Meet Hadley McCall Thackston, Folksinger

North Augusta native/Decatur-raised Hadley McCall Thackston took her hatbox full of songs to Wolfe Island, Ontario to record them with producer/engineer/musician Hugh Christopher Brown, who took the young folksinger under his wing and has released the stirring results on his independent label Wolfe Island Records.

Thackston’s sweet, gentle Southern voice and the spot-on instrumental backing (lots of mandolin, pedal steel, banjo, piano, violin, etc.) help the self-titled album achieve Appalachian Americana nirvana. (Among the musicians is cellist Jane Scarpantoni, who’s played with R.E.M. and Indigo Girls, among many others.) Lyrically, the 25-year-old reveals herself to be a secular humanist who probably props a Black Lives Matter sign on her porch while she’s plucking away on new songs. In other words, Amy Ray’ll probably be taking her on tour before long. And she’ll go over like a house afire!

Photo by Sus Bowers.