"Hellman and producer/multi-instrumentalist Andrew Marlin create rich colors and hazy atmospherics in a sweet and savory mix... this record is an inviting pathway to ISMAY.”
- The Associated Press
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"With Desert Pavement, ISMAY points to a folk music that can last hundreds more years, a tradition that is essential because
it helps us understand us."
- No Depression
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"They tread the fertile ground of nostalgia yet never make anything sound old, dated, or retro. They’re as important an artist as when Jewel, Paula Cole & Joan Osborne first arrived."
- Americana Highways
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ISMAY is an alternative folk music project driven by California-based singer/songwriter Avery Hellman. Their debut album Songs of Sonoma Mountain was released in 2020 and named one of the 10 best Albums in the Bay Area by KQED. In 2024 ISMAY released their sophomore LP ‘Desert Pavement’ garnering enthusiastic reviews from No Depression, The Associated Press and Americana Highways. They teamed up with prolific Folk/Americana multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and producer Andrew Marlin of Watchhouse.
Growing up backstage at their grandfather’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, Avery was inspired early on by artists such as Emmylou Harris, Gillian Welch and Hazel Dickens. For a decade Avery worked on the family ranch in Petaluma while developing their songwriting craft and storytelling repertoire. ISMAY has appeared throughout across the country and overseas at music festivals such as Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, The National Cowboy Poetry Gathering, and Americanafest UK. ISMAY has opened for acclaimed artists including Steve Earle, Watchhouse, Robert Earl Keen, John Doe, Chuck Prophet and Sunny War. In March of 2023, ISMAY was featured as one of a select group of artists from around the world participating in the Apple TV+ Show My Kind of Country, produced by Kacey Musgraves and Reese Witherspoon.
Currently, Avery is based in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California and is working on several projects including a documentary film project tracing the roots of Lucinda Williams. ISMAY also curates a music festival called Woollystar and is continuing to work on a new record.
In search of a creative path, singer-songwriter ISMAY (Avery Hellman) sets off on a road trip of discovery, tracing the roots of music icon Lucinda Williams in this captivating documentary.
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In Finding Lucinda, Avery Hellman embarks on a road trip across the southern United States, delving into the people and places that shaped Lucinda Williams' early career. The film showcases interviews with Charlie Sexton, Buddy Miller, Mary Gauthier, Josh Baca and Max Baca (Los Texmaniacs), John Grimaudo, and Wolf Stephenson. Through these conversations, the documentary sheds light on the profound impact Lucinda Williams had on music and how her artistry continues to resonate today.
