Young folks focuses on the best, fresh folk, acoustic, singer-songwriter indie folk & alt-country jams. Turn it up Folks!
Mae Krell
‘(like) spring’
[folk/singer-songwriter]
Press Notes:
Mae Krell is in the midst of a new era. Over a production backdrop of chirping birds, running washing machines and children playing, Mae expresses their introspective lyrics with a newfound maturity and understanding. Following a two-year hiatus, the 21-year-old made their return in 2020 with a string of soft, folk-pop singles. Influenced by revered singer-songwriters like Bob Dylan, Phoebe Bridgers and Gregory Alan Isakov, Mae writes intimate reflections about confronting past struggles, self-love and personal truths. “wash,” their most recent release, garnered over 500k Spotify streams in less than six months, with their other singles following close behind in numbers. In response to their gut-wrenching single “garden,” Indie Band Guru wrote, “There is truly not a voice quite like the one Mae Krell has.”
Mae’s creative endeavors stretch far beyond music. They originally entered the music industry through photography, traveling the country to take photos, writing poetry, and dreaming of the day they would muster the courage to become a performing artist themselves. Mae’s most recent creative endeavor involves the creation of a cottage-core Build-A-Bear equipped with its own pair of roller skates. A part of the LGBTQ+ community themself and a persistent advocate for mental health awareness, Mae is constantly finding ways to connect with the two communities—whether that’s via music, social media, photography. In their free time, Mae volunteers for Musicians on Call and likes to spend time outdoors—gardening, hiking, and camping.
Bad Mother Nature
‘Now You’re Gone’
[americana/pop-rock]
Press Notes:
Bad Mother Nature is a four-piece rock band from Sacramento, CA. Fronted by singers Ryan Allred and Axel Ahrens, the band has a unique and diverse sound, often ranging from Folk Rock and Americana to Indie and Hard Rock. Ahrens and Instrumentalist Corey Allred cycle between bass and guitar, while Jon McCann’s signature drum style provides the group with their consistent character. Since their formation in the summer of 2016, the band has been steadily grinding away in west coast clubs, dive bars and festivals, refining their energetic live performance by balancing their driving guitar-riffs and nuanced, progressive piano.
With several regional tours to their name, and three albums under their belt, the group has begun to make a name for themselves.
Tom Morgan
‘The Other Side’
[country/americana]
Press Notes:
Singer, songwriter, producer. Real compositions from a lifetime of observations. Musical influences and styles vary but I’m often drawn back to the trusted tones of my Taylor 810.
Farrow and the Peach Leaves
‘Adeline’
[americana]
Press Notes:
Based out of Nevada City, California, Farrow and the Peach Leaves has chiselled an inimitably satisfying brand of Americana, Blues, Rock and Country that has been packaged in a versatile getup composed of thick blues guitars, locomotive rhythm, and seventies country rock overtones.
Majors Junction
‘People Change’
[country/americana]
Press Notes:
Majors Junction is one of the original founders of the Chicago Bluegrass & Blues Festival and have performed with artists including… The Traveling McCoury’s, The Avett Brothers, David Grisman, Bela Fleck & the Flecktones, Dale Watson, Ben Taylor, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, Father John Misty and many more.
The band came onto the scene in 2003 with their debut release “A Desert Oasis“. Local garnered praise has propelled the group to better gigs and a growing fan base. Their second release “Confluence” in 2006 received uplifting reviews from the US and abroad. Providing upbeat rockers and smooth ballads the album shows off the songwriting and performance abilities that put this band at the forefront of the Chicago music scene. “Good Versus Evil” (August 2009) had them mining the roots of American music, Majors Junction gain inspiration from blues, country and rock, handling each with male/female dual vocals and a clear love for the forms that inspired them.
Mountain Town
‘Galway Girl’
[country/rock]
Press Notes:
Mountain Town is an Americana music group from Park City, Utah who brings to you what they call “Acoustic Music from The American West”. Combining traditional country with bluegrass and folk, yearning pedal steels and rhinestone emblazoned suits. Singer, Songwriter and principal member of the group, Dr. Jon has been a performing artist on small stages and house concerts for over 20 years.
Counting Chances
‘Journey’
[americana/acoustic/instrumental]
Press Notes:
Mostly acoustic piano-based pieces with cello or pedal steel guitar, sometimes light live drums. everything made with love, at the end of the day, most of the songs are about letting go and moving on with peace in your heart and healing in your soul
Bad Temper Joe
‘Glitter & Blues’
[acoustic/blues/country]
Press Notes:
If you seek some of Europe’s finest blues and roots artists, songwriters and guitarists, look no further than Germany’s Bad Temper Joe. While honoring the old bluesmen from the Mississippi Delta, Bad Temper Joe brings the blues into the 21st Century – and does so with excellent songwriting, a powerful performance, and staying true to the tradition. With songs as raw as they are haunting, the grumpy blues bard has gained attention in the blues scene over the last few years, receiving numerous nominations for blues awards. But the German has also already been making waves in the international blues scene, and was the only European Act to reach the finals of the 2020 International Blues Challenge in Memphis, Tennessee. As the British Blues Matters Magazine put it, “It’s hard to believe that the sounds of the Mississippi-Delta have relocated to Germany, but they have.”
Payphones
‘Anything Else’
[indie folk]
Press Notes:
Once described as “if The Tragically Hip and Tegan and Sara had a really sad baby”, Payphones’ alt-folk tunes showcase intricate three and four-part vocal harmonies, rich acoustic accompaniment, and earnest, vulnerable lyrics about infatuation, heartbreak, isolation, illness, and identity.
Payphones’s music masquerades as bouncy, dancible, nostalgic folk-rock faire at first listen. Even their most bleak songs present new takes on familiar major folk song structure, a driving shuffling drumbeat, and the interplay of light and melodic piano with bright and percussive guitar strums. Stark verbiage, rock-inspired wailing vocals, and overt focus around queerness and disability give a modern edge to the music.
The Roseline
‘Saber Rattlers’
[americana/folk rock]
Press Notes:
The Roseline (pronounced rose like the flower, line like a straight line) is a band from Lawrence, Kansas USA. Seven albums into their career, they have crafted a songbook that is at once familiar and singular. Founder and songwriter, Colin Halliburton, began the project as an acoustic folk trio, and it has since evolved into the five-piece Americana rock band of its current form. Kind foreign press and high charting on the Euro Americana Chart (‘Lust for Luster’, ‘Blood’, ‘GOOD/GRIEF’, and ‘Constancy’ all charted in the top ten), led to a deal in the Benelux with Dutch label, King Forward Records. The band also released one album, ‘Vast as Sky’ (2012), with the Bay Area label Ninth Street Opus (home to Sarah Lee Guthrie and Carrie Rodriguez).
The Roseline has had the good fortune of landing sync placements in indie movies and major network television shows such as ABC’s ‘Nashville’ and ‘Resurrection’, as well as USA’s ‘Queen of the South’, Netflix’s ‘Virgin River’, and MTV’s ‘Teen Mom’. The Roseline has been featured on/in NPR, Pop Matters, American Songwriter, The Bluegrass Situation, and No Depression, among others. Halliburton also performs solo under The Roseline moniker and has embarked on two European tours thus far. The band recently returned from their second tour in Scandinavia with help from Rootsy Music (Jason Isbell, American Aquarium, John Prine, Justin Townes Earle).
[All Press Notes provided by the artists]
Compiled by: Christos Doukakis