So the old story goes, a small-town girl with ambition puts her all into her music, moves to the big city, meets the right people, and finds success. But with Angela Easterling, it was the opposite. She went back to her small town, and in doing so, gained her greatest success yet. What she found in her native Greenville, SC had Roger McGuinn, founder of legendary folk rock group The Byrds, calling her "a bright shining star on the horizon," going on to say "Her gift is so special….brought me back to the time the Byrds recorded Sweetheart of the Rodeo - tradition meets youthful exuberance."

After graduating college, Easterling moved to Los Angeles to further her music - and she quickly learned the Catch-22 of working in a music industry-heavy scene. "I had to work a day job to pay my bills, but I spent so much time working, I couldn't play music and totally lost track" she said. "To get yourself out there, you have to tour, so why am I paying this high rent if I'm never going to be here anyway?" So Angela Easterling went back to the South, and in an almost providential manner, found everything she needed in her own backyard - including a permanent band and a constant stream of inspiration all around her.

The result is Beguiler, her most focused and expansive album yet. It's also the first album featuring her new band The Beguilers  -  guitarist Brandon Turner and drummer Jeff Hook, both of whom Angela met in Spartanburg, SC. To "beguile," means to charm or enchant, sometimes in a deceptive way. Apropos to the title, Beguiler comes replete with gorgeous, bucolic, Southern-imbued folk that draws you in with gentle, crafty songs that address political and social issues head on. 

As with 2009's BlackTop Road, Beguiler was produced by lauded song-songwriter Will Kimbrough, whom also produced albums by Rodney Crowell and Jimmy Buffett, and currently serves as Emmylou Harris' lead guitarist. Also helping out in the studio is Fayssoux Starling McLean, a longtime harmony singer for Emmylou Harris, folk-pop artist Hannah Miller, noted multi-instumentalist Fats Kaplin, and Byron House, from Robert Plant's Band of Joy. While the diversity of musicianship is different this go around, Beguiler keeps in line with the themes of BlackTop Road, which include, without proselytization, an array of ruminations on the state of the world. "I wouldn't call myself a political songwriter, but I'm a curious person, and if I listen to an album in which all songs are about one topic, I get bored. I want to sing about things that are important to me," she says,  "But I don't want to sound preachy or trite. So I try to do this by telling a story that will hopefully be compelling enough to get the point across."

To wit, see "Manifest Destiny," a narrative inspired by her family's farm, passed down since the late 18th century, and currently threatened by a rash of development. Both this song and the searing "Group Self-Deception (It's Alright) illustrate why Vintage Guitar Magazine said “If Steve Earle was reborn a girl, he’d be Angela Easterling”. Beguiler also travels archetypical territory, but with a twist. ‘Maria, My Friend” turns the typical love-lost tale on its ear and the duet “Never Got That Far” shows the all-too-true reality of a couple unable to say goodbye to a long-gone romance. With the imagery of bandmate Turner’s original ‘The Fish & The Bird”, the gospel classic “Anchored In Love”, plus Easterling’s own fierce rocker “Two Clouds”, water flows through the album in all forms: floods (Johnstown, Pennsylvania) droughts, oceans, the washing of a weary soul (Happy Song); and its dual ability to both sustain life and take it away.

Easterling’s songwriting has made her a two-time Kerrville New Folk Finalist and a 2011 Telluride Troubadour Finalist, and has roped in critical lauding from The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Boston Herald, a prolific interview with NPR's Bob Edwards, and heavy airplay on Sirius XM's Outlaw Country. These accolades, however, are second to the riveting storytelling, deft Americana songwriting, and accessible persona of Angela Easterling. Angela plans to hit the road for most of the year, charming new audiences with her mix of past and present, personal and political, disarming and provocative music and lyrics. When she heads back home, it's guaranteed that Angela Easterling will have bigger surprises in store. She's one to watch.