Balto

This spring, the New York City-based folk outfit ‘Balto’ released their debut album October’s Road to an increasingly vocal, international chorus of praise. The 10-song LP is based on the experiences of Daniel Sheron, who abandoned his life in Moscow, Russia and went alone into Siberia. Against an ever- shifting backdrop of railways and desolate wastes, he tells a story of tragic love, found and lost; all-consuming love, and the story of a man who surrenders to it — self-realization, but also danger and harm to himself and those close to him. To record the album, Sheron gathered Balto, a group of men who knew him well, who understood the songs, and who could imbue the story with the kind of intensity and gritty honesty needed to tell it. In a single December day, they tracked nearly all of what would become October’s Road.

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Produced by Balto’s mandolinist Andrew Sheron and mixed by Jeremy Backofen (Producer – The Felice Brothers), the album introduces listeners to a sound that the band has dubbed, “TransSiberian Americana.” Balto’s core instrumentation – Acoustic Guitar and Upright Bass, Mandolin, Banjo, and Rhodes – gives the release a unified, traditional sound, yet the content of the songs; the melodies, the atmospheres – so rooted in Sheron’s experience of the vast spaces of Russia – provide a window into a world apart from the familiar. Reviewers have been quick to draw comparisons to alt-folk darlings Mumford and Sons, Fleet Foxes, and Bon Iver, while at the same time acknowledging that Balto treads a somewhat different path. Kyle Rectenwald of the blog ‘Those Who Dig’ writes “There are heavy bluegrass and Americana influences to Balto's work, but you can never shake the lingering image of dark, snowy landscapes rather than rural, Southern farms.”

Released digitally in February 2011 using the bandcamp platform and slated for independent physical release in April, October’s Road has already drawn accolades from dozens of blogs and thousands of listeners all over the world. In the few months following its initial release, it has held its position in the top popularity rankings for many of the heavily-trafficked bandcamp site’s tagged genres, most recently – alt-country (#2), folk rock (#4), Americana (#5), folk (#21), and indie (#38). Shortly before the album’s completion, Balto began performing consistently all over New York City, with weekly shows at some of the most venerable rooms in the city, such as Rockwood Music Hall, Pianos, and Arlene’s Grocery. Balto's dynamic and rich sound ranges from delicate, whispered confessions to hot, foot-stomping bluegrass and soaring folk-rock – all imbued with the honesty borne only of songs felt viscerally by their singers. Balto performs constantly in New York and are booking spring dates in the Northeast, with big tour plans on the horizon.