunkel” in a wildly successful Simon & Garfunkel tribute, and even singing for Renaissance lute-rock rebels, Ayreheart, featuring Grammy-nominated Ronn McFarlane. Lloyd just released the “ambitious and unflinching” Panic Room With A View, “an alt-folk symphony, layering acoustic beauty with humor and hope,” says Amplify The Noise and MusicnGear. Expect a live performance that “sits with fear, grief, and even absurdity until they yield not just resolution, but transformation.”
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Lloyd has been a Lilith Fair Talent Search Finalist and ilyAIMY is a repeat Best Contemporary Folk Group/Duo in the Washington Area Music Awards, among other honors. Lloyd’s solo collection of stories turned lyrics became her first solo studio effort, “A Message in the Mess” in 2017. “Mess” received the Director’s Award for Album of the Year from the Mid-Atlantic Song Contest, and the awards haven’t stopped since (along with spots as an opening act for the likes of Gretchen Peters and Gordon Lightfoot).
“Panic Room With A View,” Lloyd’s second solo effort in the studio, featuring songs about mental health, the plight of refugees, and aging gracefully. She’s once again teamed up with Joel Ackerson and his Reno bands, including The Novelists & Big Amygdala.
Rowan Corbett
DC-area singer/songwriter Rowan Corbett brings a mixture of modern and traditional sounds, instruments, and sensibilities with his eclectic playing. In addition to his own original music, you’ll find Irish, English and Scottish folk tunes, Early-American Ballads and acoustic renditions of modern Rock and Electronica.
As a guitarist, Irish bouzouki, plectrum and claw-hammer banjo player, Rowan brings a myriad of rhythmic and sonic palettes to bear. And on hand drums, bodhrán and the bones, he is a rare talent.
As well as being a long standing percussionist and song-writer with the Baltimore-based favorite, ilyAIMY, Rowan is member of the Grammy-winning Carolina Chocolate Drops. That band’s remaining founding member, Rhiannon Giddens’, has included him in various of her international tours and her second solo album, Freedom Highway. Rowan is also a co-founding member of the Irish/Old-Time band, Tinsmith, which has been breaking new ground in traditional music for over twenty years.
Kristen Jones
Kristen was already classically trained on cello when she discovered the steel pan at Oberlin College. She performed with steelbands in Trinidad, New York and the DC-metro area, and for over 10 years was an arranger and bandleader with Pan Masters Steel Orchestra. Now performing on electric cello – and focusing on more eclectic projects on both instruments – she brings an incredibly diverse musical background to ilyAIMY’s sound and even knows how to… like… write the music down and stuff.
When not playing with ilyAIMY, you can find her performing with other local acts – like Lulu’s Fate, Anthem Electric String Quartet, and more. She’s been nominated several times as “Best Contemporary Folk Instrumentalist” and “Best World Instrumentalist” by the Washington Area Music Association. You can keep up with Kristen’s other musical goings-on at kristenjonesmusic.com. She’s also a longtime jack-of-all-trades over at Takoma Park’s exotic instrument shop House of Musical Traditions, where she manages HMT’s internet presence and occasionally gets to exercise her Ethnomusicology degree.
Sharif
Judging from his thick brogue, Sharif is a traditional Irishman. Unless he’s French. Except…. he was born in Seoul, Korea and began playing piano pre-kindergarten in Taiwan. He later picked up clarinet and trumpet through middle school in Gaithersburg, MD, and then guitar and drums while in high school in Beijing. He’s also passed through New Dehli, India, the Ivory Coast and Massachusetts. Eventually, he settled back in Maryland and decided he needed to be an amazing bass player as well. Sharif’s exotic good looks come from a mixture of Japanese, Chinese, Hawaiian, English, French, Scottish and a couple of Dutch genes. Really, no-one can explain the accents, and we generally try to just keep him quiet lest he say something bizarre that sullies our brains forever.
Sharif shines as a creator of texture, elegance and melody and has been responsible for reimagining a number of ilyAIMY tunes into dramatic new forms. He originally encountered ilyAIMY at a show at the sadly-deceased Year of the Rabbit Cafe where he was so enraptured with the music he trailed rob to an open mic later that week and asked to sit in. rob threw difficult songs and barrels at him but he demonstrated a fantastic capacity for improvised beauty that has made him a coveted accompanist and an exquisite part of ilyAIMY’s overall sound.
When ilyAIMY’s core duo of rob and Heather are touring, Sharif and Rowan have been known to perform as a duo called io. He also performs as part of the Acacia Sears Band, Dan Zimmerman’s The Great Outdoor Fight, Murder of Trolls – and often with whoever can get their hands on him.
Joey Jenkins
Yep. We need to write a bio for the drummer. He’s ONLY been with us since 2015!