New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Acclaimed singer/songwriter Pieta Brown released her new album Postcards last month via Lustre Records. True to its name, Postcards explores the role of distance and isolation through collaboration in which Brown enlisted a guest artist for each track via mail. Today she released the first video from the album for the song "Rosine" which features Bon Iver's Mike Lewis who added breathy woodwinds to the dreamy track.
"I've done a lot of experimentation with Super 8 cameras and polaroids over the years, and before I started taking my songs out and making albums I had experimented with 'performance art' using narratives and pieces of poems I had written," Brown told Glide Magazine who premiered the video. "In the video I was exploring the themes of traveling, color, and layers. I was playing with some of those traditional feminist ideas like 'gaze'...I decided not to wear makeup and started filming in what I was wearing that day - a sliders t-shirt and jeans."
It was in hotel rooms across the country that Pieta wrote most of the songs on Postcards. Like any touring musician, Pieta was on the road to survive, balancing the rewards of performing music for a living with the challenges of trying to stay connected to loved ones and other artists while in motion. So, in order to keep in touch, she decided to send out "musical postcards." These were stripped-down, acoustic shells of the new songs she'd written while traveling. She sent them to folks like Mark Knopfler, Calexico,
Mason Jennings,
David Lindley, and Carrie Rodriguez among others. Her instructions to each were simple: write back.
What Pieta created is a striking collection of portraits - sometimes sweet and tender, sometimes eerie and haunting - of characters facing loneliness, longing, and loss with a stoic sense of dignity. Her airy vocals, with just a hint of a drawl from a childhood split between
Alabama and Iowa, float above rich, earthy texture, fluidly merging grit and grace in what is undoubtedly her finest work to date. Postcards has been embraced by Billboard, Relix, Guitar World, Acoustic Guitar, American Songwriter, PopMatters, The Bluegrass Situation, and
Chicago Tribune.
Pieta Brown first came to international attention with her 2002 self-titled debut and has since been recognized by NPR for her "moody, ethereal" songwriting and applauded by The
Boston Globe for her "mercurial voice," among other praises. Continually revealing new layers as both a songwriter and performer, Pieta is being recognized as one of modern Americana's true gems. In just the last six years, she has released three critically acclaimed albums and three EPs with much attention being paid not only to her distinct sound and style, but also the power of her singing and songwriting. Since releasing One and All (2010) and Mercury (2011) followed by Paradise Outlaw (which Bon Iver's Justin Vernon called his "favorite recording made at our studio"), Pieta has toured with Mark Knopfler, John Prine, Amos Lee, Brandi Carlisle, JJ Cale, Ani Difranco, Mavis Staples, and
Calexico among others. She has also co-written songs with and made recent guest appearances on albums by Calexico, Amos Lee, and Iris Dement.
Track List:
01) In The Light (with Calexico)
02) Rosine (with Mike Lewis)
03) Once Again (with
David Mansfield)
04) How Soon (with
Mason Jennings)
05) Street Tracker (with Mark Knopfler)
06) Stopped My Horse (with Carrie Rodriguez)
07) Station Blues (with Chad Cromwell)
08) Take Me Home (with
David Lindley)
09) On Your Way (with Eric Heywood & Caitlin Canty)
10) All The Roads (with The Pines)
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