Today’s announcement that Two Runner, a fiddle and banjo-heavy duo from Northern California, has joined Gar Hole Records got me thinking about just how much growing the Fayetteville-based folk label has been doing lately.
Other 2024 additions to the Gar Hole family include singer-songwriters Desiree Cannon (Oakland, California), Creekbed Carter Hogan (Austin, Texas) and Maddy Kirgo (New Orleans), meaning that the label’s roster has expanded by 50% in just the last seven months. It’s worth noting that all four of the recent signees are neither based in nor from Arkansas, signaling that Gar Hole’s scope is further widening beyond The Natural State.
It doesn’t seem like growth has come with any downtick in quality or authenticity, though. Roots publication Holler referred to Cannon as a “one-of-a-kind visionary” and The Austin Chronicle called Hogan “living proof of [folk’s] future-forward dynamism” upon the release of each of their first records with Gar Hole. New Orleans duo The Lostines, who’ve been signed to the label since 2022, recently caught the attention of Paste Magazine, who praised them in a longform profile for the way they combine “elements of Motown and Spector-era girl groups with the timelessness of Gulf Coast dancehall and campfire country.”
2023 was a big year for Gar Hole as well. In fact, four albums put out by the label, all by artists with ties to Arkansas — “River” by Bonnie Montgomery, “I Saw the Arkansas” by Dylan Earl, “render tender / blunder sunder” by Jude Brothers and “All Bad” by Nick Shoulders — ended up on Paste’s “30 Best Country, Folk and Americana Albums of 2023” list.
As for what’s in store for the remainder of the year, be on the lookout for new singles by Nick Shoulders and Two Runner, which drop on Aug. 2 and Aug. 13 respectively, and Kirgo’s sophomore record “Shadow on My Light,” which comes out on Aug. 16.