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Young folks focuses on the best, fresh folk, acoustic, singer-songwriter indie folk & alt-country jams. Turn it up Folks!

***qhicħâ boʒha=12 (Muisca numerical system)***

Sunny Pache

‘The Navigator’

[indie folk]

Press Notes:

The music I’ve created reflects the people, times, and places I’ve been during the writing and recording process. I’ve been inspired by my travels and the people I’ve met through these experiences. Life has been a wild ride, this is how I chose to capture it.

The Savage Poor

‘It’s a Long Way Down Growing Up’

[americana/classic rock]

Press Notes:

Hailing from Austin, TX, The Savage Poor is the band project of brothers Jeff and Ben Brown. Growing up in central PA, Jeff learned to write songs as a teenager by listening to Ramones records, while Ben learned on his own studying David Bowie. In their early 20’s they began performing together. The Brown brothers have always been infatuated by the excitement of American rock n’ roll and the cinematic soundscapes of British post punk and indie music, with one foot in the world of The Replacements and another in The Smiths, with the literary influence of Lou Reed and the rainy day dreams of The Cure. Being based in Texas, Jeff and Ben feel that the eclecticism of Doug Sahm and the opera of Roy Orbison has also been a strong influence on their music.

The band is led by Jeff Brown (Shinyribs) and Ben Brown who share lead vocals and electric guitar duty, backed by Alex Moralez on drums (Bo Diddley), Roger Wuthrich on bass and Christine Smith (Marah, Jesse Malin) on keyboards and background vocals.

Day Joy

‘Celebration (a salutation, ongoing)’

[indie folk/bedroom pop]

Press Notes:

“I started making sad sleepy music as DAY JOY in 2013 in response to my, then partner’s, episodic NIGHT TERRORS. You could say the artistic goal back then was to make the musical opposite of someone screaming in a dark room. After receiving a considerable critical response to those early recordings, I eventually compiled a full-length debut LP and signed with Small Plates Records.
A live band was assembled and a few years of national touring followed. This upward trajectory was halted when my younger brother suddenly passed away and I could no longer focus on the project.
It’s taken me a while to pick up the pieces and the album chronicling the past 5 years is expectedly dark. However, I do think those who have been to the brink will find some value in the lyrics and peace in the instrumentation. At least, that is my goal.”

Corb Lund

‘Ride On’ (feat. Ian Tyson)

[americana/roots rock/country]

Press Notes:

Corb’s distinct blend of Americana-meets-roots-meets-alt-country has attracted accolades from critics in Canada and the U.S., who have called him “one of the best contemporary country songwriters” (Popmatters) and one of the “10 New Country Artists You Need to Know” (Rolling Stone Country). Lund’s 2015 release, Things That Can’t Be Undone, was produced by Grammy Award-nominated producer Dave Cobb (Jason Isbell, Sturgill Simpson, Chris Stapleton). His previous record, 2014’s Counterfeit Blues, was recorded at the legendary Sun Studio in Memphis, TN, and was the focus of a 2-hour CMT special. Previous to that, 2012’s Cabin Fever debuted at #1 on the Billboard Canadian Charts, and Hair In My Eyes Like A Highland Steer is certified Platinum in Canada. Along with his band, the Hurtin’ Albertans, Lund tours extensively throughout Canada, the U.S., Europe, and Australia. Currently signed to New West Records, Lund is an eight-time Canadian Country Music Awards Roots Artist of the Year, the 2017 BreakOut West Roots Solo Artist of the Year, and has many other awards and accolades, including a JUNO Award, under his belt.

John Salaway

‘It’s All In Your Mind’ 

[folk/americana]

Press Notes:

Frontman. Acclaimed songwriter. Sideman. Nationally-endorsed multi-instrumentalist. Producer. Since moving to Nashville in the early 2000s, John Salaway has become one of the city’s most accomplished musicians, holding down a weekly residency at the world-class BB King’s Blues Club while also playing shows with acts like Peter Frampton, Ben Folds, Anderson East, Zach Williams, and Denny Laine from the Moody Blues and Paul McCartney’s Wings. He’s a drummer. A guitarist. A pianist. And with albums like 2019’s Americana Dreams, he shows the full range of his abilities, mixing a lifelong appreciation for the Beatles’ classic pop melodies with the southern-fried sounds of his adopted hometown.

Corinne Sharlet

‘Hail Mary’

[folk/singer-songwriter]

Press Notes:

With her new solo project, Corinne whisks the listener away with moody atmospherics, dynamic touches that contrast feminine and guttural moments with pulsing beats. Her vocal melodies twist and turn in sweetly unexpected ways, and her lyrics poetically express timeless longing. She counts Thom Yorke and Lebanese vocalist Yasmine Hamdan (solo artist, lead singer of Soapkills) as sources of inspiration for her eclectic sound.

Kyle Cox

‘Midnight Dance’

[americana/vocal jazz]

Press Notes:

Kyle Cox’s 3rd full-length album, Perhaps One Day is an ode to the jazz vocal groups of the 30’s and 40’s. His first self-produced effort seeks to embrace the sounds of The Mills Brothers, Billie Holiday, and the Ink Spots – to write a tribute to the genre and a love letter to the era. What became of it is his most focused and well-crafted collection of recordings yet.

With assists from some top-tier players, Paul Defiglia on bass (The Avett Brothers, Langhorne Slim, Charles Bradley), Matthew Wright on keys (David Ramirez), and Robert Gay on trumpet (Natalie Prass, Jim Lauderdale), Kyle Cox has brought us an elegant listening experience; distinct, yet instantly familiar. From the first sultry note of the ascending trumpet riff on the album’s opening track “No Matter How Far”, you are immersed into a world where sentimentality meets sincerity. Three part harmonies, twinkling keys, and muted trumpet all support veteran songwriting, crafted without a hint of cynicism or irony and a deep respect for the genre.

Gabriella Cilmi

‘Keep On Keeping’

[americana/country/soul]

Press Notes:

Gabriella Cilmi enjoyed phenomenal success at an incredibly young age. Still a teen when breakout single ‘Sweet About Me’ conquered the globe, the Australian artist was thrust into the glare of the spotlight, enjoying chart success after chart success.

Yet the more she travelled, the further away from her roots she became. “It was a bit of an odd time for me, because it was a big departure from why I got into music in the first place. All of a sudden I’m onstage dancing in a sexy robot costume,” she laughs. “It left me in a place where I felt like I had really lost my way from why I wanted to do this in the first place.”

So she went back to the source. Living in London for the past decade, her 2013 album ‘The Sting’ was a “shedding of the skin moment”, with Gabriella grappling with independence for the first time. “It felt like I didn’t know who I was, so I was figuring that out,” she recalls. “It was all about stripping things back and going back to the complete basics of writing a song; to go back to the roots of why I loved music in the first place.”

A pivotal moment was watching The Band’s iconic performance in The Last Waltz. Friends onstage making music together, their fusion of country, soul, blues, and Americana lit up Gabriella’s imagination. Working with her brother Joseph as co-songwriter and Elliot James as producer, the three stripped her music to the core, and her new EP is the bravest, most explicitly honest thing Gabriella Cilmi has ever done.

Lead single ‘Ruins’ is a beautiful piece of gilded country-soul, her husky voice set against that graceful acoustic guitar. If it feels incredibly natural then that’s because it is – this is her voice, her vision, and her life. “I make it because I love it,” she comments. It’s just something that I think I have to do.”

Recorded in short bursts of creativity, Gabriella wanted to use as much analogue equipment as possible, resulting in an organic, inviting sound. She explains: “It has to feel loose, and it has to feel as though you’re in the room as much as possible.”

‘Forgiveness’ is a meditation on the bond between family, while ‘Safe From Harm’ – “I’m a sucker for a sad waltz!” – is incredibly personal, dealing with guilt, absolution, and mental health. “I went to a Catholic girl’s school and we always started the day with a hymn,” she recalls. “My brother always jokes, that I’ve got this massive cross to bear! I’m a really loyal person but I also have this thing where I do have this guilt and that’s what I deal with in my songs, and in my music.”

Working quickly, Gabriella managed to get her feelings down on tape. Musically, it’s honeyed, Autumnal tones are crisp, refreshing, recalling everyone from greats such as Van Morrison and Janis Joplin through to contemporaries such as The Staves or First Aid Kit. But lyrically the EP is a process of exoneration, of letting go.

“A lot of the time you won’t know what a song means until you write it down,” she says. “The best things tend to come really quickly. If I spend too much time on something, if it’s too laborious, then it’s normally because it’s not good.”

The process of making the EP has been both cathartic and transformative, with the scorching autobiography of the songwriting aiding her own life. “I’m one of those people who takes things to heart, and holds on to things. Keeps it in locked inside. But everything about this record – instead of internalising everything it’s just letting it breathe. It’s all about capturing the moment.”

Low Tide

‘Whisper’

[indie folk/chamber pop]

Press Notes:

Low Tide take the arduous expanse of existence and condense it into a series of lovingly orchestrated and tenderly sung compositions. The Alchemist conspires to embrace the complexities of life, the fractious nature of existence, the elemental way humanity seems to simultaneously be disassembling and recreating, in an effort to simplify how we all manage them — an ostensibly herculean task. Oberman was met with the visage of The Alchemist, a genderless symbol of life’s precarious balancing act that – if balanced appropriately – can engender happiness and joy. Existing in the pastoral crevices that have birthed such mossy-hilled folk-classics as Van Morrison’s Veedon Fleece and, more recently, the trauma-folk of Big Thief and the haunting warmth of Antony and the Johnsons and PJ Harvey, the band’s first release is lucky enough to not only carry this oft-under recognized style, but to insinuate such a unique perspective as to make something anachronistic sound fresh again.

The Good Graces

‘Story to Tell’

[indie folk]

Press Notes:

Mining the same rich vein as ’90s alt-country favorites like Freakwater and Whiskeytown, the Good Graces unspool delicate, warbling indie-folk and jangling roots pop. The project originated in 2007 but really started gaining momentum when it was handpicked by the Indigo Girls to open their 2015 summer tour. More of a community musical collaboration than a band, the Good Graces are the brainchild of singer, songwriter and guitarist Kim Ware and include a rotating cast of a dozen musicians playing the typical four-piece accouterments, as well as piano, harmonica, mandolin, wind chimes, cello, violin and more.

“I’ve never really called it a band,” Ware says. “I’m kind of weird about that term, which is a little silly, but I’ve always liked to mix it up depending on what I’m doing at the moment. I’m super fortunate to have a lot of really talented friends, but many of them have their own thing going on, and it’s hard to expect the same group to be available all the time. I’ve always called on different people.”

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Compiled by: Christos Doukakis