Nashville

Carli Brill

photo by Hannah Gray Hall

Singer-songwriter Carli Brill crafts charming, intricate retro-pop that blends the warmth of 60s-era radio hits with a sleek and modern sophistication. With honey-smooth vocals and a knack for complex rhythmic shifts, Brill has a natural gift for musical storytelling, sharing her distinctive worldview through introspective lyrics inspired by everything from childhood experience to current relationship woes. “I make music because I can’t imagine not making music,” she says. 

 Born and raised in Southern California, Brill grew up dabbling in guitar, piano, voice, and flute, inspired by 50s and 60s acts (The Beatles, The Beach Boys, The Mamas and The Papas, Simon and Garfunkel) whose work spanned a wide spectrum of styles. “I love songs that are unexpected, full of contrasting elements,” she says. “I like to be surprised.” Brill released a self-produced Christmas album via Bandcamp in 2016, piquing her interest in a music career; then in 2018 she won a nationwide contest, judged by British artist Jessie J, to record tracks at L.A.’s Capitol Records. In 2019 Brill released her debut self-titled pop EP under the name Sonora, written and recorded in Oceanside, CA. Later that year, she moved to Nashville to pursue her music career full-time.

Now set to release three new singles under her own name in 2022, Carli Brill has evolved as an artist and songwriter, experimenting with shifting rhythms and vintage tones in strikingly original arrangements. Her vocals have the silky, effortless purity of indie-pop/folk icons Mirah and Keren Ann, while the tracks incorporate subtle retro flourishes like organ accents and jingle bells for a throwback charm reminiscent of Tennis’s Cape Dory album. Recorded in Nashville and produced by Brendan St. Gelais, Brill’s new work showcases her natural ability to fuse internal and external, past and present, into uniquely compelling music. “I find that the song tells you where it wants to go,” she says. “I just trust what feels right.”

Heather Bond

Photo Credit: Meg Sagi

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Nashville artist Heather Bond makes radiant, cinematic indie-pop laced with elements of disco and R&B. Her lyrics reflect on everything from love, seduction, and heartbreak to social media, nostalgia, and politics, with an easy, modern intelligence enhanced by crystal-clear vocals and crisp harmonies. Her sound is both elegant and eclectic, evoking the breezy clarity of piano-pop artists like Norah Jones and Regina Spektor mixed with the jazzy, experimental range of Fiona Apple. 

Now poised to release her sophomore solo album, The Mess We Created, Bond presents a diverse and distinctively groovy new collection, written in close collaboration with renowned bassist and producer Viktor Krauss (Lyle Lovett, Bill Frisell, James Taylor, Robert Plant, Alison Krauss). “We didn’t have a plan for our sound; we just wanted to create interesting music,” says Bond. The duo’s first collaborative single “The Mirage” (track 2 on The Mess We Created) became one of the year’s top 100 most played songs on Nashville’s Lightning 100 radio, inspiring Bond and Krauss to continue working together on what would ultimately become the full-length album.

Collaborating expanded Bond’s creative process: An experienced songwriter and pianist, she began writing dynamic melodies to unique bass lines crafted by Krauss, and together the pair took advantage of Krauss’s extensive collection of vintage musical equipment. The resulting sound is enjoyably tricky and difficult to categorize: completely modern while hinting at an earlier musical era. No software synths or reproduced samples were used. “Heather has a classic voice,” says Krauss. “As a producer, I felt it was important to make music that could be appreciated for decades—not just for right now."

Born in Texas and raised in Louisville, KY, Bond spent the summer after college waitressing, saving money, recording demos, and preparing to move to Nashville. “There was never a plan B! A career in music was always my future,” she says. She earned a name for herself performing live, often sold-out shows at local venues, including Nashville’s iconic Bluebird Cafe. Soon after, she signed with Modern Works Music Publishing and Whizbang Music Licensing, which led to a list of international television placements, including Jane the Virgin, Charmed, and Sesame Street, as well as numerous high-profile cuts, including “This Time” featuring Joss Stone. Bond quickly became a sought-after songwriter, cowriting with artists and producers in Nashville, Los Angeles., and New York. She also appeared on television, playing piano on several episodes of ABC’s hit series Nashville. In addition to her solo work, Bond is a singer, songwriter, and keytar player for retro electropop “supergroup” The Daybreaks with whom she continues to release new music.

Bond released her debut solo album So Long in 2015, produced by GRAMMY-nominated artist Matthew Odmark (Jars of Clay), and in 2019 was selected by GRAMMY-winning producer Larry Klein (Joni Mitchell, Herbie Hancock, Shawn Colvin, Madeleine Peyroux, Tracy Chapman) as the only American woman artist included in Beyond Music Volume One: Same Sky. The 13-track, cross-cultural compilation featured artists from all over the world and received critical acclaim, including a nod to Bond in Forbes: “Bond, a composer of heartfelt ballads and singer-songwriter tunes one could easily imagine at home on the radio, really establishes herself as the Sara Bareilles of the group.” 

Bond’s second solo album The Mess We Created is a refreshing, well-crafted, and unique collection featuring first-rate musicians. The songs reveal a maturity gained from years of experience in the music industry. With Krauss as the primarily instrumentalist, along with L.A. drummer Matt Chamberlain (Lorde, Tori Amos) and Jano Rix of The Wood Brothers, the album is vibrant, idiosyncratic, and rooted in rhythm. Each song showcases Bond’s effortlessly agile vocal delivery, shifting from the smooth purity of Sade (in “Resist”) to the cheeky sweetness of Kylie Minogue (in “Ich Weiss Nicht”) to the delicate depth of Parisian singer Keren Ann (in “Fountain of Youth” and “Fate”). The album closes in an energetic punch with the spritely, beat-driven single “Feel It.” Bond is eager to perform these new songs and connect with audiences across the world again soon. The Mess We Created is set for release on February 25, 2022.

            

 

Ali Sperry

Photo credit: Fairlight Hubbard

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Ali Sperry, when faced with a year of trauma, racial reckoning, and downright worldwide existential crisis, did what she has always done — turned inward and wrote songs that channeled, mirrored and ultimately DISTILLED those cultural currents — distilled is the operative word, here, as she and her producer, Jamie Dick, wisely avoid long-form folk indulgence for streamlined contours and razor hooks that feel more rock/pop than folk, and are fairly begging for a decent car stereo and an open road.  

Ali, in her singing and writing, is the people’s champ of the “less is more" ethos. There is a slight echo of Laurel Canyon in the sonics of the record, and, always, the confident under-singing of a woman who knows her words and melodies will happily do the heavy lifting. 

She and Jamie have brought in an absolute murderers' row of beloved Nashville players, including Jen Gunderman, Audley Freed, Sadler Vaden, Joe Pisapia, Owen Biddle, Kai Welch, Kristin Weber, Rich Hinman, and a slew of other bright lights. It's a testament to both their instincts and their respect for Sperry’s presence and voice, that it never feels like a cavalcade of assembled star-turns, but a real love-in of massively talented musical souls. 

Jamie Dick’s production artfully maintains the connective tissue from song to song, and always gives pride of place to Sperry’s voice and truth telling.  Raised by musician/Transcendental Meditation-teacher parents in Fairfield, Iowa, music has been a constant thread throughout Sperry’s life and was the driving force that brought her to Nashville in 2009. She is such a beloved presence around Nashville -co-writing, teaching yoga or lending a listening ear to friends in high-end coffee shops or low-end dives…who knows how much the world will be able to get her away for extended touring…we can hope. Nevertheless, this is a record that should quietly find its way into a lot of needy hearts. 

Jesse Correll

Photo: Stacie Huckeba

Shibori is a traditional Japanese resist-dyeing technique. A pattern is made by binding, stitching, folding, twisting, or compressing a natural fabric, dyeing, and then releasing the bind and pressure to reveal its pattern. Techniques were ancestral, handed down exclusively within families.  When the fabric is returned to its flat form after dyeing, the design that emerges is the result of the bound and tied three-dimensional shape. The cloth sensitively records both the form and the pressure; the “memory” of the tied shape remains imprinted in the cloth. 

“The technique spoke to me. We endure a lifelong process of unfolding, unbinding, unstitching, and unblocking. Little by little, we see that what we thought were stains, are intricate patterns; the design of unseen hands,” singer-songwriter Jesse Correll shares. The Nashville-based artist explores this parable on his latest album, Inner Shibori, out February 11, 2022. It’s a timeless and elegantly expressive record that feels like a singer-songwriter album draped in torch-song finery.  

Inner Shibori is Jesse’s fourth record since 1994, and his second release after a 15-year hiatus from music. The 13-song release is an album oozing luxury and longing. The production approach; sophisticated and tastefully sentimental songs; and the smooth musicianship recalls Frank Sinatra and Chet Baker’s lonely balladeering, and the type of recordings made at Capitol Studios in Hollywood during the 1950s and 1960s. The songs are also interwoven with threads of Americana, R&B, soul, and folk, recalling contemporary artists such as Ray LaMontagne, Jacob Collier, and Madison Cunningham.  

Jesse’s last release, 2015’s Held Momentarily, was an intimately soulful bedroom production that captured the joys of romantic and personal reclamation. For Jesse, this included a new love relationship and returning to music. Jesse is a Berklee graduate and a lifelong musician, and he came back with a vengeance. He left New York and followed his muse to Music City, where he blossomed as a songwriter, a member of the Nashville music community, and a popular podcaster. Parallel to this evolution, another dynamic was playing out. Jesse and his lady were two marriage-resistant lovers that decided to do the thing, but unfortunately, their seven-year union unraveled in under a year of marriage.  

What seemed and felt like a bottom, like Sinatra’s In the Wee Small Hours come to life, became a turning point of self-reflection, acceptance, and even a love rebirth. This journey became an inner Shibori experience for Jesse, and he processes it on his album.  “It was like a breakup with my former self. I had been running from old stuff—like early abandonment—and I needed to address them to move on. There is definitely a story of the greatest love ever followed by the worst pain ever. To the outside, I’m sure it looked like wtf happened,” he says laughing.  

The 13 tracks of the Inner Shibori came to life during three days of tracking at Skinny Elephant Recording, in Nashville with engineer Dylan Alldredge. The album was produced by Jesse and guitarist/singer-songwriter/producer Anne McCue. The pair also handpicked the core band and the session auxiliary musicians.  

 Reflecting on the Inner Shibori, Jesse says: “This album felt like a homecoming. Rebirth, the record I made at the end of my Berklee years, hinted at my musical identity. I can see now that I got lost for a while, and struggled to find my way back. Held Momentarily was a turning point. I needed all of those years of being lost to be able to fully express myself as a musician; as a human being. Making this record, and finding my home in the Nashville music community, has been a peak experience that I will never forget.” 

The Grahams

Credit: Alex Berger

Credit: Alex Berger

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The Grahams’ Alyssa and Doug Graham are New Jersey raised, New York bred, but Nashville based — a cross-section of regional influences that allows them to slip in and out of genres like they’re changing clothes. Their unique sound landed them at the top of the Americana charts when their first album, Riverman’s Daughter, was released in 2013, led to the critically acclaimed Glory Bound in 2016, and their affair with a more alt-pop sound on 2020’s Kids Like Us (co-produced by the late Richard Swift and Lucious’ Dan Molad). Their music has landed them in every major music publication and grown them a legion of dedicated fans around the world. In 2021 their music has evolved again into a nostalgia-inducing mellow gold sound with a nod to mid-century soul and classic UK pop. If that sounds like a mouthful, it’s by design. Consider their upcoming three song EP Sha La La a moment of bliss before the duo’s next full album, due in 2022.

A tongue-in-cheek reference to a laissez-faire approach to life, Sha La La is The Grahams’ attempt to exorcise the pains and disappointments of the last 14 months. Rather than writhing in self pity and judgement, or aspirations driven by narcissism, they decided to simply let go of trying to control or overcome the situation, liberating themselves of their anger and who they thought they were, while embracing who they may become.

Their 2020 LP Kids Like Us — four years in the making — was considered their best work to-date. Released in March of the year of our lord COVID, they were devastated as their tour plans and other promotional opportunities were slowly picked off one by one. While this is a familiar story by now, The Grahams’ specific experience was compounded by a perfect storm of difficult situations. New parents with a one year-old when the pandemic broke out (and without any family nearby), they found themselves isolated with their child while Alyssa struggled with postpartum depression. She also discovered that she needed surgery on her wrist, and simultaneously suffered a painful and debilitating vocal hemorrhage, and therefore couldn’t speak (let alone sing) or play guitar for weeks — followed by many months of vocal therapy. While it was an extremely difficult time, the couple’s bond only grew stronger.

When The Grahams decided to pick up their spirits by making new music, they headed to 3 Sirens Studio — a hidden, invite-only East Nashville space which they own and operate. The duo had a deep desire to experiment with new sounds, let go of structure and their normal methods, and “just get really high and make art for art’s sake with friends.” They decided that “sha la la,” a recurring vocal run on the EP’s focus track “Love Collector”, was a fitting name for letting go of everything you once thought made sense, but doesn’t anymore.

Taking influence from nostalgic love songs that test the boundaries of life and death, the concept of eternal love has always been important to The Grahams as they’ve been together since childhood. The three songs on Sha La La, from the chaotic hooks of “Love Collector,” the teary blue-eyed soul of “Beyond The Palisades,” and the brooding musings of the ultra-stylized “Pilgrims and Punks,” are The Grahams’ serendipitous contribution to the notion that even when the world is turned upside down, if you can’t make plans, make art.

Wild Heart Club

Credit: Anna Haas

Credit: Anna Haas

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Wild Heart Club is singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Kristen Castro, a genre-crossing artist known for blending a surprising range of electronic, digital, and analog elements into her dreamy, atmospheric indie-pop. Castro built a name for herself as an independent solo artist with a penchant for electric guitar, a dark sensibility, and a bracing tenderness reminiscent of acts like the Cocteau Twins.

Transforming abstract emotion into compelling music, her early releases feature everything from mandolin to bass, piano to synth, banjo to drum programming, in songs that feel both effortless and complex at the same time. Castro’s latest project, Wild Heart Club, builds off the hybrid style of her solo work, evolving her eclectic foundations into an even more distinct and cohesive sound. The synth-heavy, guitar-driven soundscapes are laced with Castro’s breezy, candied vocals: think Sigur Rós meets Heart. It’s a strange and compelling combination that feels right for the current moment.

“I’ve always been drawn to people who aren’t in the cool club—the weirdos embracing their weirdness. This is music for them, as always.” Written, recorded, and produced primarily by Castro herself, Wild Heart Club’s debut album Arcade Back in Manitou is set for release this fall.

Castro has been creating songs that challenge genre boundaries since the age of ten, combining elements of folk, pop, electronica, hard rock, country, Americana, and punk into her own idiosyncratic sound. She grew up influenced by her brother’s taste in hip-hop and R&B, excited by the way 90s artists often experimented with uncommon methods and strange sounds to make their beats more unique. Her early background playing in metal bands sparked a deep appreciation for powerful rhythms and driving guitar riffs that still inform her music today. Mentored by Matt Bissonette (bassist for Elton John, Ringo Starr) and Sergio Gonzalez (drummer for Jennifer Lopez, Gavin DeGraw), she spent six years touring the country as a founding member and primary instrumentalist for popular indie-country trio Maybe April, and appearing in major publications like Billboard, Paste Magazine, and CMT. In 2019 Castro released a series of well-received solo singles, “Bloom” and “Surrender” (which was praised by Audiofemme for “crystalline and breathy” vocals reminiscent of Dolores O’Riordan and Leigh Nash). 

Castro started writing the songs that would become Arcade Back in Manitou in January 2020, while living with her brother in L.A. and recovering from heartache after a particularly difficult breakup. She was also navigating the breakup of her band and listening to Fleetwood Mac’s Gypsy on repeat. Castro was staying with her sister in Portland when the pandemic lockdown began in March 2020, and there she developed the concept for Wild Heart Club, tweaking the details for her new project’s debut album.

Named for a happy memory (visiting a Colorado penny arcade with an ex), Arcade Back in Manitou is an ethereal and lush collection of melancholy songs with a brilliant gloss of retro sheen. “For me, writing this album was about putting myself in a place of loss, and really feeling it. I wanted to be honest. A lot of the lyrics are self-talk, like yo this is the darkest moment you’ll feel in a while, and you need to get to the other side of it. When we’re miserable, how can we still find joy?” The resulting music feels unexpectedly bright, like walking through a clean, sunlit, white-tiled mall in the glowy light of a sitcom flashback. The opening chords of the track “Unhappy” are anything but unhappy: Castro discovered the beaming, slightly unnatural guitar sound while experimenting with octave and rotary pedals. Throughout the album, there’s a genuine and hopeful engagement with the positive, a buoyant, almost-ironic sense of cheer teeming from the instrumentation, and a spirit of experimentation and discovery, despite the themes of loss the lyrics explore.

Hints of 80s plastic-pop and elements of 90s alternative cool (the Cranberries hit “Zombie” was a big influence) are nestled in the mix, as well as nods to vintage and modern Swedish pop acts like Robyn, Léon, and ABBA. “I want to be the artist who can make you cry on the dance floor. I like songs that pair darker thoughts with happy vibes. Emotions are complex. It feels right to have that kind of complicated juxtaposition play out in music,” she says. “It feels honest.”