Soundpost Sessions LOCAL SPOTLIGHT: Jayme Stone w/ Clare Elich

Jayme Stone

Jayme Stone is an instigator. He loves to make creative work work. He’s a musician, composer, producer, writer and career coach. He has made seven albums and produced over 500 songs—from Gullah spirituals to Indie-pop songs, Trinidadian calypsos to Indian rāgas. “A consummate team player” (Downbeat), Stone has developed a process of trawling for understudied sounds in the more arcane corners of the world. His cross-continental collaborators have included Margaret Glaspy, Julian Lage, Tim O’Brien, Bassekou Kouyate, Yacouba Sissoko, Dom Flemons, Ranky Tanky, Trio Brasiliero, and many more.Stone is a searchlight. He has made albums like the Lomax Project, which re-imagines songs collected by American folklorist Alan Lomax; Room of Wonders, a collection of folk dances from around the globe; Folklife, which plants the seeds of folk songs in modern soil; and AWake, a stargazing indie-pop album exploring the white-hot core of love and loss. Stone is known for sharing stories of the people and places behind the songs—a 13th century Bambara queen, the rutted roads of eastern Kentucky, a symphony inside a lightbulb, the Sea Island coastline. These narratives help situate the songs in their wider cultural, spiritual and ecological contexts.Stone is a galvanizer. He produced 400 songs for the Facebook Sound Collection; curated a concert series at the Colorado Chautauqua; directed a folk music symposium at the University of Colorado; co-produced an episode of the Afropop Worldwide podcast; directed the branding for Folkalist Records, a 21st century label centering music from the global south; and co-facilitates a traveling global music retreat called Sonora Expeditions. Other career highlights include winning two Juno Awards, three Canadian Folk Music Awards; being featured on NPR, BBC, and CBC; and performing thousands of concerts including venues like the Lincoln and Kennedy Centers, Library of Congress, Rockygrass, Celtic Connections, Vancouver Folk Festival, Chicago World Music Festival, Montréal Jazz Festival, and more.

Clare Elich

From her roots in the mountains of Colorado to her formative years in the American South, Clare’s disposition for new exploration and old charm has deeply influenced her music.

Clare provides a playful, welcoming and thought provoking space for returning home through the familiar sounds of the old time, new acoustic and folk genres. She is known for her strong, buttery vocals, clawhammer banjo and quirky, and unpredictable stage banter.

Her first EP: Louder than this Room, released in February 2023, features Elich’s solo narrative at the forefront, rounded out by Baker and D’Esposito’s supporting vocal harmonies in a full, yet nuanced acoustic setting that leaves the listener intrigued as much as it lays the point right out on the table. The idea is to create a space where listeners feel like they’re invited into their favorite aunt’s kitchen. The floor is swept, the tea is made and you never know where the conversation will go.

Host or Publisher Soundpost Acoustics