ISMAY is a Folk/Americana music project driven by California-based singer/songwriter Avery Hellman. Their debut album Songs Of Sonoma Mountain was released in 2020 and named one of the 10 best Albums in the Bay Area and garnered features in American Songwriter, No Depression, Sonoma Magazine, and more. For their sophomore album, Desert Pavement, they teamed up with prolific Folk/Americana multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and producer Andrew Marlin of Watchhouse. Growing up backstage at their grandfather’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, ISMAY was inspired early on by artists such as Emmylou Harris, Gillian Welch, and Hazel Dickens. Since then, they have appeared throughout the West Coast at music festivals such as Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, Strawberry Music Festival, The National Cowboy Poetry Gathering, The Lantern Tour, and at renowned venues such as the Great American Music Hall, Slim’s, the Golden State Theater, and the Mystic Theater. ISMAY has opened for acclaimed artists including Steve Earle, Watchhouse, Justin Townes Earle, Robert Earl Keen, John Doe, and Chuck Prophet. Gearing up for the release of Desert Pavement, ISMAY will reveal 2023 tour dates in addition to confirmed performances at the SF Jazz Americana Week and the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering, as well as other exciting announcements.
Misner & Smith’s music is a combination of soaring vocal harmonies, tight instrumental arrangements, and story-filled, poetic songwriting, adding up to a sound that truly feels like a full band coming out of a duo. They jump across genres in the diversity of their songs, but the music harkens back to the bedrock of American rock and folk, with a vocal blend that can shake the walls like a freight train and then hush the room to a whisper in a single song. The band has toured extensively both in the U.S. and overseas. Headlining regularly at venues such as the Freight & Salvage, and the Palms Playhouse, they have also appeared at The Kate Wolf Music Festival, San Francisco Folk Festival, and can be heard on radio dials all over the world. They recently celebrated 18 years of making music together; a decade and a half that has produced five albums. They spent the pandemic playing a weekly live streamed show “Live From Our Living Room”, and are now back in the studio recording their new album, due to be released later this year.