Thursday, July 27, 2023

The Chapin Sisters team with Rusty Santos (Animal Collective), Noah Kittinger (Bedroom) for new lullaby-turned-anthem, “All Through The Night.”

New single — out Aug. 18 — is duo’s second back from hiatus in which they left Brooklyn to start raising next generation of their folk family.

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The Chapin Sisters (L-R): Lily Chapin, Abigail Chapin. Photo credit: Seth Thomas.

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The Chapin Sisters“All Through The Night” | About

 The Chapin Sisters returned in early 2023 by taking us to “Bergen Street” — “There is something magical going on in this song that’s impossible not to be moved by,” says Folk Radio UK — an ode to the borough Abigail and Lily left behind.

With the upcoming “All Through The Night” (Aug. 18 via Lake Bottom Records), the duo’s second single back on the scene, we learn more about why Abigail and Lily (and their growing families) moved to a more rural life outside the city.

 “I originally wrote ‘All Through The Night’ as a lullaby when my oldest kid was a baby,” Abigail says of the song.

 “I wrote it as an intimate ditty for my kids, but once we added Rusty Santos’ (producer of Animal Collective’s landmark Sung Tongs, along with credits including Panda Bear and Owen Pallett) and Noah Kittinger’s (the musician best known for his viral sensations under the name Bedroom) contributions, it became more of an anthem than a lullaby.”

 Even in its original form as that private little lullaby, there was evidence that “All Through The Night” had the makings of the anthem it has become.

 “We would make up the verses until some of them stuck,” Abigail remembers of nights singing it to her daughter. “She would start mimicking me and singing along, which completely defeated the purpose of trying to get her to sleep.”

 Listen to the finished track and it’s easy to understand the problem. If there is such a thing as a sing-along lullaby, this is it. Anticipating the captivating chorus demands playing on repeat.

 “I never really thought of ‘All Through The Night’ as material for The Chapin Sisters,” Abigail admits. “I never even wrote it down over the years. It would just run through my mind. But, when you remember the lyrics and tune of a song that’s never written down, then there is something there.”

 Now it is running through our minds, too.

 “All Through The Night,” the latest single (and first lullaby) by The Chapin Sisters arrives August 18, 2023 via Lake Bottom Records.

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 The Chapin Sisters | “Bergen Street”

See the video for “Bergen Street” now at The Bluegrass Situation or at the link below.

“There is an enduring warmth throughout this ode to Brooklyn. A cathartic release and a farewell, not just to a place, but to the memories which they bring back to life here. There is something magical going on in this song that’s impossible not to be moved by.” — Folk Radio UK

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The Chapin Sisters make you long to return to a place you may have never been before.

“Bergen Street” is the new single (Out Now, Lake Bottom Records) from Abigail and Lily Chapin, the sibling members of what looks like a folk music dynasty, but in reality, is a proud family that has been making music for decades in the most humble of traditions.

Father Tom Chapin is a Grammy®-winning singer-songwriter, late uncle Harry Chapin is a legendary artist and social justice activist (his #1 hit “Cat’s In The Cradle” is a timeless classic), and grandfather Jim Chapin was an esteemed jazz drummer.

The sisters’ first new music since 2017’s Ferry Boat, “Bergen Street,” which describes a stretch of Brooklyn road with its everyday “soot in the window ruts” and “air that smells of the tire dust” is an example of this humble and expertly crafted music-making.

It is voiced with stirring sisterly “blood harmony” in a way that only a family band – especially one with such a long history – can do.

Lily wrote ‘Bergen Street’ as she was leaving Brooklyn to move back to the Hudson Valley village that we grew up in,” Abigail explains. “It’s a bittersweet ode. Not a sad moment, exactly, but wistful.

“We thought we’d be city people forever, but during the pandemic, I eventually did the same thing. We packed up our little families and moved back to the woods and the grass and the driveways.”

“I always write songs about places I leave,” Lily confides. “When I was first writing ‘Bergen Street,’ I was still feeling the sting of leaving the city behind. I think it never goes away. The first time I played it for my daughter, she cried.

“It’s hard to process feelings of loss and leaving things behind that you love. This song allowed me to remember what was unique and to allow the memories to become more vivid.”

Brooklyn memories that The Chapin Sisters have built over a lifetime, and for their family, many lifetimes.

“Our family is a Brooklyn family,” Abigail says. “Our Manhattan-born grandmother claimed she had never been to Brooklyn until she moved there at age 30, but her kids adopted a strong identity and connection to Brooklyn Heights.

“The six boys played their first concerts there as The Chapin Brothers in the early 60s and even though the brothers eventually drifted out of the neighborhood, Brooklyn Heights has remained our family touchstone.”

Lily adds, “The history of Brooklyn is steeped in our childhoods. Our Dad’s childhood, his brothers, Grace Church choirboys... Our Uncle Steve and family friend Phil Forbes pushing a piano up and down the street in Red Hook to play tunes at Fort Defiance.”

Even though the sisters are now building their memories outside of Brooklyn, the familial togetherness continues, and not just in front of the microphone.

“We recorded ‘Bergen Street’ at Lily’s house,” Abigail says, “This was surprisingly challenging in ways.

“We’ve got four young children between us, and with our husbands involved in the recording process as well, we needed to rope in grandparents to take turns watching babies, cooking meals, doing dishes, and swinging on swings in the yard.”

This style of working is giving the new recordings by The Chapin Sisters an even more intimate sound, and though it may slow down the process, the process benefits.

“We are slowly making our way through our recordings, one song at a time,” Abigail says. “It’s been interesting to approach it this way, focusing on one thing until it’s done, instead of flitting around from song to song.

“I guess leaving the city is a theme in our lives right now, and it is showing up heavily in this batch of songs that will become our next album.”

Like the brothers who drifted, it is hard to imagine the sisters leaving Brooklyn behind for good.

When I come back
Will the streets recognize my feet?
Will the wind recognize
The air that I breathe?

This thoughtful tribute to Bergen Street – the place The Chapin Sisters left – assures that it will never leave them.

“Bergen Street” is the new single by The Chapin Sisters, out now via Lake Bottom Records.

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The Chapin Sisters | Links


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Josh Bloom at Fanatic Promotion | Contact

Wednesday, July 26, 2023

Moving music with punny name; From Norway: Fuckleberry Hinn’s sprawling 22-track debut out Sept. 1; RIYL: My Bloody Valentine, Elliott Smith, Fugazi.

Extending its humor / honor to album’s title Neither/Nor, hear DIY production ethos inspired by Elephant 6 Collective on urgent “Low Bar” single here.

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Fuckleberry Hinn (L-R): Øystein Ulvund, Tord Nyheim Hovde, Ole Jørgen Slungaard Kristensen, Øystein Megård, Hallvard Løberg Näsvall. Photo credit: Elin Stømner.


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PLAY, POST & SHARE


Fuckleberry Hinn | “Low Bar”


[YOUTUBE]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EW3Dl3UKDaY

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 Fuckleberry Hinn

Neither/Nor

(Wonderful & Strange)

Sept. 1, 2023

 

Track Listing:

 01. Perfect Haircuts (STREAM)

02. Yes to All

03. Low Bar (STREAM)

04. Disco Dancing

05. Nothing

06. Dawg

07. Kind Rewind

08. Stone Cold (STREAM)

09. Argh, Argh

10. Nobody

11. Ein dram i timen

12. Work in Progress (STREAM)

13. Daybreak

14. Hello

15. Fortuna (STREAM)

16. Dead Mans Hand

17. Assumptions (STREAM)

18. Redshift Memories

19. Calm Before the Storm (STREAM)

20. Stay Down

21. Never Better (STREAM)

22. No Cover

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Fuckleberry Hinn | About

The colorful washes of My Bloody Valentine, the unflinching sensitivity of Elliott Smith, and the unimpeachable idealism of Fugazi mix with innocent wonder on the sprawling 22-track double-album debut by Norway’s Fuckleberry Hinn.


The DIY ethos of the Elephant 6 Collective is a production influence that underpins the commanding urgency heard on the more than half-dozen singles that the group has released to date.

Now, the eyebrow-raising wordplay of the band’s name extends to the title of Fuckleberry Hinn’s long-awaited album Neither/Nor (Sept. 1, Wonderful & Strange Records), a punny tribute to Smith’s modern classic Either/Or, a touchstone album for Fuckleberry Hinn’s founding core pair of Øysteins: Øystein Ulvund and Øystein Megård.

“We started out as a duo in late 2019, with no real intentions of starting a band,” Megård says. “After we somehow ended up getting booked to play a gig without really being a group yet, we gathered a troupe and became one.”

In addition to Megård (who also performs in The Sideways and The High Water Marks) and Ulvund, Fuckleberry Hinn now includes Tord Nyheim Hovde (Lâche) on Bass, Ole Jørgen Kristensen (earth moon transit) on Guitar, and Hallvard Løberg Näsvall (This Daze, Slåppy) on Drums.

Fuckleberry Hinn’s debut album displays a knack for many different styles of song, which was decidedly not by design.

“The album varies from quiet singer-songwriter tunes to noisy punk songs,” Megård explains. “There’s even a sea shanty.

“We have never had any predetermined course of action. We thought Fuckleberry Hinn would be a great name for a punk band when we came up with it years before we even started making music together.

“But our first song was so mellow and not punk that we quickly decided we would just make whatever we felt like.”

“Nobody,” the final single prior to the release of Neither/Nor is an anthem, and perhaps the album’s most memorable track.

“Am I depressed or just lazy

Is my mind playing tricks

Or am I going crazy

And now I’m rambling”

Megård taps into human frailties and failings in universal ways to great effect on this song. It’s not surprising to find out that it came to him at a time when we are all vulnerable.

‘Nobody’ started out as a dream. It really happens, it’s not just a thing McCartney claims! I woke up having dreamt a song, and after scrambling around, I managed to make a kind-of comprehensible sketch of the chorus. It took some time later to decode the recording I made on my phone.”

“Nobody will know, nobody will understand”

That’s how the chorus that arrived that night goes. It’s a sentiment that everyone has felt at one time or another, and yet somehow, the finished song makes understanding a lot easier.

Neither/Nor is the 22-track double-album debut by Norway’s Fuckleberry Hinn, out Sept. 1, 2023 on Wonderful & Strange Records. The band’s upcoming single “Nobody” arrives on Aug. 14.

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Fuckleberry Hinn | Links


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Josh Bloom at Fanatic Promotion | Contact

Wednesday, July 12, 2023

The Chapin Sisters — of famed folk family incl. father Tom, Uncle Harry — return to “Bergen Street.” See ode to Brooklyn at The Bluegrass Situation.

There is something magical going on in this song that’s impossible not to be moved by,” says Folk Radio UK; Sisters currently wrapping follow-up single.


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The Chapin Sisters (L-R): Lily Chapin, Abigail Chapin. Photo credit: Adam Goldberg.

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PLAY, POST & SHARE

The Chapin Sisters
“Bergen Street”
Out Now
(Lake Bottom Records)

Streaming Link:


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See the video for “Bergen Street” now at The Bluegrass Situation or at the link below.

“There is an enduring warmth throughout this ode to Brooklyn. A cathartic release and a farewell, not just to a place, but to the memories which they bring back to life here. There is something magical going on in this song that’s impossible not to be moved by.” — Folk Radio UK

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PLAY, POST & SHARE

The Chapin Sisters | “Bergen Street”


[VIDEO]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbgN-57scy8

[STREAM]: https://fanatic.lnk.to/TheChapinSisters-BergenStreet

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The Chapin Sisters | In Conversation


The Chapin Sisters were guests on episode #77 of The Great American Folk Show, airing on NPR-member station Prairie Public Broadcasting in Fargo, ND.  The Great American Folk Show is “a little place on the radio where we commune with you to share stories, sing songs, and talk to some good people with great voices.”


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“Prepare to swoon. Their voices braid effortlessly together and rise and fall with heartbreaking immediacy. Their phrasing is precise, their delivery is heavenly and the way every syllable soars is nothing short of spellbinding.” Listen to The Chapin Sisters in conversation with host Alex Green on the Stereo Embers podcast.


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The Chapin Sisters | About


The Chapin Sisters make you long to return to a place you may have never been before.

“Bergen Street” is the new single (Out Now, Lake Bottom Records) from Abigail and Lily Chapin, the sibling members of what looks like a folk music dynasty, but in reality, is a proud family that has been making music for decades in the most humble of traditions.

Father Tom Chapin is a Grammy®-winning singer-songwriter, late uncle Harry Chapin is a legendary artist and social justice activist (his #1 hit “Cat’s In The Cradle” is a timeless classic), and grandfather Jim Chapin was an esteemed jazz drummer.

The sisters’ first new music since 2017’s Ferry Boat, “Bergen Street,” which describes a stretch of Brooklyn road with its everyday “soot in the window ruts” and “air that smells of the tire dust” is an example of this humble and expertly crafted music-making.

It is voiced with stirring sisterly “blood harmony” in a way that only a family band – especially one with such a long history – can do.

Lily wrote ‘Bergen Street’ as she was leaving Brooklyn to move back to the Hudson Valley village that we grew up in,” Abigail explains. “It’s a bittersweet ode. Not a sad moment, exactly, but wistful.

“We thought we’d be city people forever, but during the pandemic, I eventually did the same thing. We packed up our little families and moved back to the woods and the grass and the driveways.”

“I always write songs about places I leave,” Lily confides. “When I was first writing ‘Bergen Street,’ I was still feeling the sting of leaving the city behind. I think it never goes away. The first time I played it for my daughter, she cried.

“It’s hard to process feelings of loss and leaving things behind that you love. This song allowed me to remember what was unique and to allow the memories to become more vivid.”

Brooklyn memories that The Chapin Sisters have built over a lifetime, and for their family, many lifetimes.

“Our family is a Brooklyn family,” Abigail says. “Our Manhattan-born grandmother claimed she had never been to Brooklyn until she moved there at age 30, but her kids adopted a strong identity and connection to Brooklyn Heights.

“The six boys played their first concerts there as The Chapin Brothers in the early 60s and even though the brothers eventually drifted out of the neighborhood, Brooklyn Heights has remained our family touchstone.”

Lily adds, “The history of Brooklyn is steeped in our childhoods. Our Dad’s childhood, his brothers, Grace Church choirboys... Our Uncle Steve and family friend Phil Forbes pushing a piano up and down the street in Red Hook to play tunes at Fort Defiance.”

Even though the sisters are now building their memories outside of Brooklyn, the familial togetherness continues, and not just in front of the microphone.

“We recorded ‘Bergen Street’ at Lily’s house,” Abigail says, “This was surprisingly challenging in ways.

“We’ve got four young children between us, and with our husbands involved in the recording process as well, we needed to rope in grandparents to take turns watching babies, cooking meals, doing dishes, and swinging on swings in the yard.”

This style of working is giving the new recordings by The Chapin Sisters an even more intimate sound, and though it may slow down the process, the process benefits.

“We are slowly making our way through our recordings, one song at a time,” Abigail says. “It’s been interesting to approach it this way, focusing on one thing until it’s done, instead of flitting around from song to song.

“I guess leaving the city is a theme in our lives right now, and it is showing up heavily in this batch of songs that will become our next album.”

Like the brothers who drifted, it is hard to imagine the sisters leaving Brooklyn behind for good.

When I come back
Will the streets recognize my feet?
Will the wind recognize
The air that I breathe?

This thoughtful tribute to Bergen Street – the place The Chapin Sisters left – assures that it will never leave them.

“Bergen Street” is the new single by The Chapin Sisters, out now via Lake Bottom Records.

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The Chapin Sisters | Links


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Josh Bloom at Fanatic Promotion | Contact

Friday, July 7, 2023

Hear “brilliant string playing” (Americana Highways) by “one of Americana’s best kept secrets” (Holler) on Milly Raccoon’s new album, out today.

Frankincense and Myrrh evokes Norah Jones, Iris DeMent, “Conjures spirits through her lyrics” (Glide); Milly plays Midwest dates starting tonight.

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Milly Raccoon as photographed by Eli Meltzer

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 PLAY, POST & SHARE

 Milly Raccoon | “That Girl I Left Behind Me” (Live Acoustic w/ Lillie Mae)

[YOUTUBE]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JI_GmTQOnag

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Milly Raccoon’s take on Nashville — the Nashville of now where messages of spirituality and liberation are more vital than ever — is all over the upcoming Frankincense and Myrrh where Milly also delivers songs with a gauzy, dream-like, and poignant touch that evokes Norah Jones and Iris DeMent.

Milly Raccoon is available for interviews. Please contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic for more info.

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Milly Raccoon | In The Press

“Brilliant string playing.” — Americana Highways

“One of Americana’s best kept secrets.” — Holler

“Conjures spirits... a sound that is completely unique.” — Glide

“The grace of a seasoned storyteller.” — B-Side Guys

“Ethereal and mystical... A true must listen.” — York Calling

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PLAY, POST & SHARE

Milly Raccoon | “Offering To The Fae”

 

 [VIDEO]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uLmPrtjSlc

[STREAM]: https://fanatic.lnk.to/MillyRaccoon-OfferingToTheFae

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 Milly conjures spirits through her lyrics while musically combining bluegrass, folk, old timey music, hymns, tribal percussion, and her Celtic roots to make for a sound that is completely unique.” — Glide Magazine (LINK)

 “I wrote ‘Offering To The Fae’ soon after I had embarked on an intensive study of natural magic, which included making ceremonial offerings to nature spirits,” explains Milly Raccoon. “Around this time, my English grandmother died, and I returned to the town I grew up in. I wanted to write a song to honor her and her Celtic roots.”

“Ethereal and mystical... uses her vocals perfectly. The violin is particularly stunning... a true must listen.” — York Calling (LINK)

 About the video for the songMilly says, “Instead of focusing on what the Fae folk and fairy world might look like, I focused on what the offerings look like, showing real-life altar building and scenes in the woods with my incense offering and qabalistic cross.”

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Milly Raccoon | Live

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07/07/2023: Dubuque, IA @ Smokestack (w/ Lillie Mae)

07/09/2023: Dubuque, IA @ Mud Lake Bluegrass Festival (w/ Lillie Mae)

07/13/2023: Galena, IL @ The Grape Escape (w/ Lillie Mae) 

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Milly Raccoon
Frankincense and Myrrh
(S/R)
Out Now

Streaming Link:
STREAM FULL LP


Track Listing:

01. The Fine Art of Takin’ It Slow (VIDEO)
02. Walk Down The Stairs
03. Perséphone La Rousse
04. Las Abuelitas del Arcoíris
05. This Ancient Love
06. Offering To The Fae (VIDEO | STREAM)
07. That Girl I Left Behind Me (VIDEO | ACOUSTIC VIDEO | STREAM)
08. Fiddler’s Prayer
09. I’m Gonna Feed You
10. Complicated Gifts

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PLAY, POST & SHARE


Milly Raccoon | “That Girl I Left Behind Me”


[VIDEO]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mo7855eYWnk

[STREAM]: https://fanatic.lnk.to/MillyRaccoon-ThatGirlILeftBehindMe

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Milly Raccoon is one of Americana’s best kept secrets,” says Holler today in its premiere of the music video for Milly’s current single “That Girl I Left Behind Me.”

“The fiddle player and singer has been eccentrically reimagining bluegrass, jazz and old timey country as feminist anthems for a world on fire ever since she first appeared on the scene. The video brings the lyric and the song’s history to life with a charmingly animated video that feels fitting for a song that sounds like Iris Dement singing one of the folk songs from Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin’s 1970s children’s animation Bagpuss.’

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Milly Raccoon | About


Milly Raccoon stands, fiddle in hand, on the shoulders of Patsy Cline, not only as an inspiration but also for the grounded emotional support lent by Patsy’s powerful legacy.

Milly’s own take on Nashville is all over Frankincense and Myrrh, out now. The album exists in the Nashville of now where messages of spirituality and liberation are more vital than ever. Milly delivers her songs with a gauzy, dream-like, and poignant touch that is so easy on the ears (think Norah Jones or Iris DeMent) that it is easy to forget that Milly is telling us something we need to hear.

They used to beat me up for always
Makin the highest grade
Now they just pretend a smile
and turn the other way

The lyric comes from Frankincense and Myrrh’s upcoming single “That Girl I Left Behind Me,” in which Milly couples her words with a “melody that traces back to Elizabethan England when it was sung by British soldiers.”

The result is a prime example of Milly’s ability to weave the stark reality of modern life over historical toe-tappers. Milly’s catalog of influences, and experiences in general, is a vast blueprint for the music she makes today.

“I played classical violin as a kid, and I became a big fan of 90s rock and pop, early 20th-century musical theater, traditional Irish music, and zydeco.

Vast, yes. But Milly must have been going with the crowd during those all-important, trying-to-fit-in teen years, right?

“I briefly had a Grateful Dead cover band in high school.”

Milly’s eclecticism followed her to Seattle after college where she discovered the bluegrass scene.

“After my first tavern bluegrass jam, I was enchanted by the musical style and fellowship. I dove into teaching myself bluegrass fiddle, mandolin, and ukulele.”

In addition to busking regularly, Milly tested her burgeoning abilities by performing as often as possible, playing in several bands at a time.

An all-female bluegrass band. A honky tonk band. A band that played Turkish and Egyptian music for a belly dance troupe. An Irish band. A band that played the traditional music of Mexico and South America.

And many more.

“I’d play every bluegrass festival I could, sometimes traveling for days by bus to get to out-of-state gatherings,” Milly remembers.

Soon, Milly started writing her own songs.

Encouraged by the approval of the songwriting heroes in her musical community, and after losing two of her closest friends to tragedy, Milly decided that life on the road without a destination was a life that spoke to her.

“I didn’t have a home for about a year and a half and just went from town to town, making a living by busking,” she says.

Naturally, Milly became a more prolific songwriter during this time.

“Eventually it seemed like the next step was to move to Nashville where I quickly learned that instead of busking, I would have to focus on more structured realms of performance work.”

It was a tough adjustment. Milly found that her new peers saw her as “strange and woo-woo,” and that the standards of musicianship in Nashville were daunting.

This situation inspired “That Girl I Left Behind Me,” the song mentioned previously.

Last night while I lay fast asleep
Everybody I know
Reflected on my shortcomings
And switched from friend to foe

“After that, I even felt bolder about expressing my uncommon-to-Nashville bent,” Milly says.

This newfound level of confidence led Milly to Grammy®winning producer Misa Arriaga, known for work with Kasey Musgraves.

“The recording scene in Nashville really opened my eyes to a level of artistry and excellence I never imagined being a part of,” Milly says.

The product is Frankincense and Myrrh, which Milly refers to as “an ode to sacred collaborations.” The two related plants have been considered a sacred duet since before biblical times.”

The record also embodies the ancient process of alchemy.

“For example, turning lead into gold,” Milly explains. “Or turning poison into medicine.”

She continues, “What do people use heartbreak, challenges, tragedies, difficult emotions, religious experiences, taboo subjects, and other strong feelings for? Making compelling writing, painting, and music. Making an album is an alchemical process.”

With such a grounded sense of the magic of music, surely Patsy would be proud to lend Milly her shoulders.

Frankincense and Myrrh by Milly Raccoon is out now.

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Milly Raccoon | Links


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Josh Bloom at Fanatic Promotion | Contact