Music Style *beautiful *soulful *eclectic *acoustic

Musical Influences Jeff Buckley Aretha Franklin Joni Mitchell Janis Joplin Over the Rhine Nick Drake

Similar Artists Jeff Buckley, Over the Rhine, Tori Amos, Nick Drake

Artist History 1976. second oldest of five sisters. german/jewish/japanese hybrid. quiet, shy, intense, gawky, lanky, awkward. dog-eared books read two, three, four times over. journals with gaps, spaces, missing pages, fragments of poetry and song. reading to escape dark spaces in closets, shadows under beds, sleep-tipped voices in hallways, insomnia's crushing weight, holocaust nightmare dreamscapes... but hush, we don't talk about these things. behind closed doors caged birds sing, before an audience head is tucked under wing. promised that swan replaces ugly duckling, but some secret dreams are too sacred to be whispered, even to god(s) or monster(s). fourteen years old. faith gives a child strength to sing in churches. hands shake, stomach lurches. gangly girl with a sweet little voice and a thousand carefully protected walls, songs, poems, and defenses. already a seething mystery of complex evasions and labyrinth passages. nineteen, falls in love with a guitar. smooth neck fits snug in trembly hands. curves, vibrating nerves, the sting, string biting into finger. begins to write in earnest, religious fervor. braver behind the guitar. strong enough to be a leader, but still too shy. twenty, off to school. anonymous, midwest, god-blessed. first real brush with death. cold lips briefly pressed on fading cheek. questions and doubts earn judgement from self-righteous church-goers who've forgotten all about love and redemption. some religions breed vampires. they crave the taste of blood. a few years gigging, dis-enchanted with religion. st louis coffee shops. much more impossible ambitions. falls in love again, with buckley, tori, sade, radiohead, coldplay, and a book, "my name is asher lev." twenty-five, another prodigal nashville arrival. sucking knowledge outta that town, only to find that the town sucks right back. a year and a half. good friends, but still no freedom, still lingering on the borders of the christian kingdom. twenty-six. brooklyn. manhattan. the center of the universe on a busy little island. no more fears, no more tears, no more prayers, no more cages. taking to the stages with a voice that mourns, growls, rejoices and rages. taking snapshots with chicken scratch scrawls. inking up journals with gaps, spaces, missing pages, fragments of poetry, song, and finally… home.

Instruments guitar, voice

Albums You Should Be (Live), Mermaids and Sirens, Ten Minutes

Location Brooklyn, New York - USA

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