There’s music you hear and there’s music you see, the best kind achieves both. ISMAY creates intimate folk/Americana songs that transport you straight to the land where they were  written - deeply rooted in the heart of Sonoma Mountain. Melding the experience of taming wild horses, escaping wildfires, and birthing lambs with warm guitars and delicately graceful vocals, it is an original soundscape that is a delight to the ears as well as the imagination.

Driven by singer/songwriter Avery Hellman, ISMAY released their debut full length album Songs Of Sonoma Mountain in 2020, to widespread acclaim. It was named one of the 10 best Albums in the Bay Area and garnered features in American Songwriter, No Depression, Sonoma Magazine, and more. Blending field recordings and intricate melodies with live, guitar-based inventive composition, it is a proper introduction to the old-world charm of ISMAY. 

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.

Hellman’s musical talent is no surprise, growing up backstage at their grandfather’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, where they were inspired early on by artists such as Emmylou Harris, Gillian Welch, and Hazel Dickens. Since then, ISMAY has appeared throughout the West Coast at music festivals such as Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, Strawberry Music Festival, The National Cowboy Poetry Gathering, The Lantern Tour, and at renowned venues such as the Great American Music Hall, Slim’s, the Golden State Theater, and the Mystic Theater. They have opened for acclaimed artists including Steve Earle, Watchhouse (fka Mandolin Orange), Justin Townes Earle, Robert Earl Keen, John Doe, and Chuck Prophet.

New song Visceral Plight out today
check it here: sptfy.com/NmlX

Hollow in the Land is a KWMR radio program hosted by Mari Nakagawa and Kat Wethington. Hollow in the Land explores land, access, wealth, and inequality from the perspective of two San Geronimo Valley folk n’ friends who are, generally, More Stoked Than Angry. Style hopping interviews, commentaries, and local features, Kat and Mari address questions they’ve always wondered themselves: Why are there so many white people here? Are we actually rural? Where do all the young people go? What happened to the bears? 

Hollow in the Land airs every other Monday at 9:00 AM on KWMR Pt. Reyes Station. Turn your dial to 90.5 in Pt. Reyes, 89.9 in Bolinas, 92.3 in the Valley, or stream online at www.kwmr.org. We will also post our shows and other content here on SoundCloud. 

Do you have ideas, feedback, requests, or something else you want to say to Hollow in the Land? Email us here: hollowintheland.kwmr@gmail.com

Hey, and also! We have a Patreon! Please consider supporting us here. www.patreon.com/hollowintheland

Music from California upright & electric bassist, songwriter, and composer Owen Clapp

Owen Clapp and East of Eden is following