Gabe Lee w/ Natalie Del Carmen

Storytelling has been an anchor of Gabe Lee‘s music since the very beginning. He launched his career as a genre-bending musician after returning to Tennessee, quickly progressing from dive bar gigs to high-profile opening slots (including shows with Jason Isbell, Los Lobos, and other artists who, like him, blurred the lines between roots-rock, country, and other forms of American folk music) to his own headlining shows. Throughout it all, he drew upon the narrative skills he’d sharpened as a student. If albums like Honky-Tonk Hell and The Hometown Kid often unfolded like autobiographical entries from his road journal, then Drink the River shows an even broader range of his storytelling abilities. Lee isn’t just writing songs about himself; he’s writing songs about all of us. And maybe, in doing so, he can bring us a little closer together.

Like her musical heroes – from Brandi Carlile to Izaak Opatz to Gregory Alan Isakov – Natalie Del Carmen embraces her folksy roots without abandoning a wider audience, delivering coming-of-age songs that transcend genre and generation. After all, navigating the twists and turns of early adulthood is hard work, wherever you live. Raised amongst the pavement and pop radio of Los Angeles, Del Carmen creates her own musical geography with Pastures. It’s the sound of a modern-day folksinger narrowing her focus and expanding her reach into a sharp, singular version of American roots music. Songs like the wistful, waltzing “Plans Upon Plans” and the nostalgic “Leanne” make no apologies for their countrified arrangements, but their lyrics tell a more universal story, capturing the zeitgeist of 20something life in all its charmed and contradictory glory. Natalie Del Carmen joins the ranks of empowered artists bringing a female perspective – and youthful outlook – to the Americana space.