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Chong the Nomad’s recently released single, “Get Back” is a danceable ode to our lives reopening after the last year. Listen and check out the music video (at local sites such as Georgetown Trailer Park Mall and Seward Park). She’s been popping up with live shows through the summer. Catch her at the Day In Day Out Festival in September. { Listen }
Shaina Shepherd is the frontwoman for rock band Bearaxe, a solo performer, and vocal instructor whose powerful voice and piano stylings can’t be missed. She offered some thoughts to KEXP about her latest single, “The Virus,” a feel-it-in-your-bones song reflecting the unease and anxiety of her experience of the pandemic and last summer’s social justice demonstrations and “a virus in the human spirit.” { Listen }
SassyBlack, aka Catherine Harris-White, is a composer, singer, and producer of what she describes as “electronic psychedelic soul.” At the end of 2020, she released some new music, including the video, “Scare Them With Ya Jazz” about feeling herself: “In the first week of 2020, I was walking down the street, getting weird looks for being comfortable in my existence. … I thought to myself, ‘just do you. Love your Blackness. Scare ’em with ya jazz, baby.’” The best way to hear her latest is to subscribe to her Bandcamp site, where she puts out all new releases. { Listen }
By day, Katie Mosehauer is the program director, state initiatives for the Council of State Governments Justice Center. When she’s not working in public policy, she’s half of Glass Heart String Choir with Ian Williams, an art-pop strings-based duo that recently released “California,” which layers in Mosehauer’s lovely violin workings with Williams’ vocals. { Listen }
Siblings Eva Walker and Cedric Walker make up The Black Tones. In their recent collaboration as part of the Henry art museum’s reopening, visitors got to see them work, and then perform, live. If you haven’t listened to their music, you’ve likely seen or heard them elsewhere: Eva makes regular appearances on local podcast Seattle Now as well as teaching at Mode Music Studios, a woman-owned business. The duo has a few live shows upcoming, with the next one in Carnation. { Listen }
Originally from Kansas City, Seattle-based Payge Turner spent part of her pandemic year competing on “The Voice” (she made Gwen Stefani’s team); while she didn’t win, she’s used it as a springboard for her considerable talent, which currently entails teasing out her about-to-be-released debut album “Home”; she also teaches voice and keyboard at the School of Rock. { Listen }
Pop group THEM is made up of four teens who met through music lessons at Mode Music Studios and were taught by The Black Tones' Eva Walker, among other mentors. They started out playing well-known covers and have now released their debut single, “Bad 4 U.” The Evergrey recently took a deep dive with the band about the interconnectedness of the Seattle music scene and how it’s helped the group come into their own. { Listen }
She may be partly based in L.A. (we’ll forgive her), but we couldn’t possibly leave out musician, songwriter, speaker, and more, Hollis (Hollis Wong-Wear). Collaborations with local artists (including some on this list), as well as a Grammy nomination with Macklemore and Ryan Lewis in 2014, are just some of the ways she’s become a Seattle household name. She’s the lead vocalist of R&B trio The Flavr Blue and last year released her first solo album, “Half-Life.” { Listen }
ICYMI last year, the original, Seattle-based, blues singer Lady A (Anita White) went up against country trio Lady A (formerly Lady Antebellum) over use of the name she’d been using, and producing albums under, for more than 20 years. In December, she released “My Name is All I Got” in response to the controversy; a part two is expected this year, along with a handful of other projects the artist has in the works. { Listen }
Have a favorite we didn’t mention here? We’d love to hear about it! Email us or message us on Instagram or Twitter.
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