"At the tender age of 24, Noah Gundersen is already a young veteran who recorded his
first album on his dad’s Tascam Studio 8 reel-to-reel home tape machine at 13.
Born in the tiny town of Centralia, WA—about midway between Portland and Seattle—
Gundersen has honed his craft through a series of albums, both solo (with his sister
Abby, an expert string player) and with their band The Courage. He’s already placed
songs on TV shows like Sons of Anarchy (the title track from his 2011 solo album
Family, “David” and “He Got Away,” a track he sang written by the show’s creator Kurt
Sutter and music supervisor Bob Thiele Jr.), Vampire Diaries (“Family”) and One Tree
Hill (“Middle of June” from his 2009 EP Saints and Liars).

His latest album, Ledges, self-produced and recorded at Pearl Jam guitarist Stone
Gossard’s Studio Litho in Seattle, represents the latest stop in a journey which began in
his strictly conservative, religious home growing up, where he was strictly forbidden to
listen to secular music. Instead he grew up listening to Bob Dylan’s gospel albums,
along with Christian artists such as Keith Green, Larry Norman and Rich Mullins.

“I’m not a religious person anymore, but I’ve learned that spiritual energy transcends
religion and that’s something I’ve attempted to incorporate into my music,” Noah
explains.

An impressive personal work, Ledges co-mingles the sensual and the sexual with the
spiritual, often using religious and biblical imagery like Leonard Cohen to plumb the
depths of everyday emotions and feelings. The album explores doubt and faith, sin and
redemption, mortality and transcendence in 11 songs that get underneath the skin and
cut to the heart.

From the acappella gospel chant that opens “Poor Man’s Son,” a song that channels
poverty’s effect on the soul and the Jackson Browne-like narrative of the autobiographical title track (“I take a little too much/Without giving back. I want to learn
how to love”) to the Don Henley-like metaphor of “Cigarettes,” comparing one bad habit
to a relationship that just can’t be ended even though we know it’s bad for us, Ledges is
a confession that boasts universal appeal.

“This is the first record where I finally got to a comfortable place in the studio,” he says of
the experience. “Something about Litho was very inspirational, offering a safe
environment to experiment and create. It’s not overly produced; we left a lot of the
mistakes in..”

The songs work on different levels, inspired both by a ruptured romance and a
questioning of dogma in all its forms.

“The spiritual element of music is something I’m very much drawn to and motivated by,”
says Gundersen. “Religious imagery was a large part of my upbringing. It’s still beautiful,
powerful and timeless. I believe in the elevation that music and art can bring to people,
but I’m still trying to define myself as an individual outside of structures or organized
religion. I’ve come to a place in my writing where I’m less focused on the outside forces
of spirituality and more on how it relates inwardly to my own life.”

To that end, his songs capture snapshots of events in his life, including an encounter
with a woman in another relationship (“Isaiah”), whose tattoo is inscribed with a biblical
passage that doubles as the song’s chorus (“Fear thou not/My right hand will hold you”).
“Poison Vine” tells the tale of a co-worker who succumbed to a drug overdose,
pondering the thin line between life and death, while “First Defeat” illuminates the feeling of the first heartbreak.

“Much of the album was written toward the end of a period of being single and reckless,”
he says. “I’ve lived a great deal compared to most people my own age. I’ve traveled the
country playing music, doing what I love for a living. But, in terms of emotional experience, I’ve swept a lot of things under the rug. I started asking questions to people I
respect about what it means to be a man and, in a larger sense, a decent human being.
This record is the culmination of that process.”

Ledges was also very much a family affair, with Noah joined by his sister Abby, who
conveys the wordless emotions through violin, cello and piano, and younger brother
Jonathan on drums.

“The chemistry Abby and I have is unlike any other I’ve experienced in music” he says,
pointing to the album closer, “Time Moves Quickly,” as a song she wrote the music for
and plays piano on. “She’s an essential part of what I do.”

And while major labels have come sniffing around, Noah is determined to maintain his
independence as a musician and artist. Having built up a following through touring and
social media, Gundersen is determined to maintain the kind of creative control that
makes Ledges such a powerful, intimate work.

“I’ve had some offers from major labels, but it’s not a direction that’s viable for me in
terms of a long-term career and forging a lifetime in music,” he says. “I want to give my
fans the music they’ve come to appreciate without going through any other filters.”
Ledges is about making that existential leap of faith, it’s about taking responsibility for
the choices you’ve made, with sometimes painful honesty. Noah Gundersen’s voice
comes through loud and clear.

“Writing ‘Ledges’ was a purifying process for me,” he says about the album’s epic title
track. “In three verses, I was able to sum up exactly where I was in life, with no real
answer, but a declaration of hope and uncertainty.”

“How long, how long should it take/For you to learn your lessons from all your mistakes,”
he sings in “Dying Now.”

On Ledges, Noah Gundersen goes from a boy to a man before our very ears. It’s a
journey well worth taking with him.

In 2006 Seattle's Rocky Votolato released a record of stripped down, country-influenced folk called Makers on indie stalwart Barsuk Records. The album went on to be lauded by both the main stream and indie press, with E! calling it "simply beautiful" and No Depression declaring it "surpassingly great." In the five years since the records release Votolato has toured the country nearly endlessly, playing everything from rock clubs to living rooms. Along the way he released two more albums (2007's The Brag & Cuss and 2011's True Devotion,) both also critically praised and well received by a steadily growing group of dedicated fans.

Television Of Saints, Votolato's newest effort, wears the tracks of those endless nights on its sleeve – yet communicates that hung-over wisdom with a newfound lightness and maturity. During his time on the road Votolato has developed a loyal, extremely devoted core group of fans across the US and Europe that love him for the personal impact his music has had on their lives. Building off of and inspired by that connection, with this record Votolato has created something real, classic, and timeless. Hard won truths resonate underneath the concrete images and visual color splashed throughout the record.

Marking Votolato's first self-released record, much of Television Of Saints was funded by a generous outpouring of love and support from his fans via Kickstarter. His relationship to the people he is making music for has never been so direct.

Teaming up with long time friend and producer Casey Foubert (Sufjan Stevens, Pedro The Lion) and with the help of an outstanding cast of musicians, including his brothers Sonny (Slender Means) and Cody Votolato (The Blood Brothers, Telekinesis), Television Of Saints delivers on the promise hinted at with Makers. Lean and to the point, Television Of Saints is both Votolato's most intimate and most immediately accessible work to date." More information can be found here.