featured artists
SUSAN ROWE
Susan Rowe is a transgender singer-songwriter currently living in Takoma Park, Maryland. She has won seven awards in the Mid-Atlantic Song Contest, and her debut CD Lessons in Love was a Wammie Nominee in 2018 for Best Folk Artist and Best Folk Album. In 2019, she was recognized as a Top 5 category winner in the Great American Song Contest.
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Susan says she sings two kinds of songs – sad and really sad – but it’s a sadness laced with hope and beauty. She is currently recording a new project with Producer Dave Mallen that takes advantage of the rich talent of vocalists and musicians in the area, scheduled for release in 2024.
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EMILY HENRY
Emily Henry is a VA-based singer-songwriter known for her powerful yet sweet vocals and an authentic musical instinct. She has been compared to artists such as Joni Mitchell and Sylvan Esso.
As a child, she began writing songs as soon as she was old enough to communicate. Enthralled with reading, storytelling, and fantasy, young Emily Henry would write melodies to the poems and lyrics recited by her favorite characters. She performed heavily throughout high school and college, releasing her first body of work shortly thereafter.
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Her debut EP, Matchsticks, brilliantly showcases Henry’s angelic vocal strength while taking her music down a slightly darker, more mysterious road. The songs of Matchsticks unearth the complex emotions hidden inside stories both fictional and true, the spoken and the unspoken, in the little moments and in the big, transformational turning points — all done with a light folk-infused touch and a razor-sharp pop sensibility.
After reaching new heights with her loyal Twitch audience, Emily turned to Innovation Station Music to have Dave Mallen produce her most recent album, a fan-driven EP focused on her fundamental strengths: strong, dynamic vocals and acoustic guitar.
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CYNTHIA ANGELICA
Growing up in a small Maryland town, Cynthia Angelica turned to music as a creative outlet. She first experienced the atmosphere changing power of music while growing up in the Black church, citing gospel artists Richard Smallwood, Kirk Franklin, and CeCe Winans as early influences. Later, her influences expanded to include artists from various genres, including Tori Amos, Sarah McLachlan, Sade, and Kim Walker-Smith.
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"Fears and Dreams", produced by Dave Mallen of Innovation Station Music, transforms fear into a positive and driving emotion, steadying the wildest of anxieties and allowing audiences to tap into strength they did not realize they had. The album, which contains the 2023 WAMMIE award-winning single “Grace,” offers music with a message that inspires, challenges, and unapologetically brings light to darkness.
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Cynthia Angelica’s powerful debut album explores the intersection of faith and fear within the context of a dark, uncertain time in our world. "Often," she says, "the biggest fight is the one that lies within. The underlying question we grapple with daily is ‘are we going to make it?’ It’s increasingly difficult to know the answer, but we can have confidence in knowing that there is promise in the process.”
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JOE DOWNER
Award-winning artist Joe Downer was born in the United Kingdom, but calls the DMV home. He moved to the States when he was young and settled in the DMV area, where he’s lived ever since.
At 15, he got his first guitar, and “life has never been the same.” “For the first time, I was able to really find my avenue of self-expression. I played in bands all throughout high school and college, and started playing solo about 5 years ago.”
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Downer loves the area, and attributes a big piece of how his sound and self has developed to the DMV area and community. “The community of artists here is so vibrant and supportive,” Downer said. “We all just want to see each other succeed, and that kind of support and camaraderie makes all the difference.”
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Joe has released one single so far with Producer Dave Mallen, the WAMMIE-nominated van-life inspired tune, "Honey". His next single, "In This Dark" recently won the Silver award in the Folk/Americana category of the Mid-Atlantic Song Contest, and will be released soon in 2024.
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