What is it about the Bay that is driving people from environmental science to enter the folk and country music fields? First Ismay, and now Oakland’s Charles Orgbon III, a sustainability strategist. His new album, A Survivor’s Reward, deals with deeply personal aspects of his life, from surviving sexual assault to growing up queer and Black in “the dirt roads of South Carolina.” The debut single is a blues-directed track about the confusion and wistfulness of being 23:

It’s certainly a promising debut, and one we are eager to hear more of. We’re especially eager to hear it in person, in one of our favorite cozy haunts again.