Based in West Yorkshire, Maria Wallace has been successfully promoting live music events under the True North Music banner for the last 10 years, specialising in Americana, bluegrass, old time, folk & roots. Since 2015, she has organised and hosted over 60 gigs in Yorkshire, 
featuring exceptional artists from the USA, Canada, UK & Ireland, including Sierra Hull, Gangstagrass, Michael Daves, Stillhouse Junkies, Molly Tuttle, Jaywalkers and Foghorn Stringband to name just a few (check out the gig archive here).
Maria recently launched the Womenfolk podcast, hosting long form interviews with women working in roots music. Maria was awarded a Developing Your Creative Practice grant by Arts Council England (ACE) which enabled her to do the foundational work, and the first mini season of episodes is out now. As well as presenting and producing the pod, Maria wrote the theme music too! Read more here, and find, download and listen to Womenfolk wherever you get your podcasts.
Championing women in roots music has been a key part of Maria’s mission from the start, and this has always been reflected by a fair gender balance in True North Music’s events and booking roster. We’ve had no issue in ensuring the highest calibre of music whilst working towards this. It just takes extra work, thought and intention to make sure that women get a fair share of opportunities. Maria signed up to the Keychange Pledge in 2021 after years of pursuing this informally – read more here.
“Maria has a passion for diversifying the genres she works in, in terms of race and gender, and a true commitment to supporting artist development and high quality live music.” – Remi Harris MBE, Music Leaders Network coach
Maria’s tireless work to champion grassroots music has been recognised with various awards and opportunities, including ACE Project Grants funding to support True North Music’s 2023-24 local live music series, which included concerts, community outreach workshops and a one-day festival. In 2017 Maria won Yorkshire Gig Guide’s Outstanding Promoter Award, and she was invited to
the USA in 2018 by arts organisation South Arts to participate in the American Sounds programme. In 2019 Maria was selected for the IBMA’s (International Bluegrass Music Association) Leadership Bluegrass course. and in 2021 she was nominated for the IBMA’s Industry Involvement Award. Maria also participated in the 2021-22 cohort of the Music Leaders Network, for women working in music. These opportunities have all been invaluable in building True North Music’s network of world class artists and music industry contacts.
As of 2025, Maria is no longer doing tour booking work, but from 2016 to 2024 she brought dozens of top flight roots music artists from the USA and Canada to venues across the UK, booking tours for The Slocan Ramblers, Jake Blount, Joe Newberry & April Verch, Front Country, AJ Lee & Blue Summit, John Reischman, Stillhouse Junkies, Jordan Tice, Bill and the Belles, Mile Twelve, Evie Ladin & Keith Terry and many more. Maria has been active in the bluegrass and folk music community for over 15 years, as a promoter, singer, songwriter, volunteer and enthusiast. Check out our testimonials page here for a taste of the massively positive feedback that True North Music has received over the past decade.
Maria is a talented singer and songwriter in her own right and in 2020 she started to record some of her original songs, collaborating remotely (and later on, in the studio) with exceptional musician pals from both sides of the Atlantic. Making time for her own music to fit around her busy work as a promoter, Maria is proud to finally present The Merryville Sessions EP, after a successful Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign in spring 2025 to help cover the costs of the project. Mixing and mastering was done by the highly respected Josh Clark at Get Real Audio, and the EP will be released more widely later in summer 2025. Visit her artist website Maria Wallace Music for more on Maria’s own music and songwriting.