Paula Fong is known as a harmony vocalist in Folk-influenced music and is now embarking on creative work as a solo artist with the upcoming release of her debut EP Chestnut Mare. It arrives on September 6th, 2024. Her latest single from the EP, “Ophelia” will arrive July 5th, 2024.

With a background singing in various genres from Classical to Chinese Opera, Fong discovered her love for acoustic Country and Folk while singing in an Americana church band. From 2015-2019 she teamed up with Seattle based singer-songwriter Tom Kell and they released two albums of co-written music. Currently, she sings back up vocals and tours with Abby Posner’s band, Abby Posner and the Big Fall.

Fong plays with a sound that covers finger style guitar, old time, and rhythm playing. Though she’s a self-taught musician, she’s also worked with vocal coaches and studied music devotedly for many years until she felt comfortable writing her own songs.

She shares:

The creation of this album spanned many years. These are just a few highlights from my song writing that I wanted to get on record. I think they do a good job of showcasing the roots of my growth as a songwriter and topics close to my heart—connection to spirituality, the secrets young women silently carry, the complexity of loss, a search for belonging.

Her colleague and long time friend, Michael Starr, produced the album. Starr and Fong, together with Grammy-nominee Blues vocalist Teresa James, met while organizing and co-directing an evening church service.

The title track, “Chestnut Mare” kicks off the album and is a poem of her mother’s that Fong set to music.

She comments:

I was particularly struck by how my mother’s words seemed to resonate with me in a way that felt so natural that it was easy to sing them. The song is about being guided and watched over by some higher power and I wanted it to feel ethereal and lilting, but also grounded deep in the low drop D note in the bass line of the guitar.