country routes news: Yola Carter releases new radio single 'What You Do' & drops new EP

Saturday 12 November 2016

Yola Carter releases new radio single 'What You Do' & drops new EP

Yola Carter release new radio single

'What You Do' & drops new EP

Following her recent feature on NPR, coverage of her performances at AmericanaFest 2016 in the Guardian and WSJ, and inclusion on the UK's New Music Friday playlist on Spotify,

Yola Carter's debut solo acoustic EP 'Orphan Offering' is out NOW via digital channels.

Check out the radio single 'What You Do':

Artist - Yola Carter

EP: Orphan Offering

Release Date: 1 Nov. 2016

Label: Ear Trumpet Music

Total Length: 27:32

Genres: Country

Amazon UK - UK iTunes - Amazon.com – Google Play

Radio Single:
Artist: Yola Carter
Track: 'What You Do'
Length: 03:16
ISRC: UKGYN1600002
Label: Ear Trumpet Music
Album: 'Orphan Offering' (EP)

ABOUT YOLA CARTER:

Yola Carter is a country-soul singer/songwriter from Bristol, UK, whose recent successes include a much-hyped performance at Americana Fest in Nashville, having been selected by AMA UK as a showcase artist and noted as ‘one to watch’ by publications including The Guardian, NPR, Pitchfork and Wall Street Journal. Heavily influenced from an early age by Sixties country, Stax-era soul and gospel ranging from The Staple Singers to Otis Redding, Yola was raised in a small seaside town in the South West of the England and “always wanted to be a country music artist”.

Unafraid to address difficult issues in her lyrics, Yola’s real-life story - both heartbreaking and inspirational - naturally finds its way into her songs. Coming from a poor, broken home and a parent suffering from mental illness who ‘banned’ her from making any music, Yola’s experience of growing up was one of truly living below the breadline. In a working class community in denial of its status where discrimination and even violence fuelled by racism were not unusual, writing music quickly became an outlet and a means of expression, and touring a means of escape.

From her late teens, Yola Carter (born Yolanda Quartey) worked hard to earn credibility and respect throughout the industry as one of the UK's top singers and a uniquely gifted songwriter. Realising that her soul voice was soon getting attention, Yola graduated to touring internationally straight out of school with critically acclaimed acts such as Bugz in the Attic on their world tour, and later Massive Attack, most notably headlining Glastonbury Festival's Other Stage to 60,000 people and broadcasting live on the BBC. Other notable supports and live collaborations since have included The McCrary Sisters, The Fairfield Four, Willie Watson, Jan Howard, James Brown, Elizabeth Cooke and the legendary Stax Band.

She began her journey into Americana music performing with her band Phantom Limb, based in her hometown of Bristol. The band self-released the eponymous debut album and the later more country-leaning effort of ‘The Pines’ produced by Marc Ford of The Black Crowes, taking to the road with acts such as Dr John, Solomon Burke and Candi Staton. Despite this success, Phantom Limb eventually disbanded, leaving Yola to focus on her own projects.

Yola Carter has since combined her two skillsets of singer-writer and writer/producer to write, record and produce her debut solo EP ‘Orphan Offering’ out November 1st 2016. A set of songs that manage to be autobiographical and intensely personal while speaking to wider socio-political issues, the EP is a living example of an artist building something from nothing: In ‘Dead and Gone’ Carter sings “there was a time when my people were product to you; if we can’t supersede that now, where on Earth am I heading to?” - an explicit reference to assumptions about the role of black female singers in the modern music industry.

Throughout the summer, Yola has been on the road, including appearances at various festivals including Canary Wharf’s ‘Nashville Meets London’, and support slots for St Paul and The Broken Bones, Sam Outlaw and Imelda Mae, along with an increasing focus on her much-anticipated debut release.

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