Joanna Newsom

Joanna Newsom是一個有著無限精神頭的女生，特點就是年輕并且涉獵廣，出生于1982年的她，出身于音樂世家，是Terry Riley的鄰居，從小學習鋼琴，掌握一手精湛的凱爾特豎琴，思維跳脫不局限，朋克的詩意、民謠的純真、爵士的曼妙都是她心有靈犀的素材，并影響著她的創作動機，在民謠的肌理之上將異域民歌與先鋒創作的手法融于一爐，是The Pleased、Deerhoof等多支同族Indie樂隊的鍵盤手/豎琴手，《The Milk-Eyed Mender》是其第一張Solo唱片，展現了一副兒童般未經修飾的嗓音，淺吟低唱之處有種青蔥本真的美感，古怪而甜蜜，輕輕撩動的琴弦也契合著其一塵不染的整體調調，Will Oldham和Cat Power都對其贊賞有嘉。 Although Joanna Newsom's Appalachian-meets-avant-garde take on folk music is her most celebrated work, her range is even more inclusive than her solo career suggests: the classically trained harpist adds a decidedly different, textural sound to Nervous Cop, the noise rock trio that also features Deerhoof's Greg Saunier and Hella's Zach Hill, and she also plays keyboards for the Pleased, another San Francisco-area band more akin to Blondie or Television than her other projects. Newsom's family and hometown of Nevada City, CA, were both musically rich: her mother trained to be a concert pianist, her father is a guitarist, and her brother and sister play the drums and cello, respectively; meanwhile, the Newsoms also counted composer/pianist Terry Riley as a neighbor, along with Howard Hersh and W. Jay Sydeman. Newsom herself started on piano lessons at a very early age and played for a couple of years, but switched to the harp at seven. Her approach to the Celtic harp, from the percussive aspects of her playing to her chord changes, was also influenced by West African and Venezuelan harp music, which she began studying at a folk music camp she attended in her early teens. At the same time, she also listened to more vocal-based folk, punk, and jazz like Karen Dalton, Texas Gladden, Patti Smith, and Billie Holiday. By the time she reached high school age, Newsom decided she wanted to become a composer, and while that became the focus of her studies, in her free time she began writing and recording instrumental songs. Eventually, Newsom's passion for songwriting won out, and she began studying creative writing to work with words in the same way she was accustomed to working with music. Despite her extensive musical background, she hadn't sung until she began concentrating on her songs, but her voice — which had a pure, untrained sound somewhere between a child and a crone — was the perfect complement to her music. Newsom recorded some collections of songs that she gave to her friends, but eventually her music made its way to likeminded musicians like Will Oldham and Cat Power, both of whom invited her to play opening slots for their shows in 2002. That year also saw the release of the Walnut Whales EP, which she followed up with more appearances and another EP, Yarn and Glue, in 2003. After signing to Drag City, Newsom released her full-length debut, The Milk-Eyed Mender, in spring 2004; later that year, she toured the U.S. with Devendra Banhart and Europe with Smog. She also performed on Smog's 2005 album A River Ain't Too Much to Love and began work on her second album that year, drafting collaborators such as Bill Callahan, Steve Albini, Jim O'Rourke, and Van Dyke Parks for the sessions. The ambitious, intricately lovely Ys arrived in late 2006. The album became one of the year's most critically acclaimed releases, and Newsom spent the rest of that year and early 2007 touring in support of it. That spring, she returned with the wittily named EP Joanna Newsom & the Ys Street Band.