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

***mica=3 (Muisca numerical system)***

Isadora Eden

‘Quick To Burn’

[folk]

Press Notes:

Independent singer-songwriter with darkly honest lyrics and a simple, melancholy sound. First single off of her upcoming 4-track EP.

Anabelle Kay

‘Crazy Horse’ ft. William van der Vliet

[folk/soul]

Press Notes:

Cashion, Oklahoma (population 832) isn’t the first place you’d associate with the musical awakening of one of Australia’s rising stars. Indeed you’d think that Australia’s latest folk ingénue would have had her musical seeds sown amongst the creative community centered around Terrigal on New South Wales’ Central Coast where she grew up. After all, it’s where this worldly gypsy finds herself coming back to after tiring of life in the ‘big smoke’ in the big city, which she admits ‘is just not for me at the moment’.

Unusually, Anabelle Kay had her musical awakening in the tiny town of Cashion in the US Midwest, a place so small you could be forgiven for wondering where the tumbleweeds are floating down the main street most days. As Kay explains, it was living there for several years in her teens that she met her greatest muse and inspiration.

Elaborating, Kay says; ‘ Oklahoma had a big influence on my music – it wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t gone there. I had my heart set on becoming a sports superstar but if I hadn’t have met this particular girl in Cashion I became great friends with it wouldn’t have come to pass. Her encouragement led to me performing for the first time which just wouldn’t have happened while I was living in Terrigal.’

Despite the somewhat unorthodox musical birth, in a place most people have often only attributed to two types of music – country and western – Kay finds herself receiving plaudits from the music industry and fans alike. Similarities to seminal artists such as Joan Baez, Gillian Welch, Karen Dalton and Laura Marling are bandied around, and in picking up play on Triple J, FBi, 2SER, Double J, ABC 702 and PBS, while also sound tracking TV programs such as Home & Away, Neighbours, and Winners & Losers she’s been picking up fans at a rapid pace.

It was from the furthest you can get from Oklahoma, however, that Kay has spent her time most recently; Once again in isolation, living and working with indigenous communities up in Gove in the Northern Territory, a near spiritual experience that gave rise to the songs in her latest EP ” I Think I’m Lost, My Love”.

As she notes, while she was ‘working for a community club working and booking bands – flying bands from Sydney and so on up to Nhulunbuy – ‘I took it upon myself to try and get original bands happening’ she also found herself a regular on stage at the local community club where various legendary members of the local Yolngu community including the legendary Saltwater Band would come and jam. Naturally she couldn’t help but join in and it was during these jam sessions that the songs that would form I Think I’m Lost, My Love received their first outings. As Kay explains, ‘the experience of collaborating with locals was profound – most of songs on the EP were written after a jam the previous night’.

The songs, ranging from haunting and plaintive ballads to accusatory denunciations of past lovers; run the gamut of human emotion and inevitably leave a bruise across every listener – the artist’s experience shared with everyone. There are no casual fans here.

Following the recent release of I Think I’m Lost, My Love, and after a trip to Nashville for shows and select co-writing sessions with a handpicked coterie of music industry greats, Kay is heading back to Australia where her shows are ranging from the solo and intimate to gatherings akin to group therapy sessions, joined by her hometown musical compadres who first played with her on the Central Coast of NSW following that life changing stint in Oklahoma.

Anabelle Kay – Artist Biography

Cashion, Oklahoma (population 832) isn’t the first place you’d associate with the musical awakening of one of Australia’s rising stars. Indeed you’d think that Australia’s latest folk ingénue would have had her musical seeds sown amongst the creative community centered around Terrigal on New South Wales’ Central Coast where she grew up. After all, it’s where this worldly gypsy finds herself coming back to after tiring of life in the ‘big smoke’ in the big city, which she admits ‘is just not for me at the moment’.

Unusually, Anabelle Kay had her musical awakening in the tiny town of Cashion in the US Midwest, a place so small you could be forgiven for wondering where the tumbleweeds are floating down the main street most days. As Kay explains, it was living there for several years in her teens that she met her greatest muse and inspiration.

Elaborating, Kay says; ‘ Oklahoma had a big influence on my music – it wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t gone there. I had my heart set on becoming a sports superstar but if I hadn’t have met this particular girl in Cashion I became great friends with it wouldn’t have come to pass. Her encouragement led to me performing for the first time which just wouldn’t have happened while I was living in Terrigal.’

Despite the somewhat unorthodox musical birth, in a place most people have often only attributed to two types of music – country and western – Kay finds herself receiving plaudits from the music industry and fans alike. Similarities to seminal artists such as Joan Baez, Gillian Welch, Karen Dalton and Laura Marling are bandied around, and in picking up play on Triple J, FBi, 2SER, Double J, ABC 702 and PBS, while also sound tracking TV programs such as Home & Away, Neighbours, and Winners & Losers she’s been picking up fans at a rapid pace.

It was from the furthest you can get from Oklahoma, however, that Kay has spent her time most recently; Once again in isolation, living and working with indigenous communities up in Gove in the Northern Territory, a near spiritual experience that gave rise to the songs in her latest EP ” I Think I’m Lost, My Love”.

As she notes, while she was ‘working for a community club working and booking bands – flying bands from Sydney and so on up to Nhulunbuy – ‘I took it upon myself to try and get original bands happening’ she also found herself a regular on stage at the local community club where various legendary members of the local Yolngu community including the legendary Saltwater Band would come and jam. Naturally she couldn’t help but join in and it was during these jam sessions that the songs that would form I Think I’m Lost, My Love received their first outings. As Kay explains, ‘the experience of collaborating with locals was profound – most of songs on the EP were written after a jam the previous night’.

The songs, ranging from haunting and plaintive ballads to accusatory denunciations of past lovers; run the gamut of human emotion and inevitably leave a bruise across every listener – the artist’s experience shared with everyone. There are no casual fans here.

Following the recent release of I Think I’m Lost, My Love, and after a trip to Nashville for shows and select co-writing sessions with a handpicked coterie of music industry greats, Kay is heading back to Australia where her shows are ranging from the solo and intimate to gatherings akin to group therapy sessions, joined by her hometown musical compadres who first played with her on the Central Coast of NSW following that life changing stint in Oklahoma.

 

Mary-Elaine Jenkins

‘Hold Still’

[acoustic/singer-songwriter]

Press Notes:

Brooklyn singer-songwriter Mary-Elaine Jenkins is proud to share the title track from her debut album Hold Still, out September 28, 2018 via Good Child Music. The album premiered via Culture Collide, who noted that “because it is so distinctly of a place, her music acts as an immediate window into both her personal journey and something much bigger.”

Mary-Elaine Jenkins is a 13th-generation South Carolinian; a member of a large, old, Southern family that could probably be considered a matriarchy. A product of her upbringing by a strong single mother amidst the canopy of her Lowcountry family tree, Mary-Elaine carries herself as if she had never left the humidity of the coast. But she did. First Washington DC, then Spain, and now Brooklyn. Venturing far from home, time and space removed from her roots have further distilledMary-Elaine Jenkins’ distinctly Southern charm.

Her maternal grandmother, Elaine, from Savannah, was a classically-trained soprano who briefly attended Juilliard in the 1940s, while her paternal grandmother, Ellen, was a librarian and an actress who could tell very dirty jokes successfully to people who didn’t like dirty jokes. Such a heritage of strong, independent women endowed a young Mary-Elaine Jenkins with a resolve to pursue her passion – whatever it turned out to be. As a party to her younger life, Mary-Elaine’s father took it upon himself to introduce her to the guitar at the tender age of seven. The passion took. Progressing quickly with the instrument, Mary-Elaine became a regular at a local guitar shop, sitting in with a group of old-timers every Saturday afternoon playing old folk, country, and bluegrass songs, and eventually playing the Saturday night gig at the restaurant next door.

The fire lit, Mary-Elaine took her leave. While pursuing her education and subsequent adventures, she fell in with a different crew of musicians at every stop along the way. These collaborations opened new dimensions to her writing even as the distance pulled her music back to South Carolina and the sounds of Saturday afternoons past. Finally arriving in Brooklyn in 2013, Mary-Elaine did the same as she always had, surrounding herself with a creative network that would eventually include producer / engineer Thom Beemer. Working together out of Good Child Music Studios, they were joined by Cat Popper (Ryan Adams), Lawson White (My Brightest Diamond, Tony Trischka), JJ Appleton, and Dave Hassell, to make a record as well traveled as it is rooted in the musical traditions of the Southern coast.

Plain Zebra

‘Samples’

[folk/country/blues]

Press Notes:

Plain Zebra are Derry six-piece who deal in bluesy/folky rock ‘n roll flavours.

 

ANGE

‘you touch me with love’ 

[folk/acoustic]

Press Notes:

ANGE is angel in french. From Montreal.

 

Deanna Devore

‘Breathing Room’

[folk/singer-songwriter]

Press Notes:

Deanna Devore is a Chicago and Toronto based multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and producer. She blends downtempo electronic beats with real instrumentation in her music.

In 2007 Deanna Devore recorded and co-produced her first seven-song EP with Bjorn Thorsrud (Smashing Pumpkins, Dandy Warhols), on which she played every instrument with the exception of drums on one track from Matt Walker (Morrissey, Garbage). Her voice, guitar playing and songwriting carry a lyrical sensitivity, a maturity and sophistication that spans across electronic, downtempo, alternative, acoustic, jazz and orchestral territories.

With an ever-expanding song catalogue, Devore has headlined and shared sold-out local, regional, and national fest stages such as Summerfest, CMJ, NXNE, and 80/35. She has opened up for jazz/pop heavyweight Jamie Cullum, electronic masterminds Bonobo and SG Lewis, as well as Lapalux, Kat Edmonson, fellow Canadians Basia Bulat, Calvin Love and Juno Award-winning Lights. Devore then released her second EP “X Number Of Days”. She wrote, performed and produced all the songs on the album and embarked on a solo tour in support of it.

Her third album “half and half” has just been released. Extremely versatile, whether playing solo acoustic with her darkly poignant and mesmerizing sound, or showcasing her more electronic side with her sultry down tempo groove, Devore continues to be a consummate musician and prolific songwriter.

Cumulus

‘Lighter’

[folk/americana/bluegrass]

Press Notes:

The name came first. Comfort World—borrowed from a mattress store sign Alex Niedzialkowski (nee-jul-KOFF-ski) saw on a trip to Yakima. Her then-boyfriend was accompanying her and she took the sign as an omen of bliss. The long running configuration of her band Cumulus had broken up, leaving her unsure of herself. “I felt completely overwhelmed and insecure in everything,” Niedzialkowski explains. “I questioned whether I’d ever be able to find my people again, let alone write another album.” But the relationship, the apartment she and her boyfriend shared and the day job that enabled it all, were their own kind of Comfort World. They kept her safe while she tried to sort things out. Until they didn’t. Things hit hard and fast: the relationship crumbled, the day job evaporated, the apartment was emptied and cleaned for the sake of the deposit, and she got word that her mother had developed breast cancer. If there was comfort to be found anymore, it eluded her.

But Niedzialkowski is fundamentally, inescapably, a songwriter. So she started writing again. What else was there to do? “Basically, this entire world that I had built around myself was crumbling apart,” she says. “Comfort was complete bullshit. I spent a lot of time in my bedroom, writing these songs to get me through it.”

 As she wrote, she sought out bands fronted by or comprising women and non-binary musicians. They made her feel empowered to say what she wanted to say, and reassured her that she wasn’t alone. She started playing open mic nights at a cafe near her apartment, tentatively at first—the way everything feels tentative when your life is in an uproar—but then with mounting confidence. After accruing songs, she felt ready to begin recording Comfort World, her second record for Trans Records. On the advice of label head Chris Walla, Niedzialkowski went in the studio with 21 year old producer Mike Davis, Walla’s former intern.

Immediately, it was clear that the process of recording Comfort World would be different than any other record that Niedzialkowski had been involved in. For one, Davis demonstrated an intuitive knack for fleshing her acoustic iPhone demos out into full-fledged compositions. More importantly though, Davis believed in her, at times more than she believed in herself. “From day one, Mike was asking me to play instruments I’d never played, and asking me to try out new ideas, as if he had full confidence I could do it. It was my first time feeling like that in a studio environment.”

I Never Meant It To Be Like This, the first Cumulus record, was recorded over four days almost exactly as it had been arranged. Comfort World, by contrast, was languid, recorded over the course of seven months at Walla’s studio, Hall of Justice. Niedzialkowski brought in a crew of friends to fill out the album. There was time to play, experiment and chase the song. In the warm cocoon of the studio, surrounded by Mike and her friends, she felt as though she could do anything. “Over the years my voice had grown stronger, my songwriting had a clearer direction, and I had finally found myself in a place where I was empowered to have a say in every creative decision. Musically this album is more me than anything I’ve ever created,” says Niedzialkowski.

The events of the recent year had shredded her and making Comfort World wove her back together. Maybe that sign in Yakima was an omen after all; it was just pointing further afield than she could have imagined.

The Sloe Sippers

‘Oh Daddy’

[folk/americana/bluegrass]

Press Notes:

In their self-titled debut, Nate Jones & The Sloe Sippers deliver an EP which draws inspiration from a wide variety of American music. Soulful and haunting songs like “Lori Lee” are anchored perfectly by tracks with a more traditional bluegrass sound such as “The Devil Looks Upon You”. Fans will find this album to be a balanced cross section of the music they have come to expect at live performances in and around San Francisco.
Nate Jones & The Sloe Sippers are a San Francisco-based Americana band who met through music. Their folk, blues, and bluegrass influences combine with succulent harmonies to make something pretty special.
Nate Jones hails from the great state of Ohio and came to California to pursue a pro skateboarding career. He has played in several small bands in the Bay Area and now provides the Sloe Sippers with stellar songwriting, guitar, and lead vocals.
Travis Hanna is also from Ohio and has played with many national acts with an emphasis on classic R&B. He contributes his talents on guitar and backup vocals, but also plays bass for local band, The Jilters, and even built his bass from the ground up.
Dawn Roorda comes to us from the Iowa heartland and lends her bluegrass skills on the upright bass and backup vocals. She teaches piano lessons in her spare time and also plays bass for local band, The Saloons.

Mike Powell

‘Poison Diamond’

[folk]

Press Notes:

Storytellers are the heart and soul of songwriting. The combination of the written word and an acoustic guitar has been at the core of folk music for decades and Mike Powell follows in that tradition. A songwriting veteran with over two hundred songs in his catalog, Powell’s selected several dozen of those songs for the four albums & one EP that have been released since 2010.  Many more of the songs have found their way into the live experience as a solo act or with the five-member band that he fronts, Mike Powell & The Black River.

The stage is where Powell thrives. He’s completed two nationwide tours and generally plays upwards of 150 shows a year where he not only delivers stories in song but also engages the audience with the narrative behind the writing of some of the music. His songs are relatable and connect with the audience whether it’s in an intimate listening room, over craft beer in a brewery tap room or speaking to larger audiences on a festival stage. Shows are less about Powell playing to an audience and feel more like he is playing with them.

Shelter Without Wallsis Powell’s first EP and was released on October 5, 2018.  Similar to his other solo efforts, Shelter Without Walls is a guard down honest approach to recording music – its raw and real.  The EP was mixed/mastered by Patrick MacDougall (David Crosby, Jaymay, Robben Ford, The Band).

Hotel Life

‘I’d Go Through Quicksand’

[indie folk]

Press Notes:

This is a song about the dedication to being in a band. It’s a beautiful number. Recorded at The Ward in St Petersburg, FL in the Summer of 2018.  Available on black vinyl for your entertainment and pleasure.

Compiled by: Christos Doukakis