Listen to This: New Music From 6 Local Artists
A new single starring 'The Voice' winner Sawyer Fredericks, two album release concerts and more.
While you may be listening to Post Malone’s F-1 Trillion album on repeat ahead of his SPAC show on Monday, he’s not the only singer who’s diving head-first into country music, or the only performer putting on a show in the Spa City this week. It turns out, local artists are having a moment. They’re putting out albums and EPs, collaborating with other big names, and even hosting live events to celebrate their releases. Meet six local singers who are doing big things right now:
Artist: Matt Cosgrove
New Release: Losses (EP)
Genre: Country Rock
If you love watching live music in Saratoga, you’ve probably seen Matt Cosgrove perform, either as part of a band or in solo acoustic sets. He first picked up a guitar when he was 10, and since age 14 has been performing at bars and nightclubs all over the area. While he plays everything from rock to pop at his gigs, Matt recently released his first country EP entitled Losses. “It’s easy to write about your successes, but this EP is all about highlighting the lowlights: failure, regret, shame, loss and over-indulgence,” he says. “I wanted to write about things in my past that I’m not proud of as a way of processing and moving on from them.”
Artist: Kate McDonnell
New Release: Trapeze (album)
Genre: Folk Rock/Adult Contemporary
A native of Baltimore, Kate McDonnell has opened for luminaries including Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson and Alan Jackson, and played gigs at Newport Folk Festival, WXPN’s World Cafe and the Kennedy Center. She moved to upstate New York in 2000, and on September 6 released her sixth solo album, Trapeze, which was recorded and produced in a 10’x14’ bedroom studio. “Trapeze covers so many themes, but is primarily the musings of a woman in her late middle age with concerns about relationships, gun violence and how the simple things in life—like a dog—can be an antidote to a troubled world,” she says. “There’s a strong, optimistic conclusion to the songs about hopelessness. No matter how much you mess up in life, you won’t blow away into oblivion—you will come out alive and maybe even wiser and stronger.” See Kate perform songs from Trapeze live tomorrow at Caffé Lena.
Artist: Cassandra Kubinski and Sawyer Fredericks
New Release: Burn It Down (song)
Genre: Roots
Remember Fultonville resident Sawyer Fredericks, who defied the odds and won Season 8 of The Voice? He just released a new single with Cassandra Kubinski, another celebrated singer-songwriter (Billy Joel called her “transcendent”) who calls the Capital Region home. “Burn It Down” was originally written by Cassandra as a song to pitch to the TV show Yellowstone, but the songwriter quickly realized that she was actually writing her own story. “I was in a place in my life where I wanted to change a lot of things, and didn’t feel like I could do that in a nice, orderly way,” she says. “It felt like maybe I needed to just let everything go and start over. The song was a permission slip to myself and hopefully to others that we are allowed to reinvent and transform ourselves.” See Cassandra and Sawyer together on The Linda stage on November 3.
Artist: Lovella
New Release: Outgrown (EP)
Genre: Pop
At 16 years old, Lovella (aka Ella Warden) may just be the Capital Region’s next great musician. Following an appearance on her father’s band’s debut album when she was just 13, Lovella has struck out on her own, releasing her first EP this summer. “Outgrown has to do with everything I was feeling when I was 13 and 14,” she says. “Looking back, I’ve realized I’ve outgrown my past self and my past experiences which makes “Outgrown” such a surreal experience for me.” Lovella takes the Caffè Lena stage for an album release concert tonight.
Artist: Sydney Worthley
New Release: It Was Nice While It Lasted (album)
Genre: Indie/Pop
Gen Z singer-songwriter Sydney Worthley has known songwriting was her passion since she was 9. Since then, she’s used the medium to tackle themes of coming of age, long-lost connections and growing from haunting mistakes. It Was Nice While It Lasted is her second album, following 2017’s Strong and a string of singles. “Songwriting has always been a cathartic experience for me,” she says. “For this album, I took a lot of inspiration from ’80s pop music, plus Chappell Roan, Phoebe Bridgers, The 1975 and Taylor Swift.”
—Natalie