Artist Category: Singer/Songwriter | Page 21

Tiffany Williams

Tiffany Williams is a native of Eastern Kentucky. She is a coal miner’s daughter, granddaughter, and great-granddaughter and an exciting emerging voice who crafts achingly beautiful songs about what it means, in her experience, to be from the Appalachian Mountains.

“I love Appalachia as I love myself,” she says, “with an intimate understanding of its shortcomings and virtues, with compassion and forgiveness, and with fierce hope. It’s home and always will be, but, for me, it took moving away to write about it.”

When she “took off down the big road,” she ended up in Nashville, where, for the last five years, she has honed her songwriting through commercial, co-writing, and solo pursuits.

Her debut EP, When You Go, released January 18, 2019, features five tracks, all of which were penned by the artist and are a meditation on life in the mountains—a place, as echoed in the title track, that “you can’t leave […] when you go.”

“Most of these songs were recorded at Appalshop, in Letcher County, where I’m from. I’m really happy it worked out that way,” says the singer/songwriter.

The album was produced by Britton Patrick Morgan of Louisville and benefits from the fine musicianship of Ellie Miller, Taylor Shuck, and Dave Roe, who played bass on the road with Johnny Cash.

Samoa Wilson

Since she was 12 years old, Samoa Wilson has been captivating audiences with a voice the New York Times calls “sweet, effortless, old-timey”. Raised in the riverbed of traditional North American folk music, she came up in the Boston scene, under the wing of jug band and folk legend Jim Kweskin. Her current duo, the Four O’Clock Flowers, a stark and electrifying exploration of gospel, blues and jazz, with slide guitar maestro Ernie Vega, has become a staple of the thriving New York City folk community. Her choice of repertoire makes the difference: torchy and honeyed renditions of haunting little-known tunes, from a woman’s perspective. From the source of the traditional and classic material, she poses a modern complaint, salutes the transformation of women’s work and suffering into women’s triumph.

Gary Louris

Over the last three decades, singer, songwriter, guitarist and producer Gary Louris has built a deeply compelling body of music whose artistry and integrity has won the loyalty of an international audience and the respect of both critics and his peers. Best known for his seminal work with The Jayhawks, he is one of the most acclaimed musicians to come out of Minnesota’s teeming rock scene.

Concurrent with his time in the Jayhawks, Louris has been a charter member of the part-time alt-rock supergroup Golden Smog, which at various times has included members of Soul Asylum, Wilco, the Replacements and Big Star.

Along the way Louris has produced records by various artists, contributed songs to Grammy Award-winning albums by the Tedeschi/Trucks Band and The Dixie Chicks; and recorded with acts as diverse as the Black Crowes, Counting Crows, Uncle Tupelo, Joe Henry, John Hiatt, Lucinda Williams, Roger McGuinn, Maria McKee, Nickel Creek, Carrie Rodriguez, Tift Merritt and the Wallflowers.

Louris released his first solo album, Vagabonds, in 2008. His long awaited 2nd solo album, Jump For Joy, is scheduled for a summer 2021 release.

Ava Earl

Ava Earl is a prolific young singer-songwriter from the small mountain town of Girdwood, Alaska. Known for her intricate fingerpicking and graceful melodies, Ava’s music reflects the landscape she’s grown up in—open, raw, beautiful.

At just 18 years old, she has written and co-produced three full-length albums. “Am I Me Yet?” is her latest work, released in July 2018. The collection of 15 songs features Ava on guitar and vocals, Andy Mullen on guitar and bass, and Anna Tivel on violin. The album was recorded at The Hallowed Halls studio in Portland, Oregon, and was engineered by Hawkins Wright who also co-produced the album.

An engaging performer, Ava thrives in a live concert setting, drawing audiences in with her music and stories. She’s as comfortable performing in large auditoriums as she is on festival stages and in listening room showcases. Highlight performances over the years include opening for Maggie Rogers (Nov 2017); playing with Parlor in the Round (Jan 2020, Mar 2018); performing at Salmonfest (Aug 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019); opening for Rhett Miller (Sep 2018); and opening for Tim Easton (Mar 2019).

Ava traveled to Nashville in February 2020 to record a new album. It is her first project with full arrangements and was produced by JT Nero of the Birds of Chicago. The album will be released on July 23, 2021.

Niu Raza

Eilen Jewell & Jerry Miller

American Songwriter describes Eilen Jewell as “one of America’s most intriguing, creative and idiosyncratic voices”. The Boise, Idaho songwriter is truly one of a kind. Since 2006, Jewell has performed on festival stages from Byron Bay Bluesfest in Australia to California’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass. Her music has earned accolades from NPR, BBC, Rolling Stone and MOJO as well as from heads of state (Former British Prime Minister David Cameron ) and Hollywood actors (Tom Hanks).

Accompanying her all over the world for the last 15 years has been Jerry “Cold-Blooded” Miller. Miller’s solos are legendary. But it’s the textures, soundscapes and magic that he weaves throughout Jewell’s songs that have been a signature sound to her music.

Jerry Glenn Miller has been playing and studying guitar since his childhood in Nashville, TN, later earning a degree in guitar performance at Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA. Miller has played blues, country, rockabilly, folk, jazz, and surf, touring and recording with artists such as Freddy Fender, Sonny Burgess and Billy Lee Riley. He also toured for 10 years with Bluestime, fronted by Magic Dick and Jay Geils, and has performed several times as part of B.B. King’s BluesFest.

Jewell and Miller share a passion for music of the past: classic country, raw blues and gospel as well as folk and singer-songwriters from the 1960s. They also share a love of space between the notes in the music they create. Miller has often said he has enjoyed playing Jewell’s songs more than anyone else’s material. Indeed, the colors and tones that he creates are a major part of this music.

While the band will continue to tour (dates are booked through summer, 2022), the idea of Jewell and Miller touring as a duo has been percolating for some years now. They are excited to present this intimate performance of their well-loved music to stages for the first time.

Diana Jones

With her new release, Song To A Refugee, Diana Jones brings her signature brand of storytelling to the worldwide refugee crisis. The UK’s Guardian/Observer calls Song To A Refugee “a record for our time.” This powerful song cycle reflects renewed empathy for, and common cause with the plight of refugees. “None of us know where our footsteps will fall,” Jones suggests.

From a woman walking miles to the US border carrying her child, to the young children separated from their parents fleeing their homeland, Jones gives an immediacy to the stories of our time while illuminating the more generic themes within. Song To A Refugee artfully considers the times we live in, speaks for those often without a voice and encourages a humanitarian response.

Kyshona

Kyshona is an artist ignited by untold stories, and the capacity of those stories to thread connection in every community. With the background of a licensed music therapist, the curiosity of a writer, the patience of a friend, the vision of a social entrepreneur, the resolve of an activist, and the voice of a singer – Kyshona is unrelenting in her pursuit for the healing power of song. She lends her voice and music to those that feel they have been lost, silenced, forgotten or alone. Through her organization Your Song, she facilitates therapeutic songwriting sessions with groups and individuals in hopes of reconnecting those who are divided. Of her past releases, one fan reviewer wrote: “Amidst these hard, divisive times this set of songs is a salve for the grief many of us are feeling about resulting loss of family, friends, and community.”

Storytelling is the way we pass information – between friends, colleagues, and family. Stories are how we imprint our culture and give gifts from one generation to the next. Memory is imperfect. It is influenced by emotion, context, our state-of-mind on any given day, our health, surroundings, language, and how we have been socialized. In telling our stories, we not only enlighten one another to our truths, we also call upon our community to practice active understanding and to help us acknowledge, validate, and remember our past. In telling our stories of the past, we shape a collective future informed by all we have all we have traveled, all we have learned, and all we have been.

Every family has storytellers, because we are all storytellers.

In her new album LEGACY, Kyshona tells the long story of her family’s journey.

“This is protest music for a new generation, a musical treatment for social ills, a unique prescription that only works if you listen.” – No Depression

“Listen highlights Kyshona’s descriptive songwriting and soulful vocals alongside a versatile blend of folk, rock and R&B influences. While Kyshona sings of fear, hope, community, love and understanding throughout the 10-track project, she also finds herself.” – Billboard

“Everyone is making political records. Everyone is making albums that speak to ‘this moment.’ Too few of them are making music that speaks to the people who inhabit this moment. Kyshona does.” -The Bluegrass Situation

Marielle Kraft

When you hear Marielle Kraft’s music or experience her candid live shows, you feel as though you already know her. The indie pop singer/songwriter, now based in Nashville, displays craftsmanship beyond her years, following suit to artists like Shawn Mendes, Maisie Peters, and Taylor Swift.

Self-taught, the Rhode Island native began playing guitar at 16 and soon writing songs that strike chords with listeners everywhere. Her gift for storytelling is evident through her use of salient detail, raw emotion, and poignant word choice to describe moments “exactly as they feel.”

Over the past few years, Marielle Kraft has self-released one original EP, seven singles, and four official music videos.

Since leaving her full-time teaching career to pursue a life committed to creating music, Marielle Kraft has promise to follow suit to artists like Julia Michaels and Maisie Peters as the young songwriter makes a growing impact in the indie pop scene.

Talia Rose

Talia Rose has been a fixture of the Boston music scene for nearly a decade. An early love of modern fingerstyle guitar led her to seek inspiration and mentorship from guitarists including Thomas Leeb and Jon Gomm. Her 2019 release What Goes Unmentioned marked the beginning of an exploration of her voice as a songwriter. Talia’s writing combines intricate guitar accompaniment and a complex understanding of harmony with carefully crafted, deeply personal lyrics. Her songs reflect elements of the music she grew up with; from the melodic sensibilities of Imogen Heap, to the vulnerability of Adrianne Lenker, to the wittiness of Prefab Sprout. Perhaps best known for her viral song about the Mars Rover, Talia’s music elicits tenderness from unexpected places. Talia Rose’s debut full-length album, Carry it Closely will be released in August 2024. With Carry it Closely, Talia brings you into her world, both emotionally and sonically. Woven into her “melodic currents and fluent songcraft” (Americana UK), are stories of heartbreak, the fantasies of parenthood, and the struggle of making peace with one’s current stage of life. The album’s title is a nod to the many people, places, and feelings Rose carries closely with her, with each track revealing something she holds dear. The record draws from a number of Rose’s influences; her background in Jazz melds seamlessly with her new love of folk and bluegrass, alongside elements of chamber-pop and indie-rock.