- Amythyst Kiah
- Bombadil
- David Childers
- Ruen Brothers
- Sierra Ferrell
- The Avett Brothers
- The National Reserve
Amythyst Kiah
Born in Chattanooga and based in Johnson City, Amythyst Kiah’s commanding stage presence is matched by her raw and powerful vocals—a deeply moving, hypnotic sound that stirs echoes of a distant and restless past.
Accompanied interchangeably with banjo, acoustic guitar, or a full band, her eclectic influences span decades, finding inspiration in old time music, alternative rock, folk, country, and blues.
Our Native Daughters, her recent collaboration with Rhiannon Giddens, Leyla McCalla, and Allison Russell (Birds of Chicago), has delivered a full-length album produced by Rhiannon Giddens and Dirk Powell, Songs of Our Native Daughters (out now on Smithsonian Folkways). NPR described the opening track, Black Myself, written by Amythyst, as “the simmering defiance of self-respect in the face of racism.” The song was nominated for a Grammy for Best American Roots Song. The supergroup hit the road in July 2019 with a series of special dates that included performances at Washington D.C.’s
Smithsonian Museum of African American History & Culture as well as Newport Folk Festival. The group was nominated for Duo/Group of the Year at the 2019 Americana Honors & Awards. Black Myself won 2019 Song of the Year at the Folk Alliance International Conference.
Provocative and fierce, Amythyst’s ability to cross boundaries is groundbreaking and simply unforgettable. Her stylistic range will be on full display in her next full-length album expected in 2020.
Amythyst regularly tours the United Kingdom and has performed at Celtic Connections, Southern Fried Festival, Cambridge Folk Festival, the Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival, and SummerTyne Americana Festival. She is a crowd favorite at Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion in the U.S. and has shined at the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, Smithsonian Folk Life Festival, Winnipeg Folk Festival, and opening for artists such as the Indigo Girls, Rhiannon Giddens, Dom Flemons, Old Crow Medicine Show, First Aid Kit, Darrell Scott, and Tim O’Brien.
Bombadil
Bombadil are a trio of North Carolina and France-based vocalists, songwriters, and visual artists. They are pleased to announce their new album, Beautiful Country, to be released in late September on Ramseur Records. The album was written and recorded during a time that found one member marrying a noted puppet artist, another relocating to a small village in the southern French Alps, and the third learning the finer points of audio and aeronautical engineering. The album is a document of these three humans’ collective transitions, interests and imperfections. It was produced by Scott Solter, who has worked on stunning recordings with acts like the Mountain Goats, Spoon, and Superchunk.
The sound is technicolor Americana pop, with knitted three-part vocal harmony. The band uses
traditional instruments like acoustic guitar, bass and drums and combines them with unidentifiable sounds to create singular sonic landscapes for each song to live within. In the words of the band, “The record we made is an extension of ourselves. We are excited for the world to hear it.”
Beautiful Country is a wonderful collection of colorful folk, good-hearted lyrics, and thoughtful melodies. The music is captivating and peaceful all at once—a real gem. The expectations are high for this superb live band with a full schedule of performances throughout North America and Europe over the course of the next year. Bombadil have received press coverage in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, and Paste, and their songs have been featured in the movie Trainwreck and the Hulu original series Runaways.
David Childers
Singer-songwriter David Childers is the proverbial study in contradictions. A resident of Mount Holly, North Carolina, he’s a former high-school football player with the aw-shucks demeanor of a good ol’ Southern boy. But he’s also a well-read poet and painter who cites Chaucer and Kerouac as influences, fell in love with folk as a teen, and listens to jazz and opera.
Childers’ most recent album, Run Skeleton Run, released in 2017 on Ramseur Records, is filled with the kinds of songs that have made him a favorite of fans and fellow artists including neighbors the Avett Brothers. Scott Avett contributes to four tracks, and Avetts bassist Bob Crawford co-executive-produced the effort with label head Dolph Ramseur. (Crawford and
Childers, both history buffs, have recorded and performed together in the Overmountain Men).
In fact, it was Crawford who kickstarted this album, Childers’ sixth solo effort, by suggesting he reunite with Don Dixon (R.E.M., the Smithereens), who’d produced Crawford’s favorite Childers album, Room 23 (done with his band the Modern Don Juans). Crawford also suggested tracking at Mitch Easter’s Fidelitorium Recordings.
Crawford has also called Childers “a great friend, a great thinker and a great man … a true North Carolina treasure.” But let’s take out “North Carolina,” because Childers is the kind of treasure who can spread joy wherever people love listening to great songs. In other words, just about anywhere. Or everywhere.
Ruen Brothers
Ru & Henry Stansall - from Scunthorpe, Northern England - were first discovered by BBC Radio 1’s Huw Stephens and Zane Lowe (twice being named Zane’s 'Hottest Record In The World'). The pair have since found themselves songwriting with The Weeknd, touring with George Ezra and Tom Odell, sharing material with Lana Del Rey, and recording an album produced by Rick Rubin at Shangri La Studios. The brothers have also performed at Coachella, Radio 1 Big Weekend, Isle of Wight, ACL & CMJ.
From pub circuits to being on the same bill as The Rolling Stones, the Ruen Brothers have received critical acclaim. They have been featured in GQ, Wonderland, Notion, tmrw, Q, NME, and Burberry. The Los Angeles Times named them as 'Best New British Music Coachella 2015' and 'Coachella 2015: 10 Artists to catch at the fest before they get huge.’
The Ruen Brothers have received airplay on KROQ, KCRW, ALT 98.7, BBC Radio, XFM (Radio X) and a host of independent stations across
the US and UK. They were also featured on Dermot O'Leary's 2014 Saturday Sessions Album which reached number 1 on the UK iTunes Chart.
Single ‘Unknown’ (released November 4th 2016) was featured on Apple Music’s ‘Best Of The Week’ playlist and received notable radio airplay in the US and UK.
‘Genevieve, Come Out Tonight’ is the band's latest single and features Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The song has received international airplay. Apple Music put ‘Genevieve, Come Out Tonight’ in their Breaking Alternative playlist and featured the song on iTunes’ US home pages for Rock and for Alternative in the Hot Tracks and New Releases.
The Ruen Brothers currently reside in NYC and perform a weekly residency at the Manderley Bar within the McKittrick Hotel. They recently performed at Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in June 2017, where they were joined on stage by Chad Smith during their performance of ‘Genevieve, Come Out Tonight.’
Sierra Ferrell
With her spellbinding voice and time-bending sound, Sierra Ferrell makes music that’s as fantastically vagabond as the artist herself. Growing up in West Virginia, the singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist got her start belting out Shania Twain songs in a local bar at the age of seven, and left home in her early 20s to journey across the country with a troupe of wandering musicians. “I met all these homeless kids who were traveling all over the place and playing amazing old songs, and I wanted to be a part of that,” says Ferrell, who played everywhere from truck stops to alleyways to freight-train boxcars speeding down the railroad tracks. “The music they were making was so honest, so pure. It seemed important to bring that kind of music back, and it’s been with me ever since.”
After years of living in her van and busking on the streets of New Orleans and Seattle, Ferrell moved to Nashville and started landing gigs around town. Soon enough, her magnetic live show drew the attention of Rounder Records, who signed Ferrell in 2019. To date, she’s enchanted audiences at major festivals like The Avett Brothers at the Beach, AmericanaFest, and Out on The Weekend, and also shared the stage with the likes of Trampled by Turtles, Parker Millsap, Charley Crockett, and The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band.
Produced by
Gary Paczosa (Alison Krauss, Dwight Yoakam, Gillian Welch) and Stu Hibberd, Ferrell’s debut singles for Rounder feature a stellar lineup of musicians, including country royalty like Chris Scruggs and her longtime collaborator Nathan Leath (a fiddle player she first met at the American Legion Post 82’s Honky-Tonk Tuesday). Sprung from her self- described “country heart but a jazz mind,” those tracks include “Why’d Ya Do It”: a beguiling and bittersweet lament partly inspired by Ferrell’s fascination with calypso and tango music. (“That song took me a few years to put together—it’s such a different vibe for me, and I’m ridiculously happy with the outcome,” Ferrell notes.) And with its galloping rhythm and classic bluegrass storytelling—as well as a guest appearance from Grammy Award-winner Sarah Jarosz on background vocals—“Jeremiah” sweetly delivers what Ferrell dubs “a broken song, with a gleam of hope at the end.” Now at work on her full-length debut for Rounder, Ferrell delights in defying all convention in everything she creates. “I want my music to be like my mind is—all over the place,” she says. “I listen to everything from bluegrass to techno to goth metal, and it all inspires me in different ways that I try to incorporate into my songs and make people really feel something.”
The Avett Brothers
THE AVETT BROTHERS made mainstream waves with their 2009 major label debut, I and Love and You, landing at #16 on the Billboard Top 200 and garnering critical acclaim from Rolling Stone, Paste, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Time. 2012 saw The Carpenter hit #4 on the Billboard Top 200, while People, USA Today, and American Songwriter lauded the album. The group appeared on Jimmy Kimmel LIVE! twice in a few months' time. During their second performance, the Brooklyn Philharmonic joined to pay homage to Brooklyn with "I and Love and You" at Mr. Kimmel's request. Their eighth studio album, Magpie and the Dandelion, debuted at #5 on the Billboard Top 200. They performed on
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Late Show with David Letterman, and accompanied Chris Cornell for a Pearl Jam tribute on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. The band supported The Rolling Stones in Raleigh during 2015's Zip Code Tour.
True Sadness achieves THE AVETT BROTHERS highest career debut to date and dominates multiple charts. The Rick Rubin produced album hit #1 on Billboard’s Top Albums Chart, #1 Top Rock Albums Chart, #1 Digital Albums Chart, #3 on the Billboard Top 200, and scored two Grammy nominations. Recently, THE AVETT BROTHERS were inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame. They continue to be revered as one of the top folk-rock acts in the country.
The National Reserve
For nearly half a decade, The National Reserve has spent Friday nights lighting it up at Brooklyn bars, winning over fans with epic sets and a remarkable breadth of song-craft and showmanship. With their 2018 release on Ramseur Records, Motel La Grange, the band has crafted a rich and raucous collection that instantly places them among Americana’s finest with its force, directness, and performance not unlike some lost recording unearthed
from the golden age of 70's rock ‘n’ roll. Founded and fronted by singer-guitarist Sean Walsh, The National Reserve meld gutbucket R&B with New Orleans funk workouts, late night soul, and boozy rock ‘n’ roll to create their own timeless brand of music. The National Reserve is set to bring all the fun and fire of their fervent Friday night sets to the rest of the world, eager to pack as many folks into their late night scene as possible.