Bryan Elijah Smith is a multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter based out of the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. Smith’s innate songwriting ability and haunting voice leave you with a sense of timeless nostalgia. With over 1,000 songs penned & 11 independent releases since 2009, Smith is creating a self-produced legacy that began with his first song at the age of 18. Aside from touring the United States for well over a decade, Smith has also toured internationally in both Australia & Honduras. Crossing a wide array of genres, what gets produced has been compared to the likes of everyone from Bruce Springsteen to Kings of Leon to Gregory Alan Isakov. Smith recently won 2nd place in the prestigious Chris Austin Songwriting Contest at MerleFest 2019 where the title track to his new album, ‘In Through The Dark’, was 1 of 12 songs chosen out of 970 national entries. Smith has been a CASC finalist 2 years in a row (past finalists include Gillian Welch, Tift Merritt & Lera Lynn). 'In Through The Dark' won 1st place in the Unsigned Only 2019 international songwriting contest where there were 6,000 entries from over 100 countries. Judges included Aimee Mann, Robert Smith of The Cure, Garth Hudson from The Band and many more. 'In Through The Dark' also appears in a new NETFLIX series called 'Virgin River' which premiered in December 2019.
LINKS
In Through The Dark - https://youtu.be/e_FYwkXqFZE
Gloria - https://youtu.be/COq1CzVPZ0k
WEBSITE - http://www.bryanelijahsmith.com
Leon Majcen grew up in the town of Clearwater, Florida. He picked up the guitar at the age of nine and got his start playing open mics at local bars and coffee shops. Naturally inspired by the lyrical genius of artists like Bob Dylan, John Prine, Johnny Cash and Townes Van Zandt, Leon developed an affinity for songwriting and chose to live life with a pen and paper in hand.
In April of 2016, his single “Love and Misery” made its way onto SiriusXM’s The Coffee House Channel and captured the attention of folk music lovers across North America, helping him build a nationwide fan base. Following a couple of tours in 2018 and 2019, those long hours spent in a van on a cross country journey ended up being the fuel behind the lyrics of his album, Back ‘till I’m Gone, an artistic creation that was recorded with the help of good friend and producer Andrew Boullianne back home in Florida.
In 2018 he decided to leave his hometown to pursue a music degree at New York University, completely absorbing himself in writing songs that capture the triumphs and heartaches that come with leaving home and hitting the road. In his own words, “songwriting is the only way to make sense of the world around me, especially when you’re thrown into a place like New York City where there’s so much going on. I was faced with the option to either go about the change by escaping my mind and troubles or using my troubles to create something worth sharing.”
Now, in 2021, Majcen released 'World Gone By' — a tribute to the late John Prine, on the one-year anniversary of Prine's passing (April 7). You can hear Prine's influence front-and-center in both the production and the songwriting -- snappy, down-to-earth lyrics and sparse yet warm production featuring acoustic instrumentation.
LINKS
Love and Misery - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxO5pUv_MIk
World Gone By - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98fGGkw-daw
WEBSITE: https://leonmajcen.com/home