Bethel Steele
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Bethel Steele

Fort Collins, CO | Established. Jan 01, 2009 | SELF

Fort Collins, CO | SELF
Established on Jan, 2009
Solo Folk Singer/Songwriter

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This band has not uploaded any videos
This band has not uploaded any videos

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Press


"Glowing Review of "OLAW" on NoDepression.com"

Steele knows how to tell a great story, adorn it in bright musical colors and deliver confidently... [with a] deep, beautiful cognac flavored voice surrounded by a wealth of original material. Bethel is confident and sings with authority... Bethel has eyes, ears and heart open, pencil sharpened and sees what many other artists seem to miss. - John Apice, NoDepression.com


""Deep and Inspired""

"Bethel Steele presents Of Love & Whiskey with a deep and inspired approach" - Remo Ricaldone, reviewer for www.bcmai.it, www.lonestartime.com and www.planetcountry.it Italy


"Radio Nowhere Favorities of 2012 WMSC 90.3FM Joltin Joe, The Mad Scientist, Host"

The favorites list here in Nowheresville has been created by using the following criteria:

1. Frequency of airplay on the show.

2. Audience response

3.Released in and around 2012

4.Unadulterated personal preference by the show's host



#1 Loretta Hagen Mud and Stone: Honesty and Integrity. Real Life lyrics and wonderfully bright guitar work too!

#2 Burns & Kristy Caravan: Beautiful, Uplifting, great songwriting. For "If I Fly" alone, this one is a winner!

#3 Heather Lloyd Samples: IMHO overlooked. Passionate and intense Heather's voice knocks me out!

#4 Sarah McQuaid The Plum Tree and The Rose: Gentle voice, lovely guitar work, Regal with a capital R!

#5 Antje Duvekot New Siberia: Dreamy, fragile, lyrical, strong

#6 Bethel Steele Of Love and Whiskey: Look out World! Pure Goodness! Any performer that can bring my wife to tears is a winner!

#7 Pesky J Nixon Red Ducks: Fun, Fun, Fun....

#8 Bobtown Trouble I Wrought: Creative and talented group. And they take a mean photo! Way cool version of "Reaper"!

#9 Anna Dagmar Satellite: Dramatic and bursting with talent!

#10 Lou Pallo Thank You Les: Mandatory listening from the man who stood by Les Paul's side for many years. Features many special guests.



Honorable Mentions:

Twangtown Paramours The Promise of Friday Night

Lon Milo DuQuette: Baba Lon II

Davey O Testing For Rust

Suzie Brown Heartstrings

Dale Boyle Throwback

Lawrence Lebo The Best of Don't Call Me Larry Blues Mix

Caitlin Canty Golden Hour

The Kennedys Closer Than You Know

Royal Southern Brotherhood: RSB

Brad Cole: Down The Line

Smoke Fairies Blood Speaks

The Boxcar Lillies Heartwood

Marc Berger Drive

Bovine Social Club Bovine Social Club

Dave Fields Detonation



We here in Nowheresville would like to thank ALL the amazing guests who have appeared on the show this year. We are SO grateful!!!



Most Awesome Live performances on Radio Nowhere:



Spuyten Duyvil 12/02/12

Bobtown 11/18/12 - WMSC 90.3


"Silver Circles Reviews"

Bethel Steele is a sultry-voiced young folk performer a far cut above the average. The album as a whole is by turns tinged with pleasant soul, jazz, and country elements. But I was most gratified by the sheer virtuosity of some of these songs, which, featuring sterling arrangements and backed by a very fine lineup of musicians, more than occasionally reach the bardic heights of Van Morrison at his best. I am thinking in particular of songs such as the emotionally evincing and superlative title track, the moody and resonant “Far Woods,” and the elegaic “Eighty-Five.” - The Noise Boston


"Interview with Folk Singer-Songwriter Bethel Steele"

Though she recently moved out of Jamaica Plain for new digs in Dorchester, singer-songwriter Bethel Steele returns to her old stomping grounds tonight to perform both new and old material at the Midway Café. Though she was introduced to playing music through the brass family – starting with trombone then moving to tuba and finally euphonium, she picked up a guitar when she was 14. The switch to a stringed instrument also got her to start writing songs, and she has two recordings to her credit: the 8-song EP “Beautiful Woman” and the full length album “Come Home.”



Is Bethel Steele your real name?

It is my real name, but I tell everyone it was a joke. My grandfather wanted to call me Bethlehem Steele, after the steel company; he thought it would be funny. And my mom really liked it, so that’s what we kept.



Why did you make the change from horns to guitar?

When I was 14 I got to babysit a friend’s guitar. She was in college and went home for winter break. I played it for a while and she didn’t even make me give it back when she returned. I held on to it for a while, and the next Christmas my grandparents gave me some money for a guitar. As soon as I got one I started writing. It’s been a very therapeutic thing for me in my life.



You grew up in rural New York. What brought you to Boston?

I went to college for biology. I ended up getting a job at Boston University, as a technician, working on soil chemistry. The grants ran out and I got a job at Bates College in Maine, then those grants ran out, and I thought, “Hey I really liked Boston.” So I busked in the subways for two months, which was really great. But it made me want to have a product I was proud of. I wanted to go in the studio, but when you’re busking you don’t have a ton of money to do that with, so I got a job in retail at with REI, and I’m still there.



And you do have some recordings now.

When the EP first came out it was on a hand-written CD. The bartender at the bar that I was playing at once or twice a month said, “You’re never going to make any money if you don’t have anything to sell.” He told that the next time I came in if I didn’t have something to sell I wasn’t going to play. He was totally joking, but it was really helpful to me. I sat down in my living room and in one day recorded these eight songs. I took it to the bar next time I played and sold all of them. The studio album was a totally different experience. At first it was just going to be me and my voice and my guitar. But then my djembe player brought in a drum set, so it was me and my guitar and an awesome drum track. Then I had a cello in the mix, which kind of kicked it all up, and then I thought it would totally rock with some fiddle, so I brought in a fiddle player, and then a bass player.



How do you categorize your music?

I think my “Come Home” album sounds like very country-inspired folk-pop (laughs). But when I’m live and it’s just me, it’s pretty much straight up folk.



When’s the last time you played at the Midway?

I played there about two years ago. I don’t play that many local shows. I’m out of town all the time. But the person who books the Midway is a friend of mine. She just said, “Hey do you want to come do this?” And I said, “Sure, why not.” I was looking for shows in the Boston area and this one popped up. - JP Patch


"More From Falcon Ridge"

Bethel Steele writes simple and direct poetry, and sets it to beautiful music. She writes in the first person, and I get the sense that she has lived these songs, even if they did not all happen to her as described in the lyric. She sings in a smoky alto, and she never raises her voice. But the emotions come through loud and clear. At the festival, she appeared solo, with just her guitar for accompaniment, and her songs worked that way. But, on the album, she is backed by a small band, and she makes particularly good use of cello and fiddle. She proves to be a very talented arranger, and her songs shine as a result. The singer-songwriter movement started in the early 1970s. By now, it can be called a tradition, and with Bethel Steele, it is in good hands.
- OliverDiPlace


"Bethel is a hit!"

Bethel has been a wonderful addition to the Monday night show. She's got a genuine feel of unpretentiousness that comes out in her songs, leaving the listener with a warm feel of honesty, soul and comfort. Her delivery is solid and her songs are from the heart. Even her sweet and humble stage banter leaves you feeling that Bethel Steele is the real deal. With her passionate voice and solid delivery, Bethel is a hit! - Tom Bianchi - Host of the Lizard Lounge OMC


Discography

Still working on that hot first release.

Photos

Bio

Short Bio:

Americana-inspired singer songwriter Bethel Steele has toured from Portland, Maine to Austin, Texas slinging songs and sharing stories with listeners. Steele’s career began in Boston, MA in 2008 and after releasing four projects there, is now based out of Fort Collins, Colorado. Kelly Walker, host of the Sundilla Radio Hour, says this of the latest release, an EP called “Shadows and Light”: "Bethel draws the listener in with songs that are clearly intensely personal, but reveal themselves to be true for us all. You cannot help but be moved and perhaps changed a little for the better in listening to them."

Video Links:

"Bigger Prize" from 'Broken Record' 
"Whiskey" from 'Of Love and Whiskey' 
"Sunrise" from 'Of Love and Whiskey'

Accolades:
2013 CT Folk Festival Songwriting Competition Finalist
2013 Falcon Ridge Folk Festival Emerging Artist
2013 Kerrville New Folk Finalist
2012 Iguana Music Fund Winner (Club Passim)
2012 Hudson Valley Songfest Best New Artist Finalist

Long Bio:

Americana-inspired singer songwriter Bethel Steele has toured from Portland, Maine to Austin, Texas slinging songs and sharing stories with listeners. Steele’s career began in Boston, MA in 2008 and after releasing four projects there, is now based out of Fort Collins, Colorado. Something of an amalgam of Lori McKenna, Ani DiFranco, Lucinda Williams and Neil Young, Bethel’s sound is the combination of a smoky alto voice and a guitar playing style that ranges from percussive and driving to delicate and sweet. While exploring the intrinsic beauty in whiskey-soaked one night stands, the stories of thrill-seekers and the unrelenting passage of time, Steele “draws the listener in with songs that are clearly intensely personal, but reveal themselves to be true for us all. You cannot help but be moved and perhaps changed a little for the better in listening to them." (Kelly Walker, Sundilla Radio Hour)


Steele’s newest release, ‘Shadows and Light,’ is a 6-song project produced and engineered by long-time friend Neale Eckstein of Fox Run Studios in Sudbury, MA. The intention of the record was to create a record that was both vulnerable and uplifting. The EP features performances by Boston locals Tom Bianchi (Baker Thomas Band), Charlie Rose (
Sarah Lee Guthrie and Johnny Irion, Jonathan Edwards, Josh Ritter and Rose Cousins), Adam Michael Rothberg (singer-songwriter and producer) and Pat Wictor (Brother Sun).

 
Two other studio records have resulted from Bethel and Neale’s friendship that was established in the summer of 2011 at Falcon Ridge Folk Festival. ‘Of Love and Whiskey’ (released in 2012), co-produced by Neale Eckstein, of Fox Run Studio/Fox Run House Concerts and Jagoda, NYC percussionist of Swamp Cabbage and ‘Broken Record,’ an acoustic 5-song EP that has influences from the blues, bluegrass and the story-telling folk genres.
 
John Apice, a reviewer for NoDepression.com, writes this about Bethel's music: "Steele knows how to tell a great story, adorn it in bright musical colors and deliver confidently... [with a] deep, beautiful cognac flavored voice surrounded by a wealth of original material. Bethel is confident and sings with authority... Bethel has eyes, ears and heart open, pencil sharpened and sees what many other artists seem to miss."

In 2013, Bethel was recognized as a Kerrville New Folk Finalist and as a Falcon Ridge Emerging Artist. Additionally, Steele was awarded a grant from Club Passim’s Iguana Music Fund to share music and speak in schools and LGBTQ-focused youth groups presenting “The Skin You’re In: how to be yourself in world that tries to fit you into a box.”
 
"The singer-songwriter movement started in the early 1970s. By now, it can be called a tradition, and with Bethel Steele, it is in good hands." - Darius Ripps of 'Oliver di Place' music blog

Band Members