ELOQUENTLY BLENDING BIG-PINE FOLK, INDIE-POP, AND SWEET VOCAL HARMONIES, Babes in Canyon crafts music that is eminently engaging and very much of the moment.

Born of a spontaneous writing session during a blackout, their debut EP Second Cities unfolds with an easy grace that belies the relative newness of the endeavor. Nuanced, expertly arranged, yet profoundly catchy, Babes in Canyon stands ready to soundtrack your adventures (spontaneous or otherwise). As one of the founding members of the indie-pop band Kuinka, Nathan Hamer honed his skills as a singer-songwriter through years of national headlining tours and festival performances. Yet, Hamer felt a calling to explore a new path.  “I needed an outlet for unfiltered expression.” he explains. “There’s a passion and urgency when writing in my own style of folk that I don’t experience with other music. I wanted to start a project that spoke specifically to that.” 

Fate must have been listening, and soon conjured a severe windstorm to strand Hamer and his fiancé Amanda Ebert at a remote cabin near Washington’s Mount Baker. “We lost power and then the trees started to fall. Our only path out was blocked, so we started playing music by firelight to calm our nerves,” laughs Hamer. “I was humming along with my baritone uke. Amanda wrote out lyrics. And by the end of the night, we had our first song for Babes In Canyon.” A brace of songs in hand, the duo enlisted Michelle Nuño (Kuinka, Thunderpussy) to round out the sound on bass and percussion, then headed to Hamer’s farmhouse to be close to nature, converting the bottom floor into a proper recording studio. Joining the band was vaunted producer Jerry Streeter (Brandi Carlile, Darlingside). 

“We recorded at night.” explains Hamer, “We’d step out between takes to watch the stars and listen to the owls.”While thematically linked, each song on the record is laced with a strong sense of transition and individuality. “We tried to create a sonic landscape of standing on a mountain just after a storm,” says Hamer, “when the first beams of sunlight start to break through the clouds.” Moody yet bright, Babes in Canyon delivers their own brand of indie-folk that moves to the rhythm of the road.