Peter McPoland
Stephen Dawes

At just 20 years old, Peter McPoland creates the kind of finespun folk-pop that feels both beautifully lived-in and undeniably original. McPoland picked up guitar at the age of 14 and taught himself to play, finding lessons to be too regimented. Within a year he’d started writing his own songs, mining inspiration from folk artists like John Prine and Gregory Alan Isakov. As shown on breakout hits like his self-released single “Romeo & Juliet,” the Texas-bred artist has an incredible gift for capturing the most nuanced emotional experiences, then bringing that expression to life in idiosyncratic detail.