We create spaces where music is felt, not just heard - building real connections through community and collaboration. Live music has played an important part in my life from the moment I was born thanks to my uncle's band The Formers. In November 2024, after working in the corporate sector for 30 years and just over year since my Autism diagnosis, and after decades of struggling with my mental hea
lth, I gave up the financial security of my salaried job to set up KD Music Media, through which both of For The Love Of Appalachia's sponsored tours were booked & managed. I cashed in my pension policy, and spend the next twelve month focusing on establishing KD Music Media & For The Love Of Appalachia, the non-profit raising funds for the sponsored tours. I had the opportunity to work with some amazing artists over the last year, both through FTLOA & KDMM. There have been challenges along the way as well, but it issues was treated as a learning experience instead of a problem. Going forward For The Love Of Appalachia will continue to support Appalachian artists and our transatlantic music community, but helping emerging artists find sponsors to enable them to come to the UK tours with their travel and accommodation costs covered through sponsors. This change will enable a much larger number of these incredible talented artists to tour the UK. Our partnership with Steve & his team at Southern Roots will add incredible value to the support we can offer our artists. We don't look at follower numbers when we decide on artists we want to work with. We look for artists that make us feel a deep connection to their music, and to them themselves. It doesn't matter if they have 20 followers or 20,000. We want the people attending one of our events to feel what we feel. For us as well as feeling passionately about our artists, we want everyone attending one of our events to feel welcomed into our growing community.