Sarah King Marks Winter Solstice With 'The Longest Night'

With powerhouse vocals atop a classic Americana-folk-blues arrangement, Sarah King releases “The Longest Night” on December 20, 2023 - just in time for the winter solstice, which is, indeed, the longest night of the year.

“I think we can all relate to the feeling of ‘I love you and I'm leaving you anyway,' when situations may not exactly be wrong, but we can tell they're not right,” King says, explaining that the song was inspired by a long-term on-again/off-again relationship that always seemed to be “on” during the winter solstice. “Although that relationship has been permanently off for years, I was apparently still holding onto something about it somewhere deep within. When this song came out of me, I felt a weight lifted.”

Equally at home in intimate, acoustic listening rooms or with her full band in big rock clubs, King delivers moments of light and darkness, angels and devils, badassery and brokenness, taking listeners on an energetic and sometimes emotional journey through stories of American life. Her genuine stories about real-life emotions and situations also draw on classic folk-blues themes, balancing songs about the devil and booze with hard-won moments of reflection and acceptance.

King's acclaimed 2021 EP, The Hour, produced by Simone Felice and David Baron, earned her recognition as the New England Music Awards Songwriter of the Year and performances at the 2022 Folk Alliance International and Philadelphia Folk festivals, as well as supporting slots for acts including Blues Traveler, The Steel Woods, Anders Osborne, and Nathan Graham. She won the Great River Folk Festival Singer/Songwriter Contest in 2023, and has already been selected as a 2024 NAMM Official Showcase Artist.

For her follow-up to The Hour, King is once again taking risks - this time moving beyond the darkness and introspection that informed that to create a sound echoing the vibrancy of her high-spirited live show. Again recorded with producer/arranger David Baron (Lenny Kravitz, Shawn Mendes, The Lumineers, Jade Bird, Vance Joy), King crafted a collection of songs that became a study in duality. With songs that explore similar situations from opposing viewpoints - sometimes the heartbreaker, sometimes the heartbroken - King's first full-length, When It All Goes Down, aims to leave listeners feeling strong and empowered.

“None of us are one-dimensional. We all have an angel and a devil on our shoulder,” King states. “We know how it feels to go hard on the weekend and have to put our head down for work again on Monday morning. This dynamic range within all of us is worth celebrating, exploring, and yes - feeling.”

After the success of The Hour, King was able to leave her job and pursue writing and performing music full-time. Spending the past two years alternating life at home in Addison County, VT, with life on the road, King has fostered a community of fans and friends drawn to the respite created in her music. She's turning to that community now, raising funds via Kickstarter to support the release.

Photo by Grow Explore Photography