Kimberly Townsend, Kara Cole + 13 Indie Folk / Americana artists that should be on your Spotify Playlist

I don’t know what kind of relationship you have with your favorite music stream, but my Spotify insists on only playing what I really like, often leaving aside many opportunities to discover new artists who don’t yet have a following and significant productions to appear on playlists.

That’s why I make a point of maintaining my curatorial work here on this site. Through it, artists get to know other artists and, most importantly, future fans get to know their new idols. In this list, I’ve gathered the best of Indie Folk and Americana I’ve been listening to in recent months, such as Kimberly Townsend Kara Cole. I hope you like it (and include it in your playlists).

Kimberly Townsend

Singer/songwriter Kimberly Townsend has been carving out a place for herself in the introspective pop scene since her debut EP’s release in 2019. Her emotive lyrics are her trademark, brimming with unabashed vulnerability, and her vocals, impressively expansive, seamlessly genre hop from pop to indie to earthy folk. Her work is reminiscent of Sara Bareilles, Dodie, and Lizzy McAlpine, but Townsend’s sound is uniquely her own. Her current project, A Few More Things Before I Go, is a collection of 12 songs, releasing monthly.

Kara Cole

Kara Cole, born and raised in the Midwest, she calls Indianapolis her home. The haunting undertones of her vocals and the affliction in her delivery make you believe in her pain. She started writing songs in her bedroom at the young age of 13. Not really knowing she could sing; she kept it hidden until she was 21. Self-taught on the guitar, she uses her passion to connect the listener to the lyrics. “Kara Cole delivers a perfectly endearing vocal on 3 Weeks And even though it’s perfect it has that other “thing” that makes you stay and listen. It’s free and flowing and personal and emotional. You can’t hear her thinking which is hard to find these days. There’s an authentic pleading in her voice and her lyrics that work masterfully to glue the song together with great production and players and a familiar quality to Kara’s voice that is reminiscent of Emmylou Harris’s Red Dirt Girl record yet is uniquely her own. Kara’s talent as an amazingly talented singer and writer are spot on here. She means it and that’s all we listeners ever really want.” // Jennie DeVoe