A TEESDALE singer-songwriter is promising a step away from her acoustic folk roots as she releases her first single.

Musician Toni Sidgwick, of Barnard Castle, yesterday celebrated her debut song Carry My Heart going live digitally on iTunes, Spotify and Amazon.

The 29-year-old previously recorded acoustic guitar and vocals folk music but is going in a new direction with her band’s new release.

Toni said: “I am really excited to let folk hear the music as I am so proud of what we have achieved although I am also very nervous as folk won’t have heard me in this light before.

“It’s a step away from being very folky and playing solo singer-songwriter music to a fuller band sound so it will be interesting to see what everyone thinks.”

The song is one of five tracks to be featured on Toni’s new EP Lions which will come out in June.

Working with producer Lauren Deakin-Davies, who has collaborated with the likes of Laura Marling, she spent five days in a studio in Hertfordshire creating the record.

She added: “We both had a very similar taste in music too so we hit it off straight away and came up with the tracks as they are now.”

For more information or to hear Toni’s music visit www.facebook.com/tonisidgwickmusic or go to www.soundcloud.com/tonisidgwickmusic