Devon Sproule

Devon Sproule

Devon Sproule is a folk singer-songwriter and musician. She is born in 1982 and is from Kingston, United States. She also has strong links to Canada in the information available about her early life, and she works within folk.

Career

Sproule begins performing and writing music while still a child, learning vocal harmony with her father and later using his old guitar. By her mid-teens she is playing locally for small amounts of money. She records her self-titled debut album while still in her teens, and it is released in 1999 when she is 16. The record draws attention for her voice and leads to touring with the Dave Matthews Band as a support act.

Her second album, Long Sleeve Story, follows in 2001 on Three Word Records. The album features drummer Nate Brown, bassist David Saull, trumpeter John D'earth and bassist-producer Stefan Lessard.

In 2003 she releases Upstate Songs on Tin Angel Records. The album is included in Rolling Stone's Critics Top Albums of 2003.

Style and influences

Sproule's music combines folk-blues, Appalachian, folk and jazz influences. Her influences include Bikini Kill, Frank Zappa and the Beatles. A profile in The New Yorker describes her as a singer-guitarist whose songs focus on humanity, nature and Virginia, with clear diction over ornate imagery and energetic melodies.

Later releases and recognition

In 2007 she releases Keep Your Silver Shined on Tin Angel Records. The album is produced by Jeff Romano in Virginia's Blue Ridge mountains and includes the songs "Old Virginia Block" and "The Weeping Willow", the latter featuring Mary Chapin Carpenter.

In 2009 she shares the ASCAP Foundation Sammy Cahn Award with Oren Lavie. She is also featured on the cover of fRoots magazine in the UK in July 2007.

Personal life

Sproule lives for many years in Charlottesville, Virginia, and later in Berlin, Germany. She marries American singer-songwriter Paul Curreri in 2005.