Originally a child of musical theater, Julie Loyd's music comes across best on stage. Though shes left behind the Broadway vibrato, she uses her movement experience to step inside her songs, contorting, kicking, and undulating to the beat of her own percussive guitar and banjo playing. Whether it's on a guitar or banjo, one can tell her performance experience is considerable.
She started touring professionally at 19, and has released four albums and a live DVD--playing all around the country, sharing stages with such performers as Shawn Mullins, Michelle Malone, Kaki King, G-love & Special Sauce, Hamell on Trial, and Alana Davis, to name a few. She has a knack for making folk dynamic: "I'm tired of folk being seen as boring. Just because I'm playing an acoustic guitar doesn't mean I'm going to be singing about the mountains and if I am, I'm singing loud."
Born and raised alongside the Blue Ridge Mountains in Charlottesville, Virginia, Julie has been struggling with her southern roots and her Yankee mentality since she was a kid. Having lived and toured out of New York City, Northampton, MA, Asheville, NC, and Chicago, IL, she's recently taken up residence in the folk capital of the country--Boston, MA. She tours the eastern half of the US regularly, and tries to tour to the Western US a few times a year as well.
Her fifth and newest album, Dandelions & Party Queens (Release Date: 9/2008) features both her guitar & banjo playing, alongside such players as Julie Wolf (Indigo Girls, Dar Williams, Ani DiFranco). Produced by Evan Brubaker of Cake Records, it's a joyful acoustic romp showcasing Julie's maturing vocals and songwriting.
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