Songwriters-in-the-Round @ Vickers - Acorn Anywhere: A Winter Series

The Acorn proudly presents "Acorn Anywhere: A Winter Series" – bringing original artistry to three unique stages in a celebration of connection through live music and community.

January 31 | Songwriters in the Round featuring Sadie-Gustafson-Zook, Kylee Phillips and Emily Barnes @ Vickers Theatre

Three Acorn Singer-Songwriter Competition alumni come together for an intimate songwriter showcase. Sadie Gustafson-Zook (2024 Winner), Kylee Phillips (2025 Winner), and Emily Barnes (2024 Finalist) will take turns performing their original songs and sharing the stories behind them.

Sadie’s songs have been endorsed by some of the most respected songwriting contests in the country, winning Kerrville Folk Festival’s 2022 New Folk Contest (as well as placing as a finalist in 2020), earning second place at the Rocky Mountain Folk Fest’s Songwriter Showcase, and winning first place at the NewSong + LEAF Songwriting Contest. Sadie has been featured on the Basic Folk podcast and on Folk Alley.

Whether she’s singing about a failed relationship, a distant yearning, or an existential inquiry into the human experience, the integral throughline through Kylee’s songs is the unwavering voice of a woman who refuses to fear her own intelligence, agency, anger, and desires. In a world with no shortage of self-help sad-babe media, Phillips weaves together a sensual, articulate, and unpretentiously therapeutic soundtrack for the lives we live but can’t always verbalize. She lends us an experiential wisdom that could only come from a massive heart that’s seen a lot of garbage and emerged transformed and immovable.

A recognized talent in the songwriting community, Emily has been a finalist in several major festivals, including the Kerrville Folk Festival, Red Lodge Songwriters Festival, Blast on the Bay, Hey Nonny, and The Acorn Singer-Songwriter Competition. With four albums under her belt and a growing reputation as a storyteller of uncommon depth, Emily Barnes continues to carve out a space that is wholly her own in the modern folk landscape.