Angela Easterling

Songs from The Knoxville Project, coming 9/25/26!

Angela Easterling has spent six albums proving she’s one of South Carolina’s best songwriters. Her most recent album, “Witness” was chosen by American Songwriter Magazine as a Top 24 Album of the Year: she is a four-time Kerrville New Folk Finalist, and has had her work praised in No Depression, Americana UK, Oxford American and more.

But her new album, “Songs From The Knoxville Project,” isn’t just a collection of more well-written, passionately delivered songs. It’s a story straight from her ancestors; a haunting tale buoyed by more than a century of Appalachian folk. It’s a Civil War tale without any literal battles but plenty of fighting. It’s a celebration of hope in times of hopelessness, and it brims with the incisive eye of a songwriter and the passion of someone with this story in their blood.

To tell this story, Easterling dove deep into the folk music of the South, eschewing drums entirely, stripping away most of the electric guitars and telling the tale with richly arranged mandolin, fiddle and acoustic guitars. She reached out to the Southern music community and brought in some of its best singers and instrumentalists, from former Emmylou Harris vocalist Fayssoux McLean and Americana star Will Kimbrough to Carolina greats like Darby Wilcox, Elizabeth McCorvey, Admiral Radio, and Audrey Neel and Molly Johnson of the bluegrass trio, The Wilder Flower. And it was SC musicians who created this evocative, rustic backdrop, including Sam Kruer on bass, Matt Purinton on mandolin, Robert Gowan on fiddle, and Angela’s musical/life partner Brandon Turner playing multiple guitars, banjo and dobro. The album was expertly co-produced by Turner and Ian Guthrie and recorded in SC at Studio 101.

The result is a stunning calling card for a bigger idea, a collection of songs played with the pulsing history of the American South in their veins, just like Easterling, a songwriter who still lives on her family’s multigenerational Upstate SC farm. It’s the perfect backdrop for a historical tale that echoes the instability of our own time. This album tells a story that appears small against the picture of a country torn in half by the Civil War, but it’s really a story about what makes us the best we can be. It is a a snapshot that feels like an epic mural, with Southern roots deeper and more powerful than tangled kudzu.

To help pay for this recording, Angela received a prestigious grant from the South Carolina Arts Commission, which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts. Another grant was provided by the Metropolitan Arts Council of Greenville, SC, as well as funding from Easterling’s own fans who generously gave to her Kickstarter.

THE STORY:

Imagine being on the right side of history but the wrong side of time. Imagine being a woman in the American South during the Civil War, a time and place where women had little or no agency.

Now imagine a story of those women that is, if not triumphant, certainly a testament to determination, grit, and above all, compassion, as well as what a mother will do to save her children; something Easterling can relate to well as a mom of 3 young boys (who also make a cameo on the album).

“My Dad’s maternal ancestors lived in Henderson County, NC during the Civil War,” Easterling says. “And they were Union sympathizers. The men of the family were drafted into the Confederate army, then they deserted that army and went to Knoxville, TN, which was the closest Union army holding.”

That left the women in Easterling’s family alone in what was now hostile territory back in North Carolina. This album tells the story of those women, unsung heroes in the pages of history but possessing the courage and fortitude that runs through Angela’s veins today.

Easterling’s great-great-great grandmother, Narcissus Middleton (an innately Southern name if there ever was one), gathered her ten children and began a long, dangerous walk from North Carolina to Knoxville, TN. “She had a two-year-old,” Easterling says. “She had a four-year-old. These are little, little kids. Two of the children were babies that had to be carried in their arms. And if you’ve ever driven between Tennessee and North Carolina, you’ve seen those mountains they had to cross.”

In “Look for Red”, Will Kimbrough joins on a duet about the “Red Strings” a secret network of Union loyalists who indicated their support for the Union by either a red cord at their wrist, or red fabric in their window. Some think they drew their name from the story of Rahab in the Bible, which Easterling expertly weaves into this tale of a shred of hope and danger everywhere. “Joshua told Rahab/Her faith would spare her life,” Easterling sings, with Kimbrough’s echoing mandolin. “A red cord in the window/Weary travelers can hide.”

The family’s run for safety was grueling. “It took them 2 ½ weeks to get there, and they all survived,” she says, adding “That’s the only way they COULD survive, because the Confederate government refused to let the family have any provisions because their husbands had deserted the Confederate army.”

Pulling from a handwritten account by Narcissus’ daughter Mary, Easterling has created a story that’s less a biography than a question she’s trying to answer: What was it like for these women? What was going through their minds during this time of upheaval, danger and uncertainty?

It’s haunting and melodic all the way through, and Easterling’s mix of poetry and real-as-dirt imagery captures the mood, and the menace, perfectly.

On “The Story,” a near-orchestral combo of mandolin, fiddle, banjo and acoustic guitar buoy the lyrics that set up the tale. Her words mix metaphor and cold hard facts in equal measure, creating her own world within the music. “Deep down, we’re desperate to believe,” she sings, “If only ourselves to deceive/And into evil good we weave/A civil refrain.”

Later on, on “The Myth Of Narcissus,” she gets more direct. “We are at war/I know I’m right and I know you’re wrong/And there’s no pretending/Words don’t matter anymore/When men are dying over lines that they have drawn.”

And if you hear echoes of today’s chaotic world, where you seemingly must choose sides and a differing opinion is a lot more dangerous than it once was, you’re supposed to. People choosing sides and threatening those on the other side is, sadly, as relevant now as it was in the 1800's.

THE PLAN:

If “Songs from the Knoxville Project” sounds like a concept album, it’s more of an appetizer. This project is much bigger than one album.

“I’ve been working on it for the last three years,” she said. “I’ve written close to 30 songs. To me, it’s an Appalachian folk musical. I’d love to see it on the stage with a full cast, all the kids, everything.”

So consider the 12-track “Songs from the Knoxville Project” a teaser, if you will. It’s an expansive, mournful, joyous and moving collection that is just the tip of the iceberg.

This is music of the mountains, the forests, the trails and the battlefields of the South in every verse, every note. And the exciting part is that this is just the first step on a longer, more powerful journey to the stage. 

(Bio Credit: Vincent Harris)

ABOUT ANGELA:

Angela Easterling lives with her musical partner, Brandon Turner, and their three young sons on the Greer, SC farm that has been in her family since 1791. Her most recent album, “Witness” was chosen by American Songwriter Magazine as a Top 24 Album of the Year, was named “Album of The Year” in The Greenville Journal, and was chosen #6 in the Favorite Albums of the Year Reader’s Poll on Americana Highways. It has earned rave reviews in No Depression, Americana UK, Glide Magazine and more. Her 5th album, “Common Law Wife”, went all the way to number 1 on the Roots Music Report Americana Country Airplay Chart, and remained in the top 5 on that chart for nearly 2 months, closing the year out as #12 on the top 100 albums. Her 2nd album, “BlackTop Road”, produced by Will Kimbrough, remained on the Americana top 40 airplay chart for 7 weeks, and was chosen as a top pick in both Oxford American and Country Weekly. She was selected for an official Americana Convention Showcase, official showcases at both NERFA and SERFA (Folk Alliance) and is a four-time Kerrville New Folk Finalist, a Telluride Troubadour and a two-time Wildflower Performing Songwriter Top 10 Finalist. The Boston Herald named her song “The Picture” “Best Political Country Song” in their Year’s best music picks. WNCW chose Angela’s live performance of the title song on “Common Law Wife” for Volume 20 of their popular “Crowd Around the Mic” series.  Angela's music was featured in commercials (Southwestern Bell) and several of her songs were used in the series "Horsepower" on Animal Planet. She has appeared on the WSM-hosted stage at the CMA Music Festival/Fan Fair, on the nationally broadcast public radio program “Michael Feldman’s Whad’Ya Know”, the popular ETV show “Making It Grow”, Sirius XM Outlaw Country’s “Buddy and Jim Show” with Buddy Miller and Jim Lauderdale, “The Martha Bassett Show”, and was also interviewed by noted NPR journalist Bob Edwards. She was invited to perform at the Smithsonian Institution’s exhibit New Harmonies: Celebrating American Roots Music, as well as the Woody Guthrie Folk Festival. In 2019, Angela had the distinct honor of performing her song, “Isaac Woodard’s Eyes” at the unveiling ceremony of an historical marker in honor of the late civil rights hero, Sgt. Isaac Woodard. She is currently recording her 7th album, for projected release in 2026.

Angela has toured the U.S., both solo and duo with Brandon, as well as with her crowd-pleasing band. She has played numerous concert series and music festivals, including Six String Concerts (Columbus, OH), Shakori Hills, Fall for Greenville, NC Apple Festival, Strawberry Festival, Albino Skunk Bluegrass Festival and more. She has opened for or appeared with The Carolina Chocolate Drops, Jim Lauderdale, Scott Miller, The Steel Wheels, Sarah Jarosz, Elizabeth Cook, Lucinda Williams, Charlie Louvin, Robbie Fulks, Tracy Grammer, Mary Gauthier, Ray Price (at the Birchmere), Suzy Bogguss, Ellis Paul, Tom Brosseau, Eilen Jewell, Radney Foster, Will Kimbrough, The Oak Ridge Boys, and Lori McKenna. 

"Angela Easterling is a bright shining star on the country/folk/alt. music horizon! Her gift is so special. I loved listening to her! Brought me back to the time the Byrds recorded "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" - tradition meets youthful exuberance!"       Roger McGuinn, The Byrds