Gaelynn Lea

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press release: Gaelynn Lea is a musician from Duluth, Minnesota. She has been playing violin for more than 20 years. First classically trained, she began learning traditional Celtic and American fiddle tunes at the age of 18. During her college years Gaelynn started sitting in with various folk/rock musicians and developed an improvisational style all her own. Eventually she also began singing and dabbling in songwriting. Gaelynn has played alongside many notable Minnesota musicians over the years, including Alan Sparhawk, Charlie Parr, and Billy McLaughlin.

Gaelynn Lea has been actively performing throughout Northern Minnesota and Wisconsin since 2006, contributing to a number of musical projects in the Twin Ports. Currently her most active collaboration is The Murder of Crows, an atmospheric alternative duo with Alan Sparhawk. Together they recorded an EP titled “Imperfecta” in 2012. Their original song “When We Were Young” was featured on the Sundance Channel’s acclaimed drama “Rectify” in June 2014. Gaelynn also regularly performs solo sets of experimental fiddle tunes sprinkled with her original songs; her aim is to create a meditative, layered sound that allows the listener’s mind to drift.

In November 2015, Gaelynn Lea released her debut solo album entitled “All the Roads that Lead Us Home”. It pays homage to the traditional fiddle tunes and beloved standards that Gaelynn has been playing for over a decade… But of course, there is a twist!  Gaelynn used her Memory Man looping pedal to create winding layers of sound underneath these familiar melodies.

On March 3, 2016, Gaelynn Lea was named the winner of NPR Music’s second-ever Tiny Desk Contest. Her music video entry rose to the top of over 6,100 entries from around the nation, chosen as the unanimous favorite among the contest’s six judges. The very next week, Gaelynn performed a moving Tiny Desk Concert, at which the show’s host Bob Boilen said “there was hardly a dry eye.”

A handful of busy months flew by after winning NPR Music's Tiny Desk Contest, and somewhere in that whirlwind Gaelynn managed to record a 6-track EP titled "The Songs We Sing Along the Way". This record was released on August 15 , 2016 and is a blend of Lea's original songs (including the contest-winning number, “Someday We'll Linger in the Sun"), traditional fiddle tunes, and her own poetry.  

Lea identifies equally as a songwriter and a fiddler, so much like her debut solo album, Gaelynn constructed this EP to be a winding exploration of both art forms. However this time around she took a slightly different approach, choosing to collaborate with Minneapolis songwriter, guitarist and percussionist Alan Church (BBGUN, Al Church and State). He skillfully added texture and color to each track as they improvised together in The Pearl Recording Studio in the Twin Cities. Gaelynn Lea hopes this EP will provide her new, wider audience with a sense hope and an appreciation of what the violin can do and has done for hundreds of years.

In addition to performing and recording, Gaelynn loves to do speaking engagements about disability, overcoming challenges, and the joy of music. Gaelynn has a congenital disability called Osteogenesis Imperfecta, or Brittle Bones Disease. In recent years, she has used her music as a platform to advocate for people with disabilities and to promote positive social change. Gaelynn believes society must make accessibility a priority so people with disabilities can participate fully in their communities and use their talents and gifts without discrimination.