Soundpost Sessions SPOTLIGHT: Collapsing Stars w/ Kate Farmer

Named a top 100 SXSW Artist by NPR Music, Twin Cities based Collapsing Stars shaped their distinctive sound touring through the American West. In recent years they have blossomed into an internationally acclaimed touring act performing on global stages. Blending folk, blues and Americana sounds with beautifully interlaced cello and vocal harmonies, comparisons range from Iron & Wine and Gregory Alan Isakov, to Nick Drake and early Bon Iver. When the pandemic shuttered music venues, they launched a web series titled Forest Folk Sessions – intimate acoustic performances in a breathtaking natural setting. Featured on NPR’s All Songs Considered, their sophomore album “Chapter” has received international critical acclaim.

In the last few years they’ve toured internationally, earned producer credits on a record for Rhymesayers Entertainment, performed for over 120K people at Red Bull Crashed Ice, played the Sligo Live Festival in Sligo, Ireland, and Ruby Sessions in Dublin – a showcase graced by the likes of Ed Sheeran, Mumford and Sons, Hozier, Damien Rice and others. Their debut record titled ‘2012’ received critical acclaim including praise from Dan Wilson, the Semisonic frontman who has co-written songs for the Dixie Chicks, John Legend, Weezer, and Adele’s 2011 hit Someone Like You. They were named a top 100 SXSW artist by NPR Music out of 2000 showcasing acts, and in response to pandemic related touring restrictions, venue closures and cancellations in 2020 and 2021, the group launched a new web series titled Forest Folk Sessions – intimate acoustic performances in a breathtaking natural setting. Featured on NPR’s All Songs Considered, their sophomore album “Chapter” is out now!

Kate Farmer

“Making hippies cry since 1986.”

Kate Farmer is on a mission: to help others feel less alone. Weaving her hypnotic velvet vibrato with starkly honest yet nuanced lyrics, listeners inevitably leave feeling like they’ve been to a collective therapy session. The sound is Colorado acoustic and rhythmically infectious, drawing influences from folk, bluegrass, R&B and Americana.

Raised in a Colorado mountain town, Kate honed her sound around campfires and gained notoriety for her ability to make even the most grizzled barefoot hippy cry. Her bewitching voice pulls listeners in and provides cathartic release: helping listeners to cope in an increasingly isolated world, and taking them on a journey through the full spectrum of human emotion. Leaving them feeling more connected and ultimately, more human.

Kate also lives with Multiple Sclerosis (MS), a chronic illness and dynamic disability. In the last 5 years since her diagnosis, she has found a depth of compassion and insight that has inextricably changed her music for the better. She shares this in service of others living with “invisible” disabilities, chronic illness and mental illness. You are not alone. You are worthy just as you are.