Here’s her audiotree live session, but if no one is going to invest 30 minutes into a new artist, at least check out this part, two of her best songs done in a sort of medley format.
I’ve seen her play a few times, once she was playing for free on a sidewalk, which seemed criminal to me, honestly. She’s way too good to be setting up her own shit and waiting while some bar owner’s nephew futzes with a shitty PA system. Second time she had her full band and it was hands down the best show I saw last year. And I saw a lot of great shows, KNOWER being one of them, mononeon, Sleafors Mods, Dry Cleaning…
Frontier Ruckus is a band that I grew up alongside. I shamelessly plug them whenever I get a chance. They make music about the places I grew up and sing about it in a way that makes me feel so close to it. Their new album just came out, but their first 2 albums are their standout. The Orion Songbook and Deadmalls and Nightfalls.
Years ahead of his time and while he gets a lot of recognition posthumously in certain music circles, he didn’t have any hits during his life, or even any hits after, so the average Joe hasn’t heard of him.
All three of his albums are fantastic, though Five Leaves Left is my favorite.
Road is such a sad song, pretending not to be a sad song. And yes his whole catalog of subtle, beautiful music, he was a genius.
Odd recommendation but Hayes Carll the country singer, I love him and told one of my friends part of what I find so compelling about his music is that you can always hear in his voice this edge of sadness, even in his really happy songs (and he’s good at happy songs) it sounds like he knows it can’t last. That is part of what I really appreciate about Nick Drake, he wasn’t good at hiding the sadness in his voice, and it adds depth to everything he is singing.
Jason Molina, particularly his last act, “Songs: Ohia”. Singer, songwriter, sad bastard indie rock artist who died in his early thirties from complications of alcoholism. Like Will Oldham with more bluesy pop influences instead of bluegrass and folk.