Biography
Portland-based singer-songwriter Kyle Craft delivers a powerful, resonant vocal style to his talent for blending Rolling Stones-inspired melodies and Bob Dylan-like lyrical dexterity with a glam-tinged pop energy. His first full-length effort arrived as Dolls of Highland in 2016. The nickname attached to his regular supporting musicians supplied the title for his third album, Showboat Honey, which appeared in 2019.
Craft grew up in Shreveport, Louisiana, and first encountered music during his early teenage years through an unplanned K-Mart purchase of a David Bowie anthology. Following the end of an eight-year relationship, he packed his guitar along with a few other belongings and moved to the thriving Portland music scene. Intent on transforming his emotional distress into straightforward rock & roll, he started producing home recordings and assembling material that would form his initial album. He returned to Shreveport to capture the tracks using makeshift equipment, then headed back to the West Coast, where Brandon Summers and Benjamin Weikel from Helio Sequence helped refine the mixes. Sub Pop noticed the resulting songs and offered him a contract. The label issued his debut LP, Dolls of Highland, in April 2016. Once he finished tracking the next album in a commercial facility, Craft casually laid down a home version of Jenny Lewis’ “Acid Tongue.” The experiment expanded into Girl Crazy, a five-single set of two-track covers honoring several admired women artists such as Patti Smith, Patsy Cline, and St. Vincent. His proper second album, Full Circle Nightmare, came out on Sub Pop in early 2018. The energetic release was captured live in the studio alongside his group and producer Chris Funk of the Decemberists. By that point the lineup had stabilized around lead guitarist Jeremy Kale, keyboardist Kevin Clark, bass player Billy Slater, drummer Haven Multz, and multi-instrumentalist Ben Steinmetz; Craft paid tribute to them by titling his third album Showboat Honey. Craft, Clark, and Slater handled the recording and production, and Sub Pop released the album in mid-2019.
Craft grew up in Shreveport, Louisiana, and first encountered music during his early teenage years through an unplanned K-Mart purchase of a David Bowie anthology. Following the end of an eight-year relationship, he packed his guitar along with a few other belongings and moved to the thriving Portland music scene. Intent on transforming his emotional distress into straightforward rock & roll, he started producing home recordings and assembling material that would form his initial album. He returned to Shreveport to capture the tracks using makeshift equipment, then headed back to the West Coast, where Brandon Summers and Benjamin Weikel from Helio Sequence helped refine the mixes. Sub Pop noticed the resulting songs and offered him a contract. The label issued his debut LP, Dolls of Highland, in April 2016. Once he finished tracking the next album in a commercial facility, Craft casually laid down a home version of Jenny Lewis’ “Acid Tongue.” The experiment expanded into Girl Crazy, a five-single set of two-track covers honoring several admired women artists such as Patti Smith, Patsy Cline, and St. Vincent. His proper second album, Full Circle Nightmare, came out on Sub Pop in early 2018. The energetic release was captured live in the studio alongside his group and producer Chris Funk of the Decemberists. By that point the lineup had stabilized around lead guitarist Jeremy Kale, keyboardist Kevin Clark, bass player Billy Slater, drummer Haven Multz, and multi-instrumentalist Ben Steinmetz; Craft paid tribute to them by titling his third album Showboat Honey. Craft, Clark, and Slater handled the recording and production, and Sub Pop released the album in mid-2019.
Albums
Singles
