"The music was exotic, ethereal, fragile.. full of childlike wonderment. There were spare arrangements with singing saw, xylophone, clarinet, acoustic guitar, strange percussion, so much reverb that it seemed to be playing in another dimension, and, at its center, one of the most jaw-droppingly gorgeous female voices I'd ever heard. The singer's voice was booming and haunted, and the lyrics were full of mourning, yet also managed to be hopeful and at times even silly. This was summer music about winter themes... I began to hear it in my dreams. It colored the way I looked at everything around me." - Filmmaker Magazine 2006 Hope For Agoldensummer is a 5-piece living and working in the fine towns of Athens and Atlanta, GA. A junkyard orchestra. An anarchist soul choir. They create rusty, gutter angel melodies in a sweaty, old, yellow house. This family has been together for 3.5 years, and each member continues to grow and develop the talents necessary to create the desired sounds. All five members play a variety of instruments: slide guitar, cello, eclectic percussion, xylophone, piano, singing saw, and coke bottles. The defining trait of the band lies in the frighteningly beautiful vocals, which are executed primarily by vocalists Claire and Page Campbell. As sisters, their voices are similar enough to mesh with each other flawlessly, yet they are different enough to represent two distinct approaches to the material at hand. The instrumentation relies heavily on Will Taylor's fancy cello stylings and the tasteful brush work of drummer Jamie Shepard. Deb Davis is their Johnny-on-the-spot, maneuvering from accordion to guitar to xylophone. "Sisters Claire and Page Campbell sing about God and heartbreak like they're drunk on their own glorious harmonies and have all the time in the world. Their shows build on [a] sense of intimacy and immediacy; cellist Will Taylor is a grounding force as the others swap xylophones, guitars and stories." - Philadelphia City Paper 2005 "The vision of a godforsaken southern wasteland Hope For Agoldensummer casts conjures images of humid and buggy nights, small town cops drunk on the small amount of power afforded to them, and heartbroken elderly men with their mouths eroded by gum disease and their livers destroyed after decades of drinking away loneliness. Themes of regret, sorrow, and misery dot these tales of missed opportunities and desperation heartbreakingly packaged as hope... The music is weighty, bombastic... Soulful and profoundly affecting art." - Southeast Performer Magazine 2004 Their first album, Heart Of Art , was recorded on tape over a span of 1.5 years in Commerce and Cabbagetown, GA. The band has taken every effort to ensure that their merchandise meets the highest ethical standards. The album is packaged entirely in 100% PCW recycled paper and printed with soy-based ink by a worker-owned press in Oregon, USA. Heart Of Art was named the #1 local album of 2004 by Flagpole Magazine (Athens, GA) putting them in the company of heavyweights like Drive-By Truckers, Now It's Overhead, Vic Chestnutt, and Of Montreal. Hope is currently working on their 2nd album, this time with David Barbe at Chase Park Transduction. "In the tradition of haunting, Southern pastoralists Smoke and Cat Power, and the archaic folk-art indigenous to Georgia's verdant landscape, Hope For Agoldensummer revels in slow-burning surrealism. The groups debut is a homespun affair that unfolds without artificial barrier... a jeweled and gentle wind that balances soft and unsettling tones." Creative Loafing, ATL. 2004 "There aren't many records that make me want to re-evaluate my beliefs about music and about people. Thankfully, I've found a record that does. Hope hails from the deep South and the music they make together oozes the rustic, porch-swing spirituality that one might expect, but with uncommon grace and warmth. This is family-made music, right down to the honest-to-goodness sisters who sit and sing and bring audiences to tears, and it follows in that vividly southern tradition of families gathering around to sing and commiserate and tell stories set to song." -Brainwashed Brain 2004 "The band took the stage amid a variety of instruments including guitar, cello, drums (a unique setup of percussion pieces), xylophone, concertina, saw blade, and more. Honestly, there are no words to describe the immense talent of the players in this band. Claire and Page traded vocal harmonies with the loose precision that you might see in a pair of old bluesmen singing on a front porch. There was no pretence in this band's performance at all, and this mood had the effect of sucking in everyone in the rather sizeable crowd. The songs all have the familiarity of a tune you've known your whole life (and yet can never recall having heard), but at no point do they sound derivative. Hope For Agoldensummer is a band that should most definitely be seen in concert; their talent cannot possibly be overstated." Southeast Performer 2004 "...the five members of Hope For Agoldensummer gifted the audience by opening their act with an a cappella spiritual about freedom while the CBS evening news played on a projection screen behind them. The local ensemble's music is minimalist, but never lacking. The percussion is sparse and inventive, sometimes absent altogether. They sing a lullaby to an aging generation, reminding us of everything important in our lives, and warning us that time is fleeting." Flagpole Magazine 2005