Press Release: 15-Year Old Award-Winning Songwriter Hayley Reardon Releases First Single From Debut Album

Hayley elaborates, “’Where the Artists Go’ is about looking for the artist in everyone. The song was inspired by an eighth grade social studies project where we were asked to draw ourselves exactly as we saw ourselves. A boy in my class that I hardly knew had drawn a self-portrait that so beautifully captured the explosion of light and color inside the mind of an artist. I was so inspired by the fact that this quiet boy in my history class that I had known for years, had such light and passion inside of him, and that I got to see a glimpse of it that day. It got me thinking about what kind of explosion of creativity and spark might lie beneath the skin of all the people I see day to day but only know on the surface. The song is about breaking rules and being passionate, bold, and original…and even more so, its about being proud of being all those things and letting them shine through. It’s about being proud of the explosion, no matter how big, that makes each of us our own artist”.

On the heels of winning the annual Boston Folk Festival Songwriting contest at only 12 years of age in 2009, Hayley released her first Ep entitled Beautiful Simplicity which was followed by 2010’s Hope You’re Smiling that showcased the anthem “Stand Together,” a song penned to encourage students and young adults to find their own voice and take a stand against bullying.

Hayley vividly recalls the genesis for writing Together, “I wrote ‘Stand Together’ a few weeks after starting the sixth grade. I was always warned that middle school could be a hard time socially because kids are known to be so brutally mean to each other at that age. The song was my response after going in and seeing it for myself. It was basically me speaking to my peers, about how this whole ‘growing up thing’ would be a little easier on all of us if we could just face it as a team”.

Taking a stand one step further, Hayley developed an in-school performance program called “Find Your Voice” to deliver peer targeted messaging encouraging empowerment through self-expression. Sharing her message in an official role as a National Peer Spokesperson, for PACER’s National Bullying Prevention Center, Ms. Reardon has enlightened packed middle school auditoriums throughout New England, Michigan and Minnesota.

These speaking engagements laid the foundation for honing her craft of delivering thoughtful musical performances. From opening shows for her idol Lori McKenna, to official showcases at the 2011/2012 Folk Alliance Conferences in Memphis, to appearances on DittyTV and WDVX’s Blue Plate Special in Knoxville, Hayley quickly developed a comforting, yet commanding, stage presence.

Kwait, whom subsequently signed Reardon to his Kingswood Records imprint, quickly became a champion of her artistic integrity and thematic messages of self-empowerment, “As a documentary filmmaker committed to telling the history of folk music, I consider Hayley Reardon to be an inspiring songwriter, a captivating performer and, I am certain, a significant voice in folk music’s future”.

Reardon’s appearance in the documentary immediately linked her to an extended lineage of matriarchs and patriarchs of the folk movement of the 1960s as Joan Baez, Tom Rush, Judy Collins, Taj Mahal, Maria Muldaur, Geoff Muldaur, Jim Kweskin, Jackie Washington, Jim Rooney, Peter Rowan and Siggins were all featured in the film.

And now she stands together with history before her, proudly bearing the torch for a new generation of inspiration. From Boylston Street to Harvard Square to Cambridge to Strawberry Hill, the deep heartbeat of Massachusetts is only the precipice of where this artist will go.