Earl

Earl refers to two separate singer-songwriters. One is the project of Nathan Allebach, and the other is the American singer-songwriter previously known as Kate Earl, who later uses the name Earl.

Nathan Allebach’s Earl

Nathan Allebach forms Earl as his most recent project after earlier working in the local collaboration Earl & Raine. The partnership releases one full-length album in October 2011, after which Allebach starts working on music under his own name. He is based in the Schwenksville area, hosts a weekly open mic at Steel City Coffee House in Phoenixville, books and promotes concert events at Rock Cafe in Harleysville, and performs in the Philadelphia scene. He also plays with the local bands Oh Constantine and Former Belle. At the time described, he is recording a debut album titled Beginnings, with songs compared to City & Colour, The Decemberists, Rocky Votolato and David Bazan.

The singer-songwriter previously known as Kate Earl

The other Earl is a female American singer-songwriter based in the UK. She is born in Anchorage, Alaska, to Charles and Pomposa Smithson, and is of Filipino, Dutch and Welsh descent. She starts piano at four, sings in her church choir, and begins guitar at seventeen. Before moving into full-time music, she works shifts at her parents’ small-town gas station. In 2004 she moves to Los Angeles, where she signs with The Record Collection. Her debut album, Fate Is the Hunter, appears under the name Kate Earl in 2005, and she later releases two more studio albums under that name, as well as an independent EP called Ransom. After shortening her performing name to Earl, she returns to a sound that draws on jazz roots while also focusing on pop and melody. BBC Radio 2 plays her work several times, and she is interviewed live by Dermot O’Leary on the station. Under the name Earl, she releases the singles Good Witch, I Love You and Tongue Tied, and later says she is working on a new studio album.