As an abstract, fashion is terrifying to me

“As an abstract, fashion is terrifying to me,” exclaims Joanna Newsom, the California-born songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who appears alongside Fashion Fund nominee Pamela Love in the slideshow above. “But as an extension of the things that are inspiring to me, that I love and that make me happy, fashion is important to me.”

To any fans of Newsom’s music, this should come as no surprise. The 29-year-old, who rose to prominence in the early 2000s with a whimsical take on traditional American folk that marries her nymph-like voice with her virtuoso harp playing, has an understandable appreciation for anything organic or lovingly homemade.

For this reason she was the perfect person to be pictured with Love, who hand makes all of her jewelry. Here, Newsom is also wearing a similarly crafted, floor-length Rodarte dress. “Designers like Rodarte transcend the idea of fashion, and become more about the workmanship,” the singer continues. “To me all of their pieces are objects, the way a piece of art might be.”

One can’t help but ask if this is an approach that Newsom favors in her own work—after all, she’s famous for having recorded her early demo tapes on a Fisher-Price tape recorder, and all of her subsequent albums feel like they have the same DIY quality woven into them. “If there is such a thing as a handmade approach to recording, I certainly relate to that,” she says. “I still use as much analog equipment as possible so it’s all a series of physical objects, rather than this intangible world of Pro Tools.”

(Source: Vogue)

October 20th
Nylon Magazine, August 2005 [click to enlarge] 2 of 2
Nylon Magazine, August 2005 [click to enlarge] 2 of 2

Nylon Magazine, August 2005 [click to enlarge] 2 of 2

June 19th
Nylon Magazine, August 2005 [click to enlarge] 1 of 2 Quick note: I’ll be scanning a load of early Joanna MEM era press. If there’s anything in particular you’d like, feel free to ask.
Nylon Magazine, August 2005 [click to enlarge] 1 of 2 Quick note: I’ll be scanning a load of early Joanna MEM era press. If there’s anything in particular you’d like, feel free to ask.

Nylon Magazine, August 2005 [click to enlarge] 1 of 2

Quick note: I’ll be scanning a load of early Joanna MEM era press. If there’s anything in particular you’d like, feel free to ask.

June 19th

Chickfactor Interview, 2004

the harp-toting wonderchild from nevada city was certainly the 2004 girl o’ the year. dawn sutter madell got the scoop on bone collecting, folk school and unicorn tears.

when did you start playing the harp, and why?
I was about eight, I think, when I started taking harp lessons. I wanted to play the harp since I was two or three. I don’t know why, but I was just kind of fixated on the instrument since toddlerhood. but when my parents investigated harp lessons for me at that early age, the teacher said she’d prefer I take piano lessons for a few years, first. so I slogged through detestable piano lessons until I was about eight, then finally got to start in on the harp, which I pretty much loved from the first lesson onward.

what other instruments do you play?
I don’t really play any other instrument very well, but I have a passing ability with piano, recorder, hammered dulcimer, harpsichord, and any other instrument that was lying around the house while I was growing up. except guitar. I can’t play a single chord properly on the guitar.

your harp playing style seems more like a guitar than the traditional harp style that I think of. is it typical?
no, I don’t think it’s very typical. I’d like to always be trying something new with the harp, trying something that’s divergent from the conventional sound everybody is accustomed to—a sound that I kind of hate, because it’s so bloated and muddy and gaudy and overwrought, and also sort of crude… it mostly consists of arpeggios and glissandi, which are the absolute easiest and most artless techniques a harp player can learn—I mean, the stuff you can master in the first week. that’s the sound people associate with the harp…because most composers have a limited sense of what the harp is capable of, so they just stick to glissandi, and those poor, bored orchestral harpists sit in their orchestra pits and crochet for an hour during every concert, and then halfheartedly drag their pointer finger across all the strings as fast as they can, making that “heavenly” glissando sound that everybody expects, and then they go back to crocheting for another hour.

Read More

April 8th

DJ Joanna Newsom

All Songs Considered, NPR - December 2006 (originally available as podcast that doesn’t seem to be working any longer)

Joanna Newsom’s harp-driven story songs befuddle anyone trying to classify her music. Newsom talks about her latest CD, the enchanting Ys, and shares some of her favorite recordings, plus songs and artists that have inspired her over the years, like Van Dyke Parks, Sandy Denny and Randy Newman.

1. “I Think It’s Going To Rain Today” – Randy Newman
“The string section in the middle is probably the most perfect string section ever written in a pop song. The song is one of the most perfect pop songs ever written. [The string section] moves really gracefully and without feeling pastiche. It moves from achingly romantic feeling to this sort of angular, really strident, new American music sound … a certain sort of chromaticism you immediately relate … Van Dyke Parks produced the record, which is another reason I love it.”

2. “Laurel Canyon Boulevard” – Van Dyke Parks
“I handed [the process] over for him to make arrangements, although it took many many drafts for it to get to something we both resonated with. I handed him a manifesto of what I wanted the record to sound like. But he definitely wrote the arrangements.”

3. “Monkey And Bear” – Joanna Newsom
“[Parks] knows the meaning of the songs … it’s not terribly important that my intended meaning be explicitly knowable to the listener, but I think that for this kind of collaboration, it was important that Van Dyke understood a lot of the understory because he was committed to sort of reiterating and reinforcing and substantiating the story with his scores.”

4. “Shut Us Down” – Lindsey Buckingham
I rely on good friends to put music in my hands. Lindsey is an obvious choice for me, ’cause I’ve been pretty obsessed with Fleetwood Mac for years. There was a year in high school where I made a rule that I’d only listen to Fleetwood Mac. It sounds insane … but I’m not making that up. I think it’s a group of actual geniuses … I also love solo Lindsey Buckingham. And this record I was really nervous about. Any time someone’s been making music for that long, I start to be nervous that they’re going to start making an awrful record or two. But this Lindsay record is always at least interesting, and usually, in my opinion, really really good.

5. “Next Time Around” – Sandy Denny
“If you asked me what appealed to me about each of those songs, I’d have too many other things to gussy about other than [the fact that the songs don’t have typical verse-chorus structure] … One of her incredible gifts was just an unbelievable melodist. I don’t think there are many other people making music … like this. Almost like Paul McCartney … and the interval separating each progressive note of her melody is so incredibly deliberate. It’s like carving out a sculpture. It manages to feel fluid and intuitive, yet from a compositional perspective it is just unbelievably ambitious or interesting and reaches such incredible heights.”

March 8th
Guest Lists: Joanna Newsom, Pitchfork, June 2007 Each week, we ask one of our favorite artists to fill us in on what they’ve been up to lately: which tracks they can’t stop spinning, what books they can’t put down, and what new bands they’ve caught on tour. This week it’s Joanna Newsom, who professes her love for Lindsey Buckingham, admits which retro cable channel gets her undivided attention, and explains how Willie Nelson encourages her to answer the phone. Favorite Songs of the Past Year Lindsey Buckingham: “Shut Us Down” I love him. Meg Baird: “The Waltz of the Tennis Players” It’s a gorgeous cover of a gorgeous Fraser and Debolt song. I love her voice so much. Macromantics: “Moments in Movement” The whole record is amazing, but my favorite song is the title track. Either that or Apple Crumble. My sister and I drove around doing errands yesterday and hollering along to, like, every third word on this album. That’s all we could manage ‘cos Romy, the singer, goes so fast. Bill Callahan: “Taken” A gorgeous B-side from the “Diamond Dancer” single. Alasdair Roberts: “Firewater (Library of Aethers)” Perfect. Ned Collete: “Blame” Sinead O’Connor: “Jah Nuh Dead” Bonnie “Prince” Billy: “Strange Form of Life” Favorite Older Songs at the Moment * The Zombies: “This Will Be Our Year”, Harry Nilsson: “Gotta Get Up”, Junior Murvin: “Roots Train”, The Band: “Acadian Driftwood”, Graham Nash: “Better Days”, Bruce Molsky: “I Truly Understand”, Rickie Lee Jones: “Young Blood”, Jerry Jeff Walker: “I Love You”, Lindsay Buckingham: “Bwana”, Josephine Foster: “Well-Heeled Man” * I love these all equally much. Favorite New Band Ra Ra Rabbit are great. Favorite Song Ever It’s a three-way tie between ‘Me and My Woman’ by Roy Harper, ‘I Told Jesus’ by Roberta Flack, and ‘I Think It’s Going to Rain Today’ by Randy Newman. Best Recent Concert I love me some Moore Brothers live. They harmonize so gorgeously. I just saw them the other night here in town. My friend Allison kept screaming funny things like “Greg Moore, you are DEAD to me!!!” and pointing at them and dragging her finger across her throat. They were so good she didn’t know what to do with herself, was the thing. She didn’t mean any harm. Oh, also I saw a great big brass band in Japan last year called Mitamurakandadan? Awesome!!! Last Great Film I Saw Rocky Balboa is best. I also love Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore , which my friend Kevin made me watch on the bus last fall. Last Great Book I Read Cormac McCarthy: The Road Ian MacDonald: Revolution in the Head: The Beatles’ Records and the Sixties The Road was the best fiction book I’ve read recently. Revolution in the Head by Ian MacDonald was the best nonfiction. Favorite Piece of Musical Equipment I love my barcus-berry harp pickup. Favorite Record Shop After the Gold Rush Records, in Nevada City, Calif. I got a whole pile of records there last time: a Tom T. Hall Record; Loose by Crazy Horse; the soundtrack to Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (by Bob Dylan); a dub remix of “Cover Me” by Bruce Springsteen; Wild Tales by Graham Nash; a Sugar Minott record, Showcase  ; Dave Van Ronk, Folksinger  ; Prince Far I’s Silver & Gold: 1973-1975  ; Tres Hombres by ZZ Top; a Boney M side, “Kalimba de Luna”; a weird/great Paul Williams record, Here Comes Inspiration, which actually has a song on it called “Nilsson Sings Newman” (!!!!); two medieval, renaissance, and baroque recorder ensemble albums; a Levon Helm solo record; and some Laura Nyro records ‘cos people keep telling me she’s great. Best Purchase of the Past Year My house. I love it so much. There’s, like, 20 rosebushes blooming right now, all different colors, and jasmine and irises and peonies, and two cherry trees, one bing cherry and one little pie-cherry tree, with lots of fruit on both of them. And a big backyard. Best Thing I Did This Year I went on an insane horseback ride in an estancia at the edge of a glacier in Patagonia. Me and my dad and some other folks and some actual gauchos. I had a good 10-minute gallop at the end that I’ll remember till the day I die. Favorite Venue Red Rocks, Denver It’s so gorgeous, just carved into the side of a red mountain. And I guess I have this weird fascination with anything that has to do with the old Civilian Conservation Corps and the Work Projects Administration from the 20s and it’s just so romantic, this idea of the US government funding these sort of artistically decadent and culturally idealistic projects in an effort to provide jobs and buoy the economy. And the old photos backstage at the venue were amazing. a bunch of grizzled depression-era dudes dangling from ropes and balancing on girders and grinning proudly and risking life and limb to construct a suitable place for, like, Widespread Panic and Ratdog to play four sold-out nights in a row, eighty years later. Cuckoo. Favorite TV Show at the Moment I actually just bought my first television ever and got cable and everything. But so far I only ever seem to end up watching VH1 Classic. Favorite Radio Show I don’t listen to the radio very often but if I do it’ll just be tuned to our local community station, KVMR. They play good world music a lot of the time. And in the summertime they’ll broadcast stuff live, like the bluegrass festival and the Celtic festival at the fairgrounds. My Ringtone ‘Always on My Mind’ by Willie Nelson. I downloaded it and everything. I got really motivated to work it out so that my phone didn’t make an awful noise when people called me, because I already have this problem with not picking up my phone; even in the best of times. So I was hoping to kind of ease myself into the phone-picking-up thing, you know, sweeten the deal with a nice song. But before that, for the longest while, it was a standard ringtone called ‘Mellow Sorrow’ which I chose because I thought the name was hilarious. But then I got really bummed out super fast, and it stopped being funny and I didn’t know what to do. It’s the worst song in the world. You just feel crestfallen when you hear it.
Guest Lists: Joanna Newsom, Pitchfork, June 2007 Each week, we ask one of our favorite artists to fill us in on what they’ve been up to lately: which tracks they can’t stop spinning, what books they can’t put down, and what new bands they’ve caught on tour. This week it’s Joanna Newsom, who professes her love for Lindsey Buckingham, admits which retro cable channel gets her undivided attention, and explains how Willie Nelson encourages her to answer the phone. Favorite Songs of the Past Year Lindsey Buckingham: “Shut Us Down” I love him. Meg Baird: “The Waltz of the Tennis Players” It’s a gorgeous cover of a gorgeous Fraser and Debolt song. I love her voice so much. Macromantics: “Moments in Movement” The whole record is amazing, but my favorite song is the title track. Either that or Apple Crumble. My sister and I drove around doing errands yesterday and hollering along to, like, every third word on this album. That’s all we could manage ‘cos Romy, the singer, goes so fast. Bill Callahan: “Taken” A gorgeous B-side from the “Diamond Dancer” single. Alasdair Roberts: “Firewater (Library of Aethers)” Perfect. Ned Collete: “Blame” Sinead O’Connor: “Jah Nuh Dead” Bonnie “Prince” Billy: “Strange Form of Life” Favorite Older Songs at the Moment * The Zombies: “This Will Be Our Year”, Harry Nilsson: “Gotta Get Up”, Junior Murvin: “Roots Train”, The Band: “Acadian Driftwood”, Graham Nash: “Better Days”, Bruce Molsky: “I Truly Understand”, Rickie Lee Jones: “Young Blood”, Jerry Jeff Walker: “I Love You”, Lindsay Buckingham: “Bwana”, Josephine Foster: “Well-Heeled Man” * I love these all equally much. Favorite New Band Ra Ra Rabbit are great. Favorite Song Ever It’s a three-way tie between ‘Me and My Woman’ by Roy Harper, ‘I Told Jesus’ by Roberta Flack, and ‘I Think It’s Going to Rain Today’ by Randy Newman. Best Recent Concert I love me some Moore Brothers live. They harmonize so gorgeously. I just saw them the other night here in town. My friend Allison kept screaming funny things like “Greg Moore, you are DEAD to me!!!” and pointing at them and dragging her finger across her throat. They were so good she didn’t know what to do with herself, was the thing. She didn’t mean any harm. Oh, also I saw a great big brass band in Japan last year called Mitamurakandadan? Awesome!!! Last Great Film I Saw Rocky Balboa is best. I also love Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore , which my friend Kevin made me watch on the bus last fall. Last Great Book I Read Cormac McCarthy: The Road Ian MacDonald: Revolution in the Head: The Beatles’ Records and the Sixties The Road was the best fiction book I’ve read recently. Revolution in the Head by Ian MacDonald was the best nonfiction. Favorite Piece of Musical Equipment I love my barcus-berry harp pickup. Favorite Record Shop After the Gold Rush Records, in Nevada City, Calif. I got a whole pile of records there last time: a Tom T. Hall Record; Loose by Crazy Horse; the soundtrack to Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (by Bob Dylan); a dub remix of “Cover Me” by Bruce Springsteen; Wild Tales by Graham Nash; a Sugar Minott record, Showcase  ; Dave Van Ronk, Folksinger  ; Prince Far I’s Silver & Gold: 1973-1975  ; Tres Hombres by ZZ Top; a Boney M side, “Kalimba de Luna”; a weird/great Paul Williams record, Here Comes Inspiration, which actually has a song on it called “Nilsson Sings Newman” (!!!!); two medieval, renaissance, and baroque recorder ensemble albums; a Levon Helm solo record; and some Laura Nyro records ‘cos people keep telling me she’s great. Best Purchase of the Past Year My house. I love it so much. There’s, like, 20 rosebushes blooming right now, all different colors, and jasmine and irises and peonies, and two cherry trees, one bing cherry and one little pie-cherry tree, with lots of fruit on both of them. And a big backyard. Best Thing I Did This Year I went on an insane horseback ride in an estancia at the edge of a glacier in Patagonia. Me and my dad and some other folks and some actual gauchos. I had a good 10-minute gallop at the end that I’ll remember till the day I die. Favorite Venue Red Rocks, Denver It’s so gorgeous, just carved into the side of a red mountain. And I guess I have this weird fascination with anything that has to do with the old Civilian Conservation Corps and the Work Projects Administration from the 20s and it’s just so romantic, this idea of the US government funding these sort of artistically decadent and culturally idealistic projects in an effort to provide jobs and buoy the economy. And the old photos backstage at the venue were amazing. a bunch of grizzled depression-era dudes dangling from ropes and balancing on girders and grinning proudly and risking life and limb to construct a suitable place for, like, Widespread Panic and Ratdog to play four sold-out nights in a row, eighty years later. Cuckoo. Favorite TV Show at the Moment I actually just bought my first television ever and got cable and everything. But so far I only ever seem to end up watching VH1 Classic. Favorite Radio Show I don’t listen to the radio very often but if I do it’ll just be tuned to our local community station, KVMR. They play good world music a lot of the time. And in the summertime they’ll broadcast stuff live, like the bluegrass festival and the Celtic festival at the fairgrounds. My Ringtone ‘Always on My Mind’ by Willie Nelson. I downloaded it and everything. I got really motivated to work it out so that my phone didn’t make an awful noise when people called me, because I already have this problem with not picking up my phone; even in the best of times. So I was hoping to kind of ease myself into the phone-picking-up thing, you know, sweeten the deal with a nice song. But before that, for the longest while, it was a standard ringtone called ‘Mellow Sorrow’ which I chose because I thought the name was hilarious. But then I got really bummed out super fast, and it stopped being funny and I didn’t know what to do. It’s the worst song in the world. You just feel crestfallen when you hear it.

Guest Lists: Joanna Newsom, Pitchfork, June 2007

Each week, we ask one of our favorite artists to fill us in on what they’ve been up to lately: which tracks they can’t stop spinning, what books they can’t put down, and what new bands they’ve caught on tour. This week it’s Joanna Newsom, who professes her love for Lindsey Buckingham, admits which retro cable channel gets her undivided attention, and explains how Willie Nelson encourages her to answer the phone.

Favorite Songs of the Past Year
Lindsey Buckingham: “Shut Us Down”
I love him.

Meg Baird: “The Waltz of the Tennis Players”
It’s a gorgeous cover of a gorgeous Fraser and Debolt song. I love her voice so much.

Macromantics: “Moments in Movement”
The whole record is amazing, but my favorite song is the title track. Either that or Apple Crumble. My sister and I drove around doing errands yesterday and hollering along to, like, every third word on this album. That’s all we could manage ‘cos Romy, the singer, goes so fast.

Bill Callahan: “Taken”
A gorgeous B-side from the “Diamond Dancer” single.

Alasdair Roberts: “Firewater (Library of Aethers)”
Perfect.

Ned Collete: “Blame”

Sinead O’Connor: “Jah Nuh Dead”

Bonnie “Prince” Billy: “Strange Form of Life”

Favorite Older Songs at the Moment *
The Zombies: “This Will Be Our Year”, Harry Nilsson: “Gotta Get Up”, Junior Murvin: “Roots Train”, The Band: “Acadian Driftwood”, Graham Nash: “Better Days”, Bruce Molsky: “I Truly Understand”, Rickie Lee Jones: “Young Blood”, Jerry Jeff Walker: “I Love You”, Lindsay Buckingham: “Bwana”, Josephine Foster: “Well-Heeled Man”

* I love these all equally much.

Favorite New Band
Ra Ra Rabbit are great.

Favorite Song Ever
It’s a three-way tie between ‘Me and My Woman’ by Roy Harper, ‘I Told Jesus’ by Roberta Flack, and ‘I Think It’s Going to Rain Today’ by Randy Newman.

Best Recent Concert
I love me some Moore Brothers live. They harmonize so gorgeously. I just saw them the other night here in town. My friend Allison kept screaming funny things like “Greg Moore, you are DEAD to me!!!” and pointing at them and dragging her finger across her throat. They were so good she didn’t know what to do with herself, was the thing. She didn’t mean any harm. Oh, also I saw a great big brass band in Japan last year called Mitamurakandadan? Awesome!!!

Last Great Film I Saw
Rocky Balboa is best. I also love Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore , which my friend Kevin made me watch on the bus last fall.

Last Great Book I Read
Cormac McCarthy: The Road
Ian MacDonald: Revolution in the Head: The Beatles’ Records and the Sixties
The Road was the best fiction book I’ve read recently. Revolution in the Head by Ian MacDonald was the best nonfiction.

Favorite Piece of Musical Equipment
I love my barcus-berry harp pickup.

Favorite Record Shop
After the Gold Rush Records, in Nevada City, Calif. I got a whole pile of records there last time: a Tom T. Hall Record; Loose by Crazy Horse; the soundtrack to Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (by Bob Dylan); a dub remix of “Cover Me” by Bruce Springsteen; Wild Tales by Graham Nash; a Sugar Minott record, Showcase  ; Dave Van Ronk, Folksinger  ; Prince Far I’s Silver & Gold: 1973-1975  ; Tres Hombres by ZZ Top; a Boney M side, “Kalimba de Luna”; a weird/great Paul Williams record, Here Comes Inspiration, which actually has a song on it called “Nilsson Sings Newman” (!!!!); two medieval, renaissance, and baroque recorder ensemble albums; a Levon Helm solo record; and some Laura Nyro records ‘cos people keep telling me she’s great.

Best Purchase of the Past Year
My house.
I love it so much. There’s, like, 20 rosebushes blooming right now, all different colors, and jasmine and irises and peonies, and two cherry trees, one bing cherry and one little pie-cherry tree, with lots of fruit on both of them. And a big backyard.

Best Thing I Did This Year
I went on an insane horseback ride in an estancia at the edge of a glacier in Patagonia. Me and my dad and some other folks and some actual gauchos. I had a good 10-minute gallop at the end that I’ll remember till the day I die.

Favorite Venue
Red Rocks, Denver
It’s so gorgeous, just carved into the side of a red mountain. And I guess I have this weird fascination with anything that has to do with the old Civilian Conservation Corps and the Work Projects Administration from the 20s and it’s just so romantic, this idea of the US government funding these sort of artistically decadent and culturally idealistic projects in an effort to provide jobs and buoy the economy. And the old photos backstage at the venue were amazing. a bunch of grizzled depression-era dudes dangling from ropes and balancing on girders and grinning proudly and risking life and limb to construct a suitable place for, like, Widespread Panic and Ratdog to play four sold-out nights in a row, eighty years later. Cuckoo.

Favorite TV Show at the Moment
I actually just bought my first television ever and got cable and everything. But so far I only ever seem to end up watching VH1 Classic.


Favorite Radio Show
I don’t listen to the radio very often but if I do it’ll just be tuned to our local community station, KVMR. They play good world music a lot of the time. And in the summertime they’ll broadcast stuff live, like the bluegrass festival and the Celtic festival at the fairgrounds.

My Ringtone
‘Always on My Mind’ by Willie Nelson.
I downloaded it and everything. I got really motivated to work it out so that my phone didn’t make an awful noise when people called me, because I already have this problem with not picking up my phone; even in the best of times. So I was hoping to kind of ease myself into the phone-picking-up thing, you know, sweeten the deal with a nice song. But before that, for the longest while, it was a standard ringtone called ‘Mellow Sorrow’ which I chose because I thought the name was hilarious. But then I got really bummed out super fast, and it stopped being funny and I didn’t know what to do. It’s the worst song in the world. You just feel crestfallen when you hear it.

March 5th

First Joanna interview of the new year!

bowsandbrogues:

“I wish so much that I had some great new idea of my own stuck in my head. I’m not really writing songs right now, because I’m still touring so often, and it’s hard for me to do both at the same time. I’m hoping in the springtime I can dig back in and start writing.”

(via fuckyeahjoannanewsom)

January 5th

A Talk in the Clouds

Flagpole, 17 November 2010

With little in the way of concrete plans after this tour, Newsom turns dreamy about the possibilities of the coming years. Much of her early musical studies were based in African rhythms and styles, so it’s no surprise when she says, “I would love to go to Africa. My godparents are in Uganda, and one of my lifelong best friends is studying and researching Bonobo apes in the Democratic Republic of Congo. She and I talked about the possibility of me coming out to visit her there, deep, deep in the jungle. I might at some point visit her and make a survey trip of that area that has music that I love. I’ve been pondering it for a few years now, but it’s kind of scary. Not only for obvious, generic reasons like political unrest, but musically it’s kind of scary for me to go outside what I know I’m good at and try to learn something that forces me to break down the shorthand and the synapses that I have in my brain and start from scratch, but I think it’s worth it.”

November 18th

Joanna Newsom on groupies, her band, and 'Have one on me'

Joanna Newsom has reached a place where she has groupies - Baltimore Sun, November 2010

“I don’t know if they would call themselves groupies, but there are people that follow me from town to town,” said, before adding the requite, “It’s very sweet.”

November 17th

Songs for Spelunking

Indie harp queen gently plucks our strings - Style Weekly, November 2010

Early on, critics’ comments about your childlike vocals were irksome to you. … Now with this album people are saying your voice has changed again. How has it grown to your ears?

“I don’t so much see it as a decisive change between albums as I do a continuum of small, instinctive adjustments and recalibrations. The performing is what changes it. I never properly “learned” to sing. But I think your own body teaches you how to do these things over time. Singing is just an act of navigation and sound propagation within the resonant cavities of your skull and chest, and all the attendant musculature. Spelunking those recesses, over and over again, for many years, naturally must lead to an ability to jump around without needing to look as often, to memorize the architecture and topography in a way that becomes intuitive. People can attach an emotional element to that ease and quickness, but that’s all it is — familiarity with your own bones”

November 17th