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Harlan County native and musician Dakota Saylor has been working stages in Kentucky for some time, focusing mainly on live sets to put his music across. Now with his new single “Letterbomb” set for release on May 23, Saylor is looking to put his music in the hands and ears of more people.

Saylor provided some details on his new single and upcoming performances during a recent interview.

“I’m excited,” Saylor said. “In the past, I’ve just done live recordings. I originally released a live CD in 2019 when I played on Red Barn Radio with some of the alums from the Kudzu Killers as the backing band.”

Saylor explained his Red Barn Radio performance occurred shortly before the COVID 19 pandemic put a temporary end to live performances. Since then, Saylor has married and now has a small child.

“COVID forced me to slow down, because the gigs dried up,” Saylor said. “My child is 14 months old next week, so we’re out of the newborn phase and I think I can strike a balance between family and music. I need to kick myself in gear and do it.”

According to Saylor, Letterbomb draws from multiple genres.

“It’s sort of alternate country/folk,” Saylor said. “It’s bluegrass adjacent, I wouldn’t actually call it bluegrass, but it’s definitely got a little bit of that flavor.”

Letterbomb is currently a stand-alone single, but that is likely to change soon.

“This is the first single of two or maybe three before I bring out a bigger body of work,” Saylor said. “Depending on the feedback, it’ll either be an EP or a full album.”

Like most musicians, Saylor began playing music as a child.

“When I was in eighth grade, my aunt started taking me to guitar lessons with a fellow in London, and it just didn’t work, I couldn’t do it,” Saylor said. “For some reason, pressing down on the strings and trying to change chords just didn’t work for me. Then a year later, I dug out my dad’s vintage Gibson LG0 that he kept in his closet for probably 20 years…right from there I started teaching myself to play guitar. I spent hours and hours playing guitar in the basement throughout high school.”

Saylor performed in a few Christmas programs and such before starting an alternative rock band with some friends from high school.

“That’s where I met Cody Howard,” Saylor said. “We started making music with that band and when that ended a year or two later, I was going to Berea College and started to fool around with country music.”

Saylor began playing open mics in the Richmond/Lexington area in 2018, which is where he made some industry connections.

“Warren Cobb was managing Red Barn Radio at the time,” Saylor said. “He handed me his card and said, ‘I want you to have 13 songs ready and come play on Red Barn.’ That’s when I decided I was going to get some gigs under my belt and write more songs.”

Saylor has a busy performance schedule set for  the day of the release of Letterbomb.

“I have got three shows scheduled for the day it comes out on May 23,” Saylor said. “I’ll be on the radio with WMMT in Whitesburg to do an interview, then I’m going to Cumberland at Raven Rock Café to play an acoustic set at noon, then hop over to Pineville for the Kentucky Mountain Laurel Festival at 5 p.m., and then I’ll be in Harlan for the release party at the Harlan County Beer Company at 8 p.m. Tyler Smith will also be at the Beer Company that night.”

Saylor mentioned he will be doing select shows in the area throughout the summer.

“For the release party on Friday, I’ve got some CD singles that will be available,” Saylor said. “If anybody wants the physical release, they’ll definitely want to come to the release party at the Harlan County Beer Company. That’s where I’ll start selling them, and they’re in limited number.”

Saylor mentioned he plans on releasing a music video for Letterbomb soon. Ideas for the video are still in the planning stage.

“I’ve always wanted to do a music video that uses rear projection,” Saylor said.

“Letterbomb” will be available Friday, May 23, on Spotify, Apple Music, and other major streaming platforms.

For more information on future shows and releases, go to Saylor’s website at https://www.dakotasaylormusic.com, or go to his Facebook or Instagram pages.