Bio
A native of northern Indiana, Emily Rodgers began writing music in 2003 amidst a move to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where she now resides. Alternating between solo performances and those with her band, Rodgers' striking and penetrating voice radiates with an effortless drama like an iceberg falling apart in warmer climes.
Bright Day, Emilys first proper album (following a self-released EP), is a gorgeous and intense record. If traditional folk music itself recalls rustic woodland scenes tickled with sunlight, then Bright Day is the snow that sits upon the cabins roof and weighs down the branches. The day may be bright, but it is stark and there is a chill on the wind. Rodgers breathes a beautiful desolation into her songs. Witness this verse from the albums opener:
And in spring alchemy I wake up not alone, though old mistakes follow me and wake me in the night.
Cuz I was destroyed by fire and rebuilt in 1999
Without words what do we have? I said without words what do we have?
From In Spring Alchemy
This is not light material. The mood of the album is captured perfectly by engineer Josh Antonnucio (Southeast Engine) and iced perfectly in the mastering by the legendary producer Kramer (Galaxie 500). Delicate guitars, sparse piano and languid lap steel are joined by the occasional brushed drum drift foreward, but it's Emily Rodger's voice that covers every inch of the record, echoing through even the empty spaces. Nowhere is this more potent than in the song
Hurricane.
The song gorgeously captures the brink of hope which bobs just beyond desperation and embodies everything that is beautiful in sadness.
It's like drowning in the dark and fading into black.
There are those who hold on
I am willing to be saved.
From Hurricane
Rodgers seems less akin to the psychedelic pastoral folk of late (perhaps best represented by Joanna Newsom) and even further away from the late 1990's coffeehouse/Lilith Fair crowd, but perhaps closer to the bleak, introspective beauty found in the output of the 4AD label in the 1980's, a place where exquisite voices floated ethereally over pretty yet cryptic lyrics at a somber tempo. Rodgers' voice recalls Hope Sandoval of Mazzy Star, Mark Kozelek of Red House Painters and perhaps Tim Buckley at his most serene (I'm thinking
Song to the Siren.
) These are singers not in fashion at the moment, but tremendously powerful and relevant in these uneasy times. Every dance party comes to an end and every dancer has to look in the mirror and see what is left after the night is over. This is the record they might find there.
It's sleepless nights and dreams that just won't quit, they just won't quit.
And I'm done touring hospitals, looking for my own.
Yes, great depressions surround me, but my wounds are my own.
From Great Depressions
Discography
Bright Day (2009)
CD - $12.00