For Cy Winstanley and Vanessa McGowan, a career in music was always on the cards. But the pair, who describe themselves as “essentially siblings at this point,” have traversed a long and winding road to their current lives in Nashville, TN.
Originally from Auckland, New Zealand, bassist McGowan, and guitarist and songwriter Winstanley met in high school, where they played together in a jazz big band, but it was years later their collaborations became more purposeful, and their band, Tattletale Saints, was born.
15 years, 3 countries, four albums, a marriage, a divorce, and two New Zealand Music Awards later, the pair have built a lifelong partnership as a duo and flourishing careers in Nashville, both now working full time as musicians, playing for artists such as Brandy Clark, Sugarland, and Peter Bradley Adams.
Tattletale Saints' music embraces influences from folk, soul, jazz, and roots. Their debut album, How Red Is the Blood, showcases a folk and bluegrass sound, recorded mostly with acoustic bass, acoustic guitar, and two voices, but as the band's catalog grew, their sound evolved with it. The Saints' next three albums added drums, keys, occasional fiddle and mandolin, and driving electric guitar while still holding space for the pair's acclaimed harmony singing.
Winstanley is a highly praised songwriter shortlisted for the APRA Silver Scroll for Song of the Year (2013) for Complicated Man. The band has won two New Zealand Music Awards for Folk, for How Red Is the Blood in 2014 and Dancing Under the Dogwoods in 2021.
Bill Monroe famously declared you couldn’t tell if a band was any good unless you heard them play something you already knew.
For their 2023 release, In the Summertime, Americana duo Tattletale Saints take the father of bluegrass to heart with a collection of cover songs that celebrate the diverse sound audiences have been falling in love with since the band’s first New Zealand tour in 2010.