Hickory – The City of Hickory’s 2024 Sails Original Music Series continues this week with pop-folk artist Taylor Ashton. The free concert begins at 7 p.m. on Friday, June 21, at Union Square in downtown Hickory.
“Canadian crooner returns to the Sails. He has got the goods…a voice that seduces, songs that capture, and a band that wraps him up like a present,” says Sails Music Coordinator Bob Sinclair.
Growing up in Vancouver, British Columbia, with his father, Taylor Ashton was always playing with words. His poetic wordplay as a child built his confidence to later become a clever songwriter with confessional and intimate lyrics.
Ashton spent most of late teens and 20s as the frontman of Vancouver-based five-piece Fish & Bird, releasing four albums of heady progressive folk and touring heavily throughout his home country.
He moved to New York City in 2015 to pursue solo music. He took up busking in subway tunnels to get by, armed with his banjo and a few dozen covers. Today, Ashton’s music is influenced by the ways that pop, traditional folk, and R&B can live together on the clawhammer banjo. He’s released three full-length albums, several EPs and singles, and collaborated with artists like Courtney Hartman and Rachael Price.
For more information about the Sails Original Music Series and upcoming bands, please visit www.HickoryNC.gov/SailsMusic and follow the Sails Original Music Series Facebook page, www.facebook.com/SailsMusic.
