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

Bailey Tomkinson

‘California Fire’

[singer-songwriter/indie folk]

Press Notes:

Bailey Tomkinson is a Singer/Songwriter hailing from St Ives, Cornwall, who made national headlines in February 2020, when as an unsigned, unmanaged artist, she outsold Dua Lipa and The Pussycat Dolls to reach number one in the iTunes Video charts.

Featured in The Times, Metro and The Mail Online along with a double page spread in Hello Magazine and a live performance and interview on BBC R4’s Woman’s Hour, her mastery of pop-country hooks and relatable emotional storytelling has earned her comparison with early Taylor Swift & Emmylou Harris on BBC Radio 2 from country music legend Brad Paisley. She’s been identified as one of the UK’s fastest rising talents.

Bailey’s remarkable appeal to the national media was showcased again in summer 2021 when her G7 summit protest song ‘Bright Red’ reached #1 in the iTunes Singer/Songwriter charts and was featured on The Times, The FT, The Independent, BBC Newscast, BBC Radio4 and Times Radio, where she was interviewed by the legendary Mariella Frostrup. Bailey also has strong associations with the Music Declares Emergency group including running IG takeovers for them during the G7 event.

Hannah Sanders & Ben Savage

‘Polly O Polly’

[folk/acoustic]

Press Notes:

Since emerging in 2016, Hannah Sanders & Ben Savage have been defying all conventions of style, genre and compartmentalisation. A touch of ‘Americana’, yet quintessentially English. Traditional, yet contemporary, with their individual writing style. Playful and instinctive, they constantly do the unexpected; yet they do it with such panache and natural chemistry it makes perfect sense.

Hannah Sanders has an alluring mystique and a voice of disarming purity that massages your senses. Ben Savage is a bubbling ferment of energy and infectious enthusiasm, seemingly able to play any instrument you put in front of him with grace and favour.

They have recorded two studio albums to date, Before the Sun (2016) and Awake (2018) and have captivated audiences at shows and on festival stages alongside Americana and folk luminaries such as Sarah Jarosz, Martin Simpson, Seth Lakeman and Oh Susanna.

They are true originals, that’s all there is to it. Distinctive. Innovative. Ground-breaking. Unique.

Harry Eucrow

‘Strange Shore of Providence’

[indie folk/gothic americana]

Press Notes:

Harry Eucrow is a musician, poet and storyteller in the tradition of Southern Gothic and Americana. His compositions include lo-fi acoustic guitar, dark, gravelly vocals and musical inspiration ranging from the mad cabaret of Tom Waits, to the soft-spoken folk of Dave van Ronk, to the heavy industrial sound of Marilyn Manson.

His stories revolve around a certain Western mythos – a great American religion that isn’t as explicitly Christian as it is explicitly American. The image-world of mythology that grew out of the wild frontier and merged with the industrial hellscapes of late capitalism to become something entirely novel. It’s the roadside devil who offers you gifts of music in exchange for your soul. The train-hopping wise men who reside in coal cars, going endlessly back and forth from East to West, from the biting cold of the mountains to the searing heat of the desert. The image of the vast living highway, the concrete serpent who, at once, represents the image of endless unconquerable nature and humanity’s attempts to control it, bringing order and destruction to the primordial chaos that once was.

Parks N’ Rec

‘Deep Sea Diver’

[indie folk]

Press Notes:

Parks N’ Rec is the new project from Canadian singer Marco DiFelice (Supergarage), songwriter, music supervisor (Orphan Black, Lost Girl). In collaboration with several producers at Self Titled Studios, Parks N’ Rec deals with lost love, polarizing societies, and self-renewal.

Zach Ray

‘Roots’

[country]

Press Notes:

Originally from Oklahoma. Zach got his start singing at his home church in Blanchard. Raised on country music and Jesus, you’ll find his songs focus on the important things in his life; God, family, and life. Currently living in Nashville, he released his first EP at the end of 2019 and is releasing a string of new singles in 2022.

Helen Counts

‘Shaky Ground’

[folk/singer-songwriter]

Press Notes:

I am a singer songwriter in Madison, Wisconsin US. I am a Virginia native who has written songs for many years. I played gigs during my college days in Maine and New Hampshire. I also performed in Charlottesville, Virginia in my 20’s and then moved to Madison, Wisconsin for work. I have played in coffeehouses in Madison and Milwaukee. I enjoy writing songs about angst and struggle, as I view music as a modality to express strong feelings that are hard to speak about. I have written songs about 9/11 and about the COVID-19 pandemic. I believe music is essential for us to feel whole. I feel music is very healing on both a physical and spiritual level, and that especially now, we need healing. This belief inspired my latest single “Some Healing” about the emotional impact of the pandemic. I want to thank my family and friends for their support.

Ron Gither

‘Summertime’

[country/rock/singer-songwriter]

Press Notes:

Ron Gither is a singer/songwriter, guitarist and producer from Birmingham, Al. His band consists of talented musicians from around the globe. He is currently in the studio working on projects inspired by life experiences and travels.

The Tortoise The Hare And the Millionaire

‘At the Crossroads’

[folk rock/blues]

Press Notes:

A scruffy, rough-around-the-edges sextet decked out in plaid and denim, Fredericton-based the Tortoise the Hare and the Millionaire are grounded in no-nonsense, straight-shooting blues-rock; however, not content to commit to a single music genre, the group flits effortlessly between blues, rock, funk and assorted other genres. Despite this (or perhaps because of this), their music maintains a certain ‘cohesion’ and sound that is distinctly theirs.

Churchman

‘The Burning Brand’

[folk/blues/ethnic]

Press Notes:

Churchman’s Odd Ballads Trio is a folk blues ensemble, with a blend of world music, old time music and a hint of cuban jazz coming straight from Strasbourg (FR). His songs, all written in travel diaries he never parts with, wander between musical influences (Tom Waits, William Z Vilain, old jug bands), literary influences (Zola, Hemingway) and cinematic influences (Wes Anderson, Tim Burton). They are odd ballads, oneiric escapes, moments out of time. Captivating melodies on woblby rythms, elaborate vocal arrangements and unusual instruments forging surprinsing colors, are all essential elements forming the musical essence of the trio.

KaiL Baxley

‘Ava’

[chamber folk/crooner pop]

Press Notes:

KaiL Baxley’s songs cut right to the bone for many reasons, so pay attention.

First, there’s the cast of characters from the deep south, who KaiL carries with him every day. There’s his father, an outlaw who he only met once but insists is a good man. Then there’s his mother, who he visited on Sundays at the state penitentiary as a child. And his mother’s fellow inmate James Brown (yes, the James Brown) who sang at that prison’s church and taught a shy KaiL how to dance. And there’s his grandfather, whose anecdotes and wisdom KaiL will be quoting ad infinitum. Finally, there’s the best guitar player he’s ever met: his small town’s local mechanic.

Second, there’s the stories which KaiL’s hesitant to share, the stories hidden behind his poignant, timeless songwriting. A Golden Glove boxing champion’s dream of fighting for the US olympic team sidetracked by a run in with the law. The gunshot wound on his left shoulder he probably will never mention. The loss of a close friend honored in his devastating song “Chasing James Dean.” How he drove across the country to LA without much more than a guitar. How he was so poor, he slept in an RV for 2 years on Selma blvd in order to pay for his first record Heat Stroke / The Wind and The War. And how, astonishingly, that record, a soul wrenching mash of gospel, soul, blues and damn good songwriting, went on to be nominated as album of the year by NPR.

Then there’s his second record that’s better than the first: A Light that Never Dies. KCRW and NPR snuck in as early adopters, hailing the album a true reflection of Baxley’s greatest talent: seeing beauty in our darkest of moments. Much more of a slow burn than a flash in the pan, the magic of KaiL’s music continues to spread via word of mouth and his captivating live performances. We all have been dealt a bad hand in life at some point or another, Baxley chooses to turn those hands into beautiful music.

[All Press Notes provided by the artists]

Compiled by: Christos Doukakis