Winterlark
Artist Information
- Label: Squink Records
- Genre: Folk / Jazz
- Hometown: Santa Cruz, CA
- Songwriting Influences: Lennon-McCartney, Goffin-King, Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell
- Sounds Like: "Dan Hicks meets Paul Simon meets Gilberto"
- Booking Contact: winterlarkmusic@gmail.com
- Download stage plot
Meet Winterlark
Winterlark, two Cal State University jazz program escapees, will cheerfully dismantle a song from the Great American Song Book right in front of you and deftly remake it into a delightful, modern melodic monster. But Kristin Olson, upright bass, and Sweeney Schragg, acoustic guitar, met at a folky jam session in a decommissioned aikido dojo. In that cool space, something clicked with their back-up vocals on "Stop in the Name of Love." As Kelsey Marlett at Two Story Melody, would later describe it, "Schragg and Olson's vocals blend together with cozy chemistry." These voices are the signature sound of the folk-jazz songwriting duo Winterlark.
With the release of Sing to Me about Tomorrow in October 2024, the duo have capped off an EP Quartet, a four-year run of two dozen original songs. This fourth installment has found airplay on AAA and Americana radio stations across the U.S. Among them is the online network, Radio Guitar One, whose reviewer, Luke Wolk writes, "After multiple listens I struggle to define the music as jazzy folk or folk infused jazz. It is quite unique in the way it blends the two genres so convincingly that it is difficult to detect the seams . . . It straddles the two genres like a circus tightrope walker that never shows a moment of being off balance."
In 2021, Winterlark began their run with the release of When I Saw You Stranded There, paying "tribute to The Beatles while evoking the charming repartee that Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong had on their fabled duet recordings" (Matt Micucci, Jazziz). Kelsey Marlett at Two Story Melody adds, "These San Francisco Bay Area singer-songwriters know how to tell a story."
The stories kept coming, and in 2022, the duo released In Walked Winterlark, which dials up the banter between Schragg and Olson, their "brand-epitomizing witty repartee" (Michael Major, Broadway World). You Send Me A Photograph (2023) finds the duo maturing as collaborative songwriters. For Imperfect Fifth, Hillary Tran writes, "Winterlark's ability to capture raw emotions and distill them into captivating melodies is a testament to their artistry and musicianship. This EP is a true gem."
Leaning more into the folk side of their musical cross-pollination on Sing to Me about Tomorrow, Schragg and Olson explore light and not-so-light themes of humanity's uncertain future. They sing about the march of the emojis, the erosion of women's rights, the degradation of the environment. And they invite you to sing along with the promise that you won't have to sing alone.
