Posted 1/11/15

In the old days, bands like the Beatles would spend years playing R&B covers before cutting an original track. Many young bands today forego this step, and it shows in their songwriting. Whitherward, the year-old “power-folk duo,” provide an impressive repertoire of both classic covers and well-crafted originals to create performances few other duos can.

Whitherward are made up of Nashville songwriters Ashley E. Norton and Edward Williams. While Nashville may seem like the perfect place for a folk duo, the city’s music-saturation motivated Norton and Williams to pack up and head to Colorado. Norton says, “Every other band is moving to Nashville, so that’s why we’re moving out.”

Their first EP, Stardust, sparked a positive review from YabYum’s Frank Ippolito, who called it, “intimate, emotionally charged, and gutty.”

Musicpage: How long have you been in Colorado?

Edward: We’re just getting settled in. We went on a big tour in November all through the West, and hauled our stuff up from Arizona, where we had stored it during the tour.

MP: How did you two meet and form Whitherward?

E: Ashley moved to Nashville in 2010. The main thing she did around town as an artist was run writers’ nights. She’d invite songwriters up to play their songs. I played at one…and met her through a friend.  

We played in another group prior to this, a short-lived rock group, and from the ashes of that Whitherward was born.

MP: Progress on the next EP?

E: All tracking is done. We’re mixing and mastering it ourselves. One of the tracks is available right now if you sign up for our e-mail list.  

MP: Anything else you want to add?

E: The other big thing we’re doing is a video series supported by Patreon. One calledMorning Breath, a conversational music special (weekly) and one Coverflip, where we take a cover and change the key or some element of the song.www.patreon.com/whitherward 

Stay tuned for their self-produced sophomore release Music Monster.

For more information on Whitherward, check out their Musicpage profile

See the article here.