Kate Anderson – vocals

Secily Anderson – guitar, vocals

We are Winter Grain, a duo originally out of Salt Lake City but now in Manhattan Beach (Los Angeles) for the last six years. Kate (lead singer) is a recently retired Army helicopter pilot. She just finished her last deployment after 22 years in the military. Last year we became one of the newest Operation Encore artists and it’s been such a blessing in our lives already. Between them helping us fund new recordings in LA and sponsoring our time at Zac Brown’s Camp Southernground, we’ve been incredibly lucky to meet a brand new family of artists and supporters. News of gigs procured by OE will be updated on our tour section.

Highlights from 2023 include playing NAMM for the first time in April, followed up with a gig at House of Blues Anaheim. In May we were chosen to play the inaugural Songwriter Showcase at Saint Rocke in Hermosa Beach. Throughout the summer, we played multiple fairs thanks to Out at the Fair which is an organization that offers a stage for queer artists. Under the banner of OATF, we played Alameda County Fair followed by the California State Fair in July and continue to play with them at other events. In association with West Coast Songwriters, we played the songwriter showcase at Almost Famous Wine and the Fremont Arts Festival. In September, we played at one of our favorite radio shows, Wildflower Radio Hour which is the Los Angeles folk/bluegrass radio gig that we’d heard so many of our favorite musicians on. We played Mondays at Hotel Cafe in September as part of their harmonies showcase, then attended Folk Alliance’s western conference (FAR-West) in October, thanks to being awarded the Larman Scholarship. During the conference we were honored to play in three unique showcases. We finished the year playing Softspot Songwriters which is one of LA’s burgeoning nights hosted by Rainee Blake (Nashville actress) and Chloe Kat.

On top of all the shows, we’ve been very blessed to have recorded new music with a new producer. In 2023, we brought on Zachary Ross (Rose’s Pawn Shop guitarist/producer) to craft new tracks sponsored by Operation Encore. Zachary says we’re a blend of “John Mayer and Indigo Girls” and we count that as high praise. Pending release, “Lucky Enough” and “Straight as a River” embody our recent development as songwriters and artists. In the past we've been very lucky to have recorded and spent time with Ryan Hadlock out of his studio in Seattle (Bearcreek Studio). He's helped shape the music of some of our favorite artists from Brandi Carlile to Allen Stone and even Foo Fighters.

What we feel we do best is take snapshots of our own life and harmonize them -- quite literally. We've played local venues in LA including Desert 5 Spot, Hotel Cafe, Whisky A Go Go, and Genghis Cohen among many others. The festival route has been fun for us and we’ve been featured artists for the Wasatch Mountain Music Festival in Utah and POP Festival in Los Angeles. Curve Magazine highlighted our recording process for our last EP and we’re proud of our queer reality.

We’ve been honored to see some traction on our Youtube channel with "A Better You" and on Spotify with "Passenger Seat". At the end of 2022 we were pleasantly surprised by a guitar sponsorship by Enya Music and we were interviewed in our home for their documentary series . Though we started as a very bluegrass-influenced project we’ve let the ocean air wash over us and meld our newer songs into a more pop arena. Winter Grain is more than a passion project: it's our entire life and we love being able to share it with others. Check us out on YouTube and scope out our Instagram for the best updates on shows. Thanks for the visit!

Live pictures by Kat Monk Photography.

Studio pictures by Joshua Going Photography.