Taylor Ashton + Bella White

Brooklyn-based Canadian singer and songwriter Taylor Ashton and Calgary-born singer/songwriter Bella White perform live on the Club stage.
**Taylor Ashton**
Taylor Ashton is a Canadian singer and songwriter living in Brooklyn. He spent the first half of his twenties on the road across Canada as frontman of the band Fish & Bird before moving to New York to work on a new set of songs and a new chapter of life. His music takes influence from the cosmic emotionality of Joni Mitchell, the sage vulnerability of Bill Withers, the humour and heartbreak of Randy Newman, and old-time and Celtic folk music. Alternately accompanying himself on clawhammer banjo and electric guitar, Taylor croons poignantly clever lyrical insights while effortlessly gliding between a Bill Callahan-esque baritone to a Thom Yorke-like falsetto.

**Bella White**
While traditional bluegrass is usually associated with the American South, the genre has surely found a safe and loving Canadian home in the form of Calgary-born singer/songwriter Bella White. Armed with a piercing voice, edged with teardrops, White’s debut album “Just Like Leaving”, rings out as a coming of age anthem. The twenty two year old singer/songwriter and instrumentalist shys away from modern and fussy arrangements, and instead brings a traditional style of music into the contemporary moment by personalizing it to her own experiences. “I want people my age to hear my music, and think, actually Bluegrass is kind of cool”, she says. Throughout “Just Like leaving,” White finds her strength in leaving home for the first time, with songs of heartbreak and loneliness that demonstrate both an old soul and a young heart.
With her new album “Just Like Leaving”, White has shown herself to be a star student of the bluegrass genre, with something new to bring to the table. Her ability to translate modern experience to an old sound is seamless and compelling, and permeates the boundaries of a regional genre with gorgeous and authentic singing and songwriting.
His full-length debut album “The Romantic” was released in early 2020, followed by a companion EP “Romanticize” featuring remixes, reimaginings, and new songs. His songwriting appears on albums by Watkins Family Hour, the Brother Brothers, Benjamin Lazar Davis and others, and he has released singles with Aoife O’Donovan, The Fretless, and Aerialists, as well as a moody acoustic duo record in 2018 with songwriter & guitarist Courtney Hartman. Much is in store for 2022, including at least one new album and more fruitful collaborations.