Sara Syms
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Sara Syms

Nashville, Tennessee, United States | Established. Jan 01, 2014 | SELF

Nashville, Tennessee, United States | SELF
Established on Jan, 2014
Band Folk Americana

Calendar

Music

Press


"Album Review - Fade To Blue"

With Fade to Blue, Chicago-born Sara Syms has produced a debut album steeped in Americana. It’s a heady mix of blues-tinged roots, with dashes of bluegrass and jazz, which reflects the diversity of her influences, including Patty Griffin, but is also an emphatic statement of musical independence. Fade to Blue is an assured debut album, and an intimate take on universal themes. Syms is thoughtful, honest and touching musical company – never more so than on the final track, with its uncluttered realisation that “All We Have is Now”. - The Art of The Torch Singer (UK)


"Twisted Roots Show (CT)"

Her blend of smoky and sultry vocals mixed with "from the heart" roots backing is music to my ears. - Brian Bourgoin - WCNI


"Sara Syms - Fade To Blue"

Gripping, honest music. She raises her voice in the same atmosphere as Margo Timmons of Cowboy Junkies. - altcountryforum.nl


"Featured Artist on Noisetrade"

Sara Syms has a way with words. Gripping honesty that will make you an instant fan of this americana queen. - Noisetrade


"Blog Feature on Bearly Rambling"

The first brilliant song just has such a vibe it would be perfectly at home on one of the True Blood soundtracks. This song is the epitome of Americana music. - Barrie Moore


"The Billy Block Show (Nashville, TN)"

Sara Syms weaves a magnificent aural tapestry of folk, roots and Americana music creating a vast opportunity for massive popularity. - Billy Block (Host/Producer)


"Sara Syms and Her Graveyard Tale"

Once in a while there is an musical artist with such a talent that it makes you step out of your normal musical comfort zone and explore their world. Sara Syms is one of those artists, one who makes you turn off your regular play list and try something new. One who makes you want to step into a specific genre more and explore what else is out there. - That Mag


"Sara Syms @ Music City Roots"

The New York-based Americana/roots artist Sara Syms celebrates the new release of her debut full-length album Fade To Blue with a weeklong stop in Nashville. - Music News Nashville


"Rootstime Review"

A very talented songwriter, with the purest of vocals. Fade to Blue
is an incredibly promising debut album. - Rootstime.be


"Stereo Subversion Review"

“Fade to Blue is a tight, cohesive album. Syms sounds most at home with her own sound here, and her voice sounds truly exquisite. Though employing the same tropes used throughout the album, “All We Have Is Now” shines in its simplicity.” - Stereo Subversion


"No Depression Featured Q&A"

Authentic is the word most often used to describe Sara Syms. An artist willing to be intimate and vulnerable with her fans. - No Depression


"National Projects Director, Songwriters Hall of Fame"

Sara Syms lyrics, melodies and vocals are passionate, compelling,
heartfelt and soul stirring. The result is pure aural beauty. - Bob Leone


"Grammy-Winning Producer/Engineer"

Sara is absolutely the type of artist we need in times like these:
warm, organic, truthful and real. - Scott Jacoby


"Senior Director ASCAP"

Her music and voice are dark celebrations of americana music,
reminding the listener of long pensive drives down dusty dirt roads. - Marc Emert-Hutner


"Nashville Arts Magazine Featured Artist"

Highlighting the feminine experience in music means continually accessing some of the best performers Nashville has to offer. Searching for someone whose musical essence was rooted in a spiritual ground zero. In that quest, I discovered the musical stylings of Sara Syms, whose perpetuity at life’s intersections really spoke to me. I chatted with Sara about her upcoming show at Douglas Corner, her music, and how the blossom of music is rooted in sadness. - Nashville Arts Magazine


"Q&A with The Examiner"

Americana artist Sara Syms released her sophomore album, Way Back Home. The album has already caught the attention of music critics for its artistic honesty and vulnerability and follows the release of her highly acclaimed debut album, nominated for IMEA's Americana Album of the Year. Check out our Q&A with Sara Syms, where she talks about how she got her start as an artist, her writing process, and why she chose to cover "Crossroads"on this album. - The Examiner


""Crossroads" Music Video Review"

What a voice. There is such beauty, such sadness, such love in this voice, I am weeping slightly. This cover of Robert Johnson’s classic hit is so different from any I have ever heard, and, except for Johnson’s original, the very best I have ever had. I am so unbelievably melancholy in a good way. I take that back; even Johnson couldn’t pull out so much emotion out of this song. I have found my favorite female Americana/blues singer of the year. Anyone who can improve on Clapton or Vaughn’s versions, is a genius. I want more. I will be playing this all night long with a glass of wine in my hand. Wow. - Audio Fuzz


"Music Video Premiere on Deli Magazine"

The South has a deeply-rooted history, and the music that draws from it contains a certain darkness that lingers under the shade of mossy oaks, at the bottom of old drinking wells and in the pages of generations-old Bibles. Music City-based Americana singer/songwriter Sara Syms has captured that Southern heritage heartache and injected it into her rendition of Robert Johnson's classic song "Crossroads."

The single showcases Syms' beautifully heavy-hearted vocals atop an acoustic guitar, distant guitar wails and the crackling of an open flame.

We at The Deli are proud to premiere the music video for Sara Syms' "Crossroads." Watch the Nashville-inspired video below and listen for Syms' upcoming album Way Back Home to be released later this year. -Caroline Bowman - The Deli Magazine


"Q&A with Pens Eye View"

While country folk artist Sara Syms is young in her solo singer/songwriter career, she certainly isn’t a stranger to the live stage – growing up, Sara was both part of a world renowned children’s choir, as well as an internationally competitive figure skater. Crazy, right? While it’s clear Sara has found Sara Syms unnamed immense success in most of her endeavors, she’s now focused in on the stage as her home, jumping from Chicago to Nashville to make her dream a reality. - Pens Eye View


"Single Review on Post to Wire"

Nashville’s Sara Syms has a new album called Way Back Home due for release this September and she has been kind enough to share the title track with us. The song has just the right balance of shimmer and solid rhythm section beneath Syms’ rich ache of a voice. - Post to Wire


"Exclusive Stream of Upcoming Album"

Sara Syms’ upcoming release, Way Back Home, follows her 2013 debut album, Fade to Blue. Her first release was recorded in Woodstock, NY and earned her a nomination for IMEA’s Americana Album of the Year. Way Back Home is just what all of Syms’ fans have been waiting for and it does not disappoint. It’s sweet, beautiful and honest. Way Back Home is ten tracks worth of proof of Syms’ passion as a singer/songwriter and a stand-out musician in the folk, roots and Americana genres. - Elmore Magazine


Discography

Fade To Blue - May 2013
Way Back Home - Oct 2015

Photos

Bio

“Sara Syms lyrics, melodies & vocals are passionate, compelling, heartfelt & soul stirring. The result is pure aural beauty.” — Bob Leone (Songwriters Hall of Fame)

Following her highly acclaimed debut album, nominated for IMEA’s Americana Album of the Year, Singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Sara Syms’ sophomore release, is an artistic and personal breakthrough for the lifelong overachiever. Its 10 songs plumb the limits of her courage and fears to emerge as triumphant proof of Syms journey of musical self-discovery — a route that led her from her Chicago birthplace to the world’s concert stages as a child, into the realm of piano performance, onto championship figure skating and, finally, through the artistic and personal metamorphosis that’s resulted in the balance of beauty, grace, vulnerability and honesty captured in the stories on Way Back Home.

Produced by Chris Cubeta and Nick Africano and recorded at Brooklyn’s GaluminumFoil studio with a who’s who of Americana sidemen including drummer Spencer Cohen (the Lone Bellow), pedal steel player Thad DeBrock (Rosanne Cash, Suzanne Vega), and guitarist Jeff Berner (Caleb Hawley, the Ramblers). Haunting vocals and beautifully crafted arrangements sweeten 10 tales plucked from the grit and grind of real life.

The album opens with “Way Back Home,” which hangs on the shimmer of Syms’ voice and waves of gently cascading guitars. The blithe vocal melody and warm chorus of “Bright Dreams, Lonely Days” adds sunlight to that number’s lyrics about feeling swept by life’s complex currents. “Hard Work Pay” is an elegant duet for Syms and Africano, who penned the ode to perseverance in the face of personal trials, and “In Time” amplifies that theme. Its message of hope, echoed in Syms’ gently sung line “I’ll find my way in time,” provides a perfect ending for the album. 

Sara is currently managed by Lynn Verlayne and under the care of Brad Paul, former VP of Rounder Records and founder/past president of The Americana Music Association.

Band Members