Artist Category: Soul

Alexz Johnson

With tenacity like Alexz Johnson’s, there’s no question that independence reigns in the music industry, despite what you’ve been sold.

Independent Canadian singer/songwriter, Gemini-Award winning actress, and Mom of two under three, Alexz Johnson is based both in NYC and Toronto, Canada. Lending her soulful sound and passionate songwriting style to both film and TV (Disney’s So Weird, Instant Star, Pretty Little Liars, Blue on HULU), Alexz has garnered a massive and loyal international fan following. After a 4 season run portraying musician Jude Harrison (lead) on The N’s (Nickelodeon’s) hit TV show Instant Star, Alexz dove straight into focusing on her music and touring career, raising $67k through Kickstarter to fund the release of her Skipping Stone EP, as well as her first sold out American tour. In ’14, Alexz’s fan base again showed overwhelming support and raised $60k on PledgeMusic to help fund her album Let ‘Em Eat Cake, produced by David Kahne (Lana Del Rey, Regina Spector) which become a winner in the International Songwriting Competition for best music video, Ruthless Love. This Spring, Alexz, with her family, returned from her successful EU/UK tour, promoting her 5th studio album ‘Seasons’ (released April 7th, ’23). ‘Seasons’, which was fuelled and funded entirely by her thriving Patreon community, was written and recorded remotely at Alexz’s home studio during the pandemic. Alexz continues to work independently in music, holding true to her sound and vision as an artist, and is looking forward to touring her new album across the US, Spring of ’24.

Kimaya Diggs

KIMAYA DIGGS is a musician and writer, born and based in the rolling hills of Western Massachusetts. The sounds of her childhood included Emily Dickinson, Ella Fitzgerald, Whitney Houston, 70’s soul, and songs around the table with her family.

A fourth-generation artist, Kimaya grew up singing with her sisters, and found her voice across the facets of neo-soul, jazz, and R&B. She’s crafted a genre-defying style that celebrates the power and dexterity of her voice. Slippery and acrobatic at times, earthy and urgency-filled at others, her voice has been called “smoothly captivating” by the Daily Hampshire Gazette. Her songwriting beautifully captures the spectrum of her vocal range, and the singular control she has over her instrument.

Her debut album Breastfed (2018) is a bittersweet chronicle of growth towards the light. Produced by LuxDeluxe bassist Jacob Rosazza, the LP features lush string arrangements and moving harmonies. The single How Am I Sposta Know placed in top 10 in 93.9 The River’s Best New Songs of 2018.

Her EP One More Holiday (2021) builds on her jazz roots for a classic Christmas sound. The title track, about the death of her mother, “captures the way that the season of joy can also intensify the feeling of loss… during the holiday season,” wrote the Greenfield Recorder. She launched the album with a Christmas-themed variety night in her native Northampton.

As a writer, Diggs’ personal essays, short fiction, and poetry has been published widely, earning her a Callaloo Fellowship in Poetry in 2017. In 2020, she headlined the Emily Dickinson Museum’s Tell It Slant poetry festival, performing live from Emily Dickinson’s historic bedroom.

More recently, to commemorate Black History Month in 2022, she released a cover of Solange’s “Cranes in the Sky,” a song that documents a journey towards self-love. Her single They Can Say What They Like, released in 2021 on A-Side B-Side Records, written to benefit Cancer Connection, Inc., raising over $2000 for the organization. It placed #6 in 93.9 The River’s Best New Songs of 2021. Her sophomore album is expected in early 2023.

Eavesdrop

Hailing from the Northeast, these Pioneer Valley MA natives provide a sound all their own; a perfect combination of soulful vocals, intricate harmonies, contagious melodies and moving rhythm. Originating as a trio, friends Kara Rose Wolf, Kerrie T. Bowden and Laura Marie Picchi maintain their vocal roots and continue to shape their sound through writing and collaborative instrumentation.

Eavesdrop’s debut EP, The Afterglow, showcased the trio’s vocally charged acoustic, folk, soul roots. With their latest release, Tides, the band has expanded into a six piece ensemble incorporating some of the valley’s finest musicians. Co-produced by Alan Evans and Ross Bellenoit, Tides is the band’s first full length album. It brings the listener on a ride alongside the three songbirds, taking a deeper look into the life events that fostered their creativity.

Ali McGuirk

Ali McGuirk has never been a church mouse. Her 2022 album, Til It’s Gone, was met with widespread acclaim and praised for its “earthy tenderness and smart introspection” (Boston Herald). She now returns with a new album, Watertop,  that elevates her signature soulful and smoldering sound to new heights—this time, the production is richer, and the message is unflinching.

It’s hard to pinpoint the exact moment that led to the freedom in McGuirk’s songwriting on “Watertop.” Perhaps it was when she began treating social activism—and her care for others—as a spiritual practice. This transformation gave Watertop its raison d’etre, which comes at you quickly with the opening track, “Love Goes First.” With Watertop McGuirk takes a magnifying glass to the complexities of human and societal value, unraveling the meanings of care, empathy, love, and even greed. At first listen, her words aren’t always what they seem. But the richness of McGuirk’s voice, the lucidity of her production, and the power of her delivery guide you to the truth. 

Katie Matzell

Katie Matzell is an up-and-coming singer and songwriter from Portland, Maine who released her debut EP at the start of 2018. MaineToday called the debut “fierce and dazzling,” adding that Matzell’s vocals are “sweet, full and gorgeous” with a “richness to them that make the songs burst all the more.” The Deli Magazine said “Matzell’s voice, both effortless and simple, floats above a sea of washy keys and pocket grooves, calling comparisons to not only her influences of the past (Bonnie Raitt and Aretha Franklin), but to her contemporaries — Norah Jones and Emily King immediately come to mind.” Matzell was nominated by the New England Music Awards in 2018 for Female Performer of the Year. Matzell is hard at work on new music for a 2019 release.

Charlie Hunter & Lucy Woodward

An exhilarating blast of blues, soul and funk, Music!Music!Music! marks the recorded debut of the musical partnership between guitarist Charlie Hunter and vocalist Lucy Woodward. The duo first performed together in January 2018, when Woodward — fresh off supporting her fourth solo album, 2016’s Til They Bang on the Door — joined forces with Hunter as a lastminute fill-in on a tour he’d originally booked with Mexican singer-songwriter Silvana Estrada (whose visa application had been denied by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security).

Bonded by their shared love of blues, Hunter and Woodward quickly constructed a setlist of favorite songs and hit the road. Within less than a week of playing shows together, they realized that they’d hit upon something very special, indeed. Recorded in November 2018 at Stephen Lee Price’s studio in High Point, NC, with longtime Hunter collaborator Derrek Phillips on the drums, Music!Music!Music! features eleven radically reworked covers of songs by artists ranging from Blind Willie Johnson and Bessie Smith to Nina Simone and Terence Trent D’Arby. Soulful, spacious and deliciously in the pocket, Music!Music!Music! showcases the dazzling interplay between Hunter’s funky guitar and Woodward’s powerful voice, while also reflecting the spontaneity and good vibes of the duo’s live performances.

Hunter and Woodward will return to the road this spring to take Music!Music!Music! to the people. The tour for the album will stretch over much of 2019, with the duo going to Europe and Japan as well as all over North America.

Jesse Dee

Boston’s Jesse Dee is a singing, songwriting, guitar-playing soul man-a modern day trailblazer inspired by the old school. Dee’s passion is exploring and updating soul music for contemporary audiences.

With his warm and honest sound, his instantly memorable melodies and positive, slice-of-life lyrics (evoking the heyday of the Brill Building songwriters), he accomplishes just that. His inventive, hook-filled songs are delivered with buoyant, youthful exuberance. Live, he always brings down the house, and keeps his ever-growing fan base coming back for more. His band lays down driving, infectious grooves while Dee’s expressive vocals put him in a class by himself. On the strength of his fervent live shows, Dee plays to packed clubs in New England and has toured across Europe, earning new fans at every gig. The Boston Herald declares, “Dee has an explosive voice. He possesses a powerful, raspy tenor and an uncanny phrasing ability that can’t be taught.”

 

Coral Moons

Coral Moons is a 4 piece indie-soul band from Boston, MA. Their music has roots in blues, jazz, soul, funk and 60’s rock bringing their stories to life. Their songs reflect everyday anxiety and pains while also admiring its beauty. With strong lead female vocals, their inspiration pulls from Tedeschi Trucks Band, Lake Street Dive, Allen Stone and The Allman Brothers.

What Time Is It, Mr. Fox?

Named after a Victorian children’s game, What Time Is It, Mr. Fox? can time-travel from 1960s New Orleans soul, back to the minstrels of Medieval France before landing in the Tin Pan Alley era of NYC.  Led by the gender-defying voice of 3rian King, the ensemble delivers their own brand smoky cabaret, neo-soul and acoustic noir, sounding something like Tom Waits and Amy Winehouse performing in a French cafe. What Time Is It, Mr. Fox? is known for its original songs which marry rich lyrical imagery with a cinematic sensibility, exploring themes of love, spirituality, sexuality, and identity.  Whether stripped down for acoustic coffeehouses and living room concerts or immersive multimedia shows in clubs and theaters, Mr. Fox brings honesty, energy, and emotional authenticity to every performance.

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