Jamey Geston is another successful artist who was chosen to play at youbloomLA last year. Based in Santa Barbara, this teenage singer/songwriter was no amateur to performing at festivals prior to coming to ours. Just last year, in addition to youbloomLA, she has played at BandFest (Carpinteria, CA), Fusion Music Festival (Paramount Ranch, CA), Los Olivos Arts Festival (Los Olivos, CA), Meiner Oaks Summer Solstice (Ojai, CA), and the Santa Barbara Int’l Women’s Festival (Santa Barbara, CA)… just to name a handful.

Jamey began playing guitar at ten years old and then self-taught herself the piano, ukulele, and bass. She began songwriting at eleven, inspired by artists such as Elliott Smith, King Krule, The Mamas and the Papas, Joni Mitchell, and Mac Demarco.

For having such a short career, she has been incredibly successful and noticed by industry professionals like Bob Leggett of the LA Examiner who calls Jamey “a dynamic performer and a prolific songwriter” or Judy Collins who says “Jamey is a darling and so talented, a beautiful young artist and singer.”

Jamey has shared the stage with talented artists including Jeff Bridges, Kenny Loggins, and Will Champlin as well as opened for award-winning folksinger, Judy Collins, legendary musician, Peter Frampton, and Grammy-winning guitarist, Albert Lee. She has played in venues across California and Arizona, some notable venues include the world-famous Roxy and Whisky A Go Go.

Already by 2013 she was a featured artist in Santa Barbara Band Guide as one of “The 805’s Next Great Music Makers.” Two of her songs have been chosen to appear in films, earning her two IMDb composer and music credits and she is currently endorsed by Daisy Rock Girl Guitars, Steve Clayton Guitars Picks, Shubb Capos and Capturing Couture Guitar Straps.

This year has been no less eventful for this young musician. She was invited back for the third consecutive year to play at the Winter NAMM Show in Anaheim, CA. She was also selected to work with Mary Amato, an award-winning children’s book author, poet, playwright, and songwriter, on an audio/video rendition of her book, Get Happy. Jamey will be the voice of the main character as well as a contributor on the six ukulele songs included.

She also worked this year on creating a teen band for a ‘Notes for Notes’ fundraiser sponsored by Seymour Duncan. At the show this past June, the band opened for Peter Frampton and featured her original song, Malibu. Within the same month, a Bob Dylan compilation cd (Dylan, By A New Generation) Jamey contributed on was released.

Now that school is out for the summer, Jamey is able to focus more on her music and on the EP she hopes to complete within the next year. When she isn’t recording, she will be playing various different shows and festivals. Take a look at what she has scheduled so far:

More details and music over here.

Last year at youbloomLA, we had the pleasure of hosting Little Faith who introduced us to their jazz-, blues-, and country-flavored gospel. Recently, we spoke with Jack Maeby, organ and piano player for Little Faith, to talk about the band’s experience at the festival and to see what they’ve been up to since.

“I think that you could consider Little Faith one of youbloom’s success stories,” Jack Maeby said. “[youbloom LA] was a great experience! Not only was there a lot of good music, the conferences were filled with very useful knowledge from successful industry people. It’s been an upward trajectory for Little Faith ever since. Thanks to our appearance at youbloomLA, a really strong article was written about us in the Pasadena Weekly.”

After the festival, Little Faith began work on their new album, “Eternity.” One night when they were performing, producer and musician Michael Baker was in the crowd and afterwards, said that he would like to produce their next effort. Though Ray and Jack are both experienced producers, Michael has worked with some of the greatest singers of all time including Whitney Houston and Aretha Franklin. “He had a lot of ideas that we never would have come up with and the new record, ‘Eternity’ is a big step forward for Little Faith,” explained Jack.

Once the album was completed, Little Faith planned to shop it around to different labels and do some industry showcases to promote it. About this time, Little Faith performed a 3-song set at a memorial concert for a friend. Unbeknownst to them, Tony Valenziano of Skyrocket/Swingtone Records was also at the concert producing a video of the event. About a month after the show, he called and asked if they were planning to record anything in the near future. They told him about “Eternity” and were shortly thereafter signed by Skyrocket to a worldwide distribution and marketing deal.

After such a momentous year, and a lot of prior experience, Little Faith wanted to share some things they have learned along the way:

“Play as much as possible. Stage time is what makes you a better performing artist, so you have to look hard to find venues and audiences to play for.” Jack explains how you never know when the right agent or producer is going to hear you perform. “You should play every performance as if the head of a great label is sitting in the front row. Show respect for your audience and venue by giving your best, showing up on time and by looking like a performer.” Also, he explained it is really important that bands have a clear understanding of everyone’s role in the group with regard to songwriting and concept. That way, if you are approached, you can be ready and appear as professional as possible.”

Little Faith will be at Joe’s Great American on August 23 and at the Ascencia Urban Blues Festival on August 29th. Their album, “Eternity” will be released in late August on the Sky Rocket/Swingtone label. There will be a pre-release campaign on the Pledge Music site where you can purchase the CD as a pre-sale starting August 1st.