One of the best things about this program was discovering bands that I might not have heard of. I'm highlighting 2 of these artists, Gregory Alan Isakov and Newton Faulkner.
Gregory Alan Isakov opened for Brandi Carlile at World Cafe Live and I was selling merch. I popped my head in the venue during Gregory's set was instantly liked him. After the show I was able to chat while cleaning up and it turns out that he had lived in the Philly area when he moved state side from South Africa. He had sense moved to Colorado I believe. Unfortunately I haven't been able to see him again. He was a performer on Cayamo in 2010.
I own both of his albums, "That Sea, The Gambler" and "The Empty Northern Hemisphere". I'm more of a fan of TSTG, but I can't pinpoint why that is. The song that stands out is "The Stable Song" from "The Sea, The Gambler". All his songs are good, but this one just hits me in the way a great song should. On "The Empty Northern Hemispher", Brandi Carlile is the back up vocals, so if you're a fan of hers, definitely worth checking out.
Newtown Faulkner is a red head with dreads from England. He is someone that would stand out of the crowd. I had the pleasure of seeing him a few years ago when he was supporting his album "Hang Built by Robots". I ended up selling cds at World Cafe Live for him, otherwise I probably won't have gone. He does a lot of work with percussion on his acoustic guitar. It sounds awesome and creates another layer of sound. The themes of his songs tends to be more upbeat than Gregory Alan Isakov. He has one song titled "UFO".
This is one of his slower songs that I relate to:
You can get a glimpse of his percussion in this video:
