Music

Alysia Kraft Finds Solace Through Hardship With Debut Solo Single “Cold Mountain”

“Cold Mountain” is an earthy folk tune acknowledging the immensity of pain, loss, and struggle as a first step toward healing and making a change.

Singer-songwriter Alysia Kraft delivers a striking performance on her debut solo single, “Cold Mountain,” out February 18th. As the first song from her upcoming record First Light, out later this year, “Cold Mountain” introduces the project with a sonic breath of fresh air. The Wyoming born artist has made a beloved reputation for herself in the Wyoming and Colorado music scenes; “Cold Mountain” showcases a different side of Kraft’s artistry following her work with Whippoorwill and The Patti Fiasco, inviting listeners to experience the ethereal whimsy inherent to this track’s lush, bioluminescent folk soundscape. Fans of HAIM, Waxahatchee, and Kacey Musgraves will find themselves right at home immersed in Kraft’s lush vocals and melancholy-steeped poetry. “Cold Mountain” is set to make an emotional appearance in the short film, Be Still, premiering at the Front Range Film Festival in Longmont, CO, on February 19 for which it recently won the Indie Short Fest award for “Best Original Song”.

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“Cold Mountain” came to Kraft like a breath of fresh air; having grown up in rural Wyoming, this song finds it’s roots in the same grandness of the windswept plains the queer artist took refuge in while enduring various struggles for acceptance and understanding throughout life. Kraft wrote this track “in a moment of fully feeling how brutal and beautiful life can be all at once.” For her, “Cold Mountain” is an exploration of the ways in which we “find the space to feel both the grief and hope we need to keep going.” As co-producer, Kraft made it a point to create something that felt true to the place and emotion of the song. In collaboration with J. Tom Hnatow (producer, mixing engineer) and Justin W. Craig (producer, mixing engineer), Kraft brought her vision to life as a brilliantly multi-dimensional final product. Alysia Kraft partnered with SonaBLAST! Records to create this project, adding her captivating artistic signature to their acclaimed catalog.

Fans can stream “Cold Mountain” on all major streaming platforms on February 18th.

**More about Alysia Kraft:**

Having amassed devoted regional followings for projects Whippoorwill and The Patti Fiasco as a celebrated songwriter and incomparably magnetic frontwoman, Kraft has sold out most of Colorado’s big stages and directly supported icons Bon Jovi, Blondie, Nathanial Rateliff and Bonnie Raitt on significantly bigger ones. Embracing the complexities of growing up queer on a cattle ranch in small-town Wyoming and choosing to love within a landscape that didn’t always love back, “First Light” is a triumphant homecoming and a defining solo debut. Smart, retro-influenced indie pop and lush, bioluminescent folk will find crossover appeal with fans of HAIM, Sheryl Crow, Sharon Van Etten, and Waxahatchee. Enlisting close collaborator J. Tom Hnatow & Grammy-nominated Justin Craig to produce and mix and acclaimed engineer, Sarah Register to master, “First Light” is open-hearted and thoughtfully hook-adorned– with soundscapes as dimensional as Kraft’s western upbringing and the liberated narratives contained therein.

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