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Normally I reserve Free Music Friday for local acts, but this week I’m changing it up. It’s not that I have ran out of Nashville based acts to write about, in fact there are many more to cover, but I started Free Music Friday as an outlet to write about bands I love & believe in. This week’s FMF artist, Seattle based The Head & the Heart, caught my attention right away and are a band I hope you’ll enjoy also.
The Head & the Heart’s band members are all Seattle transplants. The band’s lead vocalists Josiah Johnson & Jonathan Russell are from Virginia & Charity Thielen(vocals & violin) is from California. Since coming together in Seattle & forming a band they have become a huge success locally selling over 10,000 copies of their independent release. The buzz about the Head & the Heart was to much for Seattle based Sub Pop records not to notice. In November of 2010 Sub Pop signed them to a deal adding the band to their roster of other great folk influenced artist like Fleet Foxes & Blitzen Trapper. Their debut self titled release is filled with influences of the Beatles, early folk music & even a bit of Appalachia. A lot of the critics have labeled them as unoriginal but it only takes one listen to tracks like “Lost in My Mind” & “Winter Song” to hear something familiar yet uniquely refreshing. One of the most unique things about the Head & the Heart is Charity Thielen’s vocals. Check out the songs “River & Roads” & “Winter Song” to hear her jazzy, Regina Spector esque vocals front & center. The song that caught my attention right away, & one of the tracks that you can pick up for free from Sub Pop, is “Down in the Valley”. This song starts out simple & builds with violin, piano, & drums. As it builds musically so does it vocally. Johnson is joined by Thielen & Russell which brings the song to an energetic peak. This a song that is crying out to be heard live with the backing of a passionate audience.
The Head & the Heart are currently on tour but the closest they’ll come to Nashville is when they play the Bonnaroo Music Festival. If you happen to be there definitely add this band to your list!

TheHeadandtheHeart.com