This story is featured in CityBeat's April 3 print edition.
Even by 21st-century standards, The Bygones story is kind of bonkers. The duo Joshua Lee Turner and Allison Young met online through Instagram in 2017, “kindred old souls recording songs on a (relatively) new platform,” as they recount it. They first met in person more than a year after their initial online interactions, deciding, seemingly impromptu, to perform a version of Willie Nelson’s “Crazy,” posting it on YouTube in November 2018. Five years later, the video is approaching 5 million views and has prompted more than 6,500 comments, most of them rapturous. It’s easy to see why — Young’s voice is clear and emotive, a classic Patsy Cline-inflected approach matched by Turner’s deft acoustic-guitar playing and complementary vocals. The duo’s no-frills nature is both quaint and oddly affecting, the kind of thing that rarely goes viral these days — which makes their rise even more curious.
After a brief U.K. touring run in 2022, the duo embarked on their first U.S. shows in 2023 despite not yet recording a full-length effort. That changed this month with the release of a self-titled album of original tunes aided by a Kickstarter fund drive, an entirely independent endeavor that, with the help of some Nashville studio aces, sounds like an Americanized version of early 1990s acts The Sundays and The Cranberries.
Multiple current tour dates at mid-sized venues like The Woodward are already sold out, a testament to The Bygones’ timeless sound and further evidence that there is an audience for well-crafted and deftly delivered songs.
The Bygones play the Woodward Theater on April 17 at 7:30 p.m. Info: woodwardtheater.com.
