Tim Baker / Alex2e

In 2017, 12 years after its inception, the award-winning band Hey Rosetta! went on hiatus after selling 10,000 tickets to five farewell shows. For Tim Baker, the band’s principal songwriter and lead vocalist, this was the start of a new chapter. His debut solo album, Forever Overhead, is a collection of 11 songs that center on kinship and show that Baker’s sharp songwriting—the heart of Hey Rosetta!—is as affecting as ever.

When crafting the album, Baker drew from ’70s songwriters such as Jackson Browne and Randy Newman, whose music filled his childhood home, and from contemporaries such as Feist, Leif Vollebekk, and the Barr Brothers. Produced by Marcus Paquin (the National, Local Natives), Forever Overhead blends piano ballads with ebullient folk-rock tracks. The album features Liam O’Neill (Suuns) and Ben Whiteley (the Weather Station), as well as Mishka Stein and Joe Grass (Patrick Watson).

Alex2e, whose actual name is Alex Tuohey, is a self-taught singer-songwriter from Western Massachusetts. In 2012, while recovering from major surgery and desperate for a reprieve, he picked up his sister’s beat-up guitar and began writing. Words became lyrics, days became months, and bathroom video covers turned into gigs. Averaging more than 130 dates annually, Alex2e has traveled the country while supporting national acts such as Howie Day, Tyler Hilton, Brendan James, Griffin House, and Aaron Carter, among many others. His debut EP was in the top 10 of iTunes’ Singer/Songwriter chart, and his new release "Half-Grown" is gaining regional momentum.