Angela 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. She released her 6th album, “Witness” on October 28, 2022. To read more about it, go here. It went on to be chosen by American Songwriter Magazine in their Top 24 Albums 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 Root’s 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.
Angela has toured the U.S., both solo and duo with Brandon, as well as with her crowd-pleasing band, The Beguilers. 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 Skunkfest 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 is really great and her record is a joy.” Buddy Miller
“Angela Easterling & Brandon Turner are the shining example of what Americana music is. It is inspiring. Great songs. Great singing. Great guitar playing. Everything is so tasty. They have got it.” Jim Lauderdale
“Angela Easterling is a bright shining star on the country/folk/alt.music horizon! Her gift is so special. I loved listening to her CD! Brought me back to the time the Byrds recorded “Sweetheart of the Rodeo” – tradition meets youthful exuberance!” Roger McGuinn, The Byrds
“Angela Easterling has the fire in her belly. With songs inspired by Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones and A.P. Carter’s bones, power, corruption, sex, lies, videotape, French microphones, epic floods and plain old human heartache, Angela is creating literate, modern Southern music for the ages.” Will Kimbrough
“If Steve Earle was re-born a girl, he’d very likely be Angela Easterling.” Vintage Guitar
“‘Common Law Wife’ is a wonderfully cohesive, brilliantly crafted and beautifully sung record that draws on traditional country, Americana and folk music to deliver a host of timeless songs. If Angela Easterling was celebrated before, then this record is sure to help the cause.” For The Country Record
“Slipping into the spot vacated by Nanci Griffith, South Carolinian Angela Easterling provides her perspective on modern country music, motherhood, the state of her nation, lost love, hometown shut downs and matrimony…. Easterling throws nothing but strikes on her fifth release.. Like Griffith, Easterling can flat out sing, and whether the song is reflective and hopeful or carrying significant historical heft, she delivers a full-bodied performance. Songs inspired by family and Pete Seeger, faith and Springsteen-like nostalgia connect with the universals of our daily survival. “Arkansas Murder Ballad” is a pretty terrific modern day tale of desperation and death: no ham and jam stand here, once Earl is dispatched. Lively country music with lyrical substance – no beers, no tailgating, no gals in shorts – and memorable melodies and arrangements make “Common Law Wife” an album well-worth the search.” Country Standard Time
“Angela Easterling’s autobiographical song (Common Law Wife) is full of charm, humor, and love.” PopMatters
“Common Law Wife” is a delight from beginning to end and could be the record that helps raise Easterling’s profile considerably…This one’s a winner, y’all” Pittsburgh In Tune
“Common Law Wife is an album rich in reasoned clarity and insightful observance of the world in which we currently live. A majestic and atmospheric collection of her most intimate songwriting, the album showcases Angela’s skills as a master storyteller and lyricist, delving into very personal and sometimes melancholy subject matter, swathed in melodic hues and moods ranging from the bright to the very, very dark. An incredible stylist, with a tremendous voice and character in the way she delivers her music…. These individual songs are gems that reveal more and more beauty as you approach them from different angles, but their combined effect is greater. Her haunting singing voice, which twinges and aches throughout, infuses the tales with emotion that is at once unnerving and soothing. You don’t need to take my word for it; you should seek out this album and hear for yourself what a special and uncommonly good singer-songwriter Ms Angela Easterling is.” Alan Cackett
“Angela’s new album is one of the best I’ve heard this year….” Ear to the Ground Music
“Common Law Wife” is a rootsy album that showcases Easterling’s sweet voice and a stellar band….(She) peppers “Throwing Strikes with metaphors to expose rust belt decay, where once-prosperous mills are shuttered. It could fit neatly on a Springsteen CD….The musicianship is outstanding.” Denison Newspapers
“Angela Easterling knows about telling story and creating character through word and melody. The South Carolina native tells stories which reach from the jaunty, celebratory title track to a murder ballad that’s certainly in the tradition of such songs but seen from a bit of different point in the story. There’s also a piece about letting go of an old love which offers fresh and poetic imagery, a meditation on generations past and present and yet to come, a story of baseball, mill towns, and the small town south, a tale from the Civil Rights Era, and the opening track, Hammer, which among other things is a powerful yet understated thought about the strength of songs. Easterling knows how to fashion these varied songs while keeping her own steady point of view and identity; she knows how to sing them too. If you have not heard Angela Easterling yet, you should: she’ll give you a lot to think about.” Perceptive Travel
“4 1/2 out of 5 Stars. In this critic’s opinion, Angela Easterling is a huge talent…perhaps she shouldn’t settle yet for not being a star. This new album is very strong…Fans of Amy Speace and Gretchen Peters should give this a listen and then buy it!” Country Music People
“Easterling has quickly become a sought after talent thanks to her honesty and authenticity, capturing a true, salt of the earth aesthetic with her gorgeous pipes and commitment to carefully crafted lyrics. The beautiful harmonies between Easterling and her longtime partner and musical collaborator, Brandon Turner, are perfectly, delicately balanced and contrast the harmony she speaks of in the song—finding peace and beauty in the hard work done side by side with ones neighbors. The lonesome, yearning quality of the song, drawn out by rich instrumentation, mirrors the simple, pastoral landscape of the video, with Easterling and her partner’s presence helping to evoke the emphasis placed on bloodline, commitment to a land to which you and your forebears rightfully belong.” Elmore Magazine
“Dynamite honky-tonk singer Angela Easterling brings a tough traditionalist sound to ballads and ravers alike on her fine album “Black Top Road.” The Philadelphia Inquirer
“Innocence and clarity so fresh as to be dangerous.” Maverick
“Angela Easterling’s voice reminds me of Emmylou Harris. It has that same range and purity. Her songs reflect the authentic Southern life with a contemporary twist….”Common Law Wife” is a beautiful album which captures the heart and soul of authentic country and folk music. It belongs in the collection of any lover of Americana and roots music.” Making A Scene
“Easterling, can be political, personal or simultaneously both, serving up humor as well as grim horror. The gorgeous opening track, “Hammer,” was inspired by Pete Seeger and her grandfather, who built the house she lives in on a farm that her family has owned since 1791. Written in a Bruce Springsteen/Steve Earle vein, “Throwing Strikes” ends in emotional release reminiscent of a scene in Depression-Era Bonnie and Clyde. Her voice can be angelic when a song’s story line isn’t at all. Intense “Arkansas Murder Ballad” calls to mind Gillian Welch and David Rawlings’ “Caleb Meyer.” Easterling’s earlier “The Picture” may be the most devastating song I’ve ever heard on race relations. Someone should recommend Easterling’s CDs to Mr. Earle the Elder. Goldmine Magazine
“The percussive ode “Manifest Destiny” is an easy nod to Carrie Rodriguez or Alison Krauss with its bleak, piercing fiddles and Easterling’s spotless vocals – which emulate those of Krauss – as she sings of the inevitability of land theft and development, but it’s more than just tradition; snappy youth is why Beguiler sparkles. But wizened lyrical depth is what could make it last.” American Songwriter
“Angela Easterling has a golden glowing voice and she writes observant songs about contemporary life. She can weave urban sprawl and cultural shifts into songs as gingerly as love and relationships. She’s taken her very promising career to a new level with her new album Beguiler.” Craig Havighurst, Music City Roots