HuDost Win Independent Music Award and Announce New Single, "This Is How My Story Ends"
Above: single art for “This Is How My Story Ends”
HUDOST
—THE ALTERNATIVE FOLK GROUP—
WIN THE INDEPENDENT MUSIC AWARD FOR SOCIAL ACTION SONG WITH “RISE TOGETHER”
FORTHCOMING “THIS IS HOW MY STORY ENDS” SINGLE
OUT FRIDAY, JULY 31
NASHVILLE, TN (July 2, 2020) -- HuDost, the husband and wife-led alternative folk duo, were honored with an Independent Music Award for their song “Rise Together” in the “Social Action” category (co-written with Dan Haseltine from the GRAMMY Award-winning band Jars of Clay). The song is from their most recent album, Of Water + Mercy, which reached #24 on the Billboard Folk/Americana sales chart. Watch the video for “Rise Together” here.
Staying true to their mission, HuDost have announced their forthcoming single, “This Is How My Story Ends”--which addresses the triggers that many people are struggling with during these tumultuous times and what people can do to claim their own stories--will be released on Friday, July 31. The band released a teaser of the song which can be heard here.
This song marks the beginning of a slew of singles that will be released every six weeks for the next several months. These releases will include “How Many Miles,” a song that addresses how far many of us have journeyed from our true selves and what it means to come home to our greater purpose (this song includes The Accidentals as guest performers), and “I Cannot Breathe” which is a song applauding the work of collective advocacy and activism in this time.
Moksha Sommer--who with her other half, Jemal Wade Hines--have “decided to hit the ground running through direct action, protest, and solidarity” says, “During a time when many are exhausted by polarization, social media squabbles and a lack of genuine positive action many of our peers have a hunger for empowered change and are fostering that very thing.”
Sommer adds: “The best that we can do as artists and musicians is reflect what is happening in the world with our art, and through that, offer the audience a new perspective on their own struggles. The world crisis that we are also encountering through COVID is one that we need music and art to be a processing mechanism for. We hope to adapt to this time with as much grace as possible, embrace our victories, and discover new ways of reaching our audience with as much love and appreciation as they encounter in a live experience. We feel that releasing these singles during the time when we’d normally be touring is one of the ways we can do that very thing.”
“This Is How My Story Ends” also voices the internal mechanisms that many of us encounter when in pain and isolation such as depression, anxiety, anger, addiction, and the fear that we are incapable of aiding positive change in ourselves or in the world. The hope is that this type of expression can act as a therapeutic tool that does foster that very change.
Noting how devastatingly the Coronavirus pandemic has changed everything for people in the event industry at this time and with all of HuDost’s 2020 dates cancelled, the group has taken steps to compensate for this change. Doing live-streamed concerts, writing a ton of new songs, developing a subscriber option available through their website (where subscribers get all kinds of fun perks) and even transforming how their works are presented, HuDost is now in another wave of discovery.
About HuDost:
HuDost have collaborated with a ton of artists and never stopped exploring musically. Their unwillingness to be pigeon-holed or to stop discovering new ways of working as musicians is one of the reasons they have embraced being independent musicians. Their music weaves a seamless tapestry of Folk Pop, World, Electro and Rock that renders tears and laughter in listeners. HuDost’s core musicians are Moksha Sommer and Jemal Wade Hines; a couple, collaborators, and co-parents. Since 2015 they have also been highly engaged activists, doing advocacy work as Congressional District Representatives for ONE (a non-profit organization working to end extreme poverty). Their IMA Winning song, ’Rise Together’, was co-written with Dan Haseltine from the GRAMMY Award-winning band Jars of Clay and all of the members of Jars of Clay play on the track.
Above: HuDost (L-R, Moksha Sommer and Jemal Wade Hines) Credit: Tim Bonea