"Ghost of Kyle Bradford twist(s) and turn(s) his way through rough-hewn cityscapes, his guitar lines trotting along as his voice, that soul-stirring rasp, unveil(s) a world filled with life and shadow."
-Mark Baumgarten, executive editor, Sound Magazine
"When it comes to singer/songwriters, for me it's in the voice. Either an artist has that "something" where they can evoke emotion and move you, or they just come across as another singer/songwriter. That being said, Ghost of Kyle Bradford has that special something. It's all there in his beautiful melodies, honest vocal delivery, and his detailed storytelling. He is sure to win over anybody that loves a moving, heartfelt song, without all the sappy bad poetry that usually comes along with songs of this nature.
Ghost of Kyle Bradford has a bright future, and I can't wait to hear what he does next."
-KEXP DJ Troy Nelson
GHOST OF KYLE BRADFORD
"South Downtown" (unsigned)
Seattle’s soon-to-be-talk-of-the-town Kyle Bradford crafts sparsely instrumented pieces of musical heaven. This track (no album just yet, but hopefully soon) is a tribute to an urban metropolis that’s markedly sorrowful, yet manages a glimmer of hope in Bradford’s earnest vocals. The lyrics are brilliantly and tightly crafted glimpses of his life and the lives of those surrounding him. The tracks on his MySpace are all completely great, but it was this line that won us over completely on "South Downtown": "I’ve been wishing the summers away for so long that the years seem much shorter than they actually are." Needless to say, keep an eye out.
-Ashley Graham, Outtheremonthly.com
Ghost of Kyle Bradford
Sunday, September 7 -Sunset Tavern
Ghost of Kyle Bradford One of the newer local acts I've been following with keen interest in recent months is Ghost of Kyle Bradford, a.k.a. dude-with-acoustic-guitar Kyle Hawkins. It's the vocal delivery that does it for me: Hawkins possesses a rough, husky whisper that's neither pretty, nor grating, but is simply soulful and real, somewhere between world-weary and hopeful – think Paul Westerberg singing in a hushed voice at midnight to a sleeping baby, warning of life's troubles and disappointments but stressing the small joys to come, too. Hawkins' guitar strums are rudimentary yet effective, propelling things forward and placing the focus where it probably should be – that voice, the haunting melodies, his vivid imagery of lonely bars and mocking stars. And songs that live in the darkness before the dawn, letting in light just when you need them to.
-Michael Alan Goldberg, Seattle Weekly
"It's hard to do that kind-of-folky acoustic-guitar-and-voice thing. You have to be able to sound earnest without becoming one of those turtleneck-and-cardigan-wearing pseudo-Christian schmucks whom everybody loathes. Ghost of Kyle Bradford have the kind of brutal, literary lyricism that makes folk matter: Bradford sings about the lowered expectations of drunks who can't stand themselves with a pretty voice and spare arrangements. His songs are as real and as raw as a Raymond Carver story—sad, violent moments captured gorgeously in amber".
-Paul Constant, The Stranger
Bradford's solo project is 'a sparce' (and appropriately haunted) affair, all cold acoustic-guitar strum and foggy-breathed vocals in the style of Bon Iver.
-Eric Grandy, The Stranger
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