About this artist
A gritty blues-rock outfit with vintage soul, pop, and classic rock influences, Cleveland’s Welshly Arms earned their indie stripes around the Midwest in the mid-2010s before landing a contract with Polydor in 2017. An EP and subsequent full-length, No Place Is Home, earned them greater recognition, as did a handful of mainstream film, TV, and video game song placements. The group’s sound grew noticeably slicker as they headed into the next decade, with more pop elements coming to the fore on singles like “Learn to Let Go” and “Trouble,” though their retro textures remained a feature of their music.
Welshly Arms formed in 2013 around the talents of singer/guitarist Sam Getz, keyboardist/singer Brett Lindemann, bassist/singer Jimmy Weaver, and drummer Mikey Gould. Their 2013 debut EP, Welcome, showed a band deeply indebted to their hometown’s rock & roll heritage, from the James Gang and the Black Keys to the O'Jays. A covers EP released the following year saw Welshly Arms taking on classics by Deep Purple, the Chambers Brothers, and Golden Earring as their reputation grew around the Midwest. 2015 brought the band’s first full-length, Welshly Arms, released on indie label Position Music. Subsequent singles “Bad Blood” and “Legendary” arrived in 2016 and boasted a slicker, more R&B-influenced sound as well as vocal contributions from backup singers Bri and Jon Bryant, who had recently joined the band.
Some key song placements in regional ad campaigns and television shows like Empire and Sense8 brought more widespread exposure to the band and by 2017, they’d signed with major-label Polydor. Their first outing for the label was the 2017 four-song EP Legendary, followed in May 2018 by the full-length No Place Is Home. Welshly Arms’ 2019 single, “Learn to Let Go” was a decidedly pop-minded affair, a tone that they blended into grittier 2020 songs like “Trouble” and “Stand.” Taking a stand for national unity, the band kicked off 2021 with the uplifting anthem “I Will Overcome.” ~ Timothy Monger