Cole Chaney and Kyova with Special Guest Heather Hannah

Cole Chaney

When it comes to his latest album, In the Shadow of the Mountain, 25-year-old singer-songwriter Cole Chaney is pretty candid and blunt about who he is and what kind of music he wants to make — the result of which, this stunning offering from an artist wise beyond his age.

“There’s a yin to every yang,” Chaney says. “I want nothing more than for people to be creatively fulfilled, and to do what they want. But, for me to preach that? I have to practice it.”

That attitude resides at the core of the record, where the trajectory of the songs seemingly — more so purposely — shoot off in the opposite direction of many of his contemporaries in the Americana, country and folk music scenes. In truth? Chaney is summoning his rock roots.

“I’m not concerned with being labeled as ‘country’.“There's not a lot of  music being released right now that is doing anything for me. I made something that I would want to listen to.”

Pointing to his lifelong admiration for 1990s rock — specifically Soundgarden, Alice in Chains and Stone Temple Pilots — as a vital influence on the sonic landscape of the album, Chaney aimed to find a melodic balance between that raw and real rock sound and the bluegrass and folk music of his native Kentucky.

“I wanted to make something that sounded like Ralph Stanley went in and got backed up by Soundgarden,” Chaney jokes. “I write what I listen to. And whatever I listen to is going to come out in my music.”

Heather Hannah

One of seven children, born in the coalfields of West Virginia to a miner and a minister, Heather Hannah is a fifth generation harmony singer and songwriter who enlists the divining rods of melody and lyric in her lifelong pursuit of purpose and place. With an antiquated voice and threadbare insides, she is the velveteen rabbit of her era.

Lighting the way from various points across Appalachia, fellow West Virginian Kyle Vass (bass), and Kentuckians Olivia Peppiatt (fiddle and vocal harmonies) and John Clay (drums), have joined Heather to carry on the time honored tradition of storytelling through song.

Website: https://www.facebook.com/evergreen.hannah