Record-label signings, innovative videos, national exposure and brand new releases—musical artists from Las Vegas to Reno have already seen noteworthy accomplishments in just the first four months of 2019.
Las Vegas native and acclaimed singer/songwriter Sabriel has been signed to a record label.
Black Camaro, one of the longest running bands in Las Vegas, released a new album and landed one of its songs on an NPR playlist.
And there’s already new music from Nick Eng, a UNR student who has now released two albums in 12 months, as well as Sonia Barcelona, an eclectic singer/songwriter who just debuted her newest single and video.
And playing all of these artists is NV89—Nevada Public Radio’s station in Reno—and its midday on-air host, David Hadel.
Sabriel
"Apparently, she began her career down in Vegas initially as a dancer, but then she had moved into making music at the age of only 16. She released her EP with the help of some friends, co-writing on that record. And she's more recently opened up for Mayer Hawthorne and Sheryl Crow. She's really one of those awesome rising artists that we're excited about right now. She had a breakout performance at Life is Beautiful Festival down in Vegas, as well as SXSW [in Austin] and the Emerge Impact and Music Festival [in Vegas]. And she recently signed with Handwritten Records."
Black Camaro
"The music video for "Out in the Rain" is really, really cool. It's very artfully done; it's kind of like post-apocalyptic. It's really unique for a local band to animate their own music video. They recently had a mention from NPR Music Station Breaks. They kind of have this Interpol sound to them. I always think it's really hard pairing up another national act with what Black Camaro sounds like, but I really love what they're doing."
Nick Eng
"Not only is he an amazing musician, but he's also a journalism student at the University of Nevada, Reno. He just released his album "Long Shot" a couple of weeks ago and had a big album release party. We couldn't be more excited about that. He's been in our studio and played on the Biggest Little Stage as well. He's greatly influenced by The Beatles and Billy Joel, but he's got his own Paisley Underground feel to his music. We've actually added his new song "For Tonight" into our regular rotation, which means he'll be reported to the Billboard charts, which is really exciting. So, he's definitely one of the rising stars from Reno--with a very talented backing band as well."
Sonia Barcelona
"She's from Guam, according to her bio page, and [she] moved out to Vegas. "Violent Water" actually just came out this past Friday. It's the title track of her new record. She has this really cool PJ Harvey-meets-Angel OIsen kind of a feel. A lot of her promo videos have her kind of drowning in the sea with some battleships out there and the video [to "Violent Water"] is very cool, very artfully done. I think that she'll be making waves in the music world."
David Hadel, midday on-air host, NV89
