On April 3, 2022, Lindsey Ferguson married Jordan Plotner and changed her name to Lindsey Plotner. To honor this event, she now releases music as Ferguson’s Daughter. She recently dropped the inaugural EP Blissed Out Blues. The 3 song release presents the artist in the bare. The make-up and gloss of overproduced bedroom indie projects has been removed, leaving only that natural touch of Lindsey, her piano, and sporadic auxilary percussion. “Make it look like nature make it look like God.” There’s something clearly sacred about this Blissed Out Blues. It comes through on the revelatory Wedding Rings, and never relents. On Numbers, she’s working out this new formality, marrying matrimony to her existential artistic existence. “I gave myself a story to sing about, left on the shelf, nobody to read it out loud.” Under-appreciated as an artist, she’s primed to love you harder, and receive your love gracefully.
We’ve all been scared, we’ve all had moments of doubt. How can we deserve this love? With cinematic beauty we are presented with Panic Attacks In Love. This candid offering lets us voyeur the complications of transition. Being an artist in matrimony is an intense evolution. You’re existence has always been tied to your art, and in marriage you fear you can’t share enough of you. This plight to return this love genuine, buries the artist in guilt. Panic Attacks In Love, as a conceptual work, has more in common with movie essays like a Marriage Story than any music that has come before it. This is contemplative high art meant to be absorbed in our most vulnerable state. Let it grab you and activate your auditory dream space. See yourself in both its pain and beauty.
Ferguson’s Daughter should appeal to fans of Big Thief, Feist, Bon Iver, and Phoebe Bridgers. As an artist, she should attract fans of celebrated cinematic groundbreaking works. Those elusive works like Roma and Nomadland that are immune to re-creation. They can only exist in one moment, as they capture their essence perfectly.
Blissed Out Blues should be absorbed front to back, get started with Wedding Rings now on our Emerging Folk playlist.
Folksy duo Fritillaries dig through their creative roots on the new single Unearthing. A boomy backbone provided by a trailing bass holds these roots strong, as a sweeping guitar and plucked banjo lend a melody for a sweet voice to navigate. The lyrical poetry gives this duos musical journey metaphorical life.
Fritillaries had to put it down to pick it up, for two years in fact they shelved the collaboration to find inspiration through doing other things. The separation was kind, Unearthing is a quality work that hangs with the best of todays indie folk. It’s melodically compelling, showcasing an instinctual understanding known to traditional folk, and abstract lyrical prowess known to modern indie. There’s a hint of the classic songwriting known to Joni Mitchell, the intimate works of Courtney Marie Andrews, pop elegance of more acoustic offerings from Cam and Kacey Musgraves, and the sophisticated Neo-country intellect of Brandie Carlile.
Fritillaries should appeal to fans of all these artists and more. They have crossover potential, embracing their pop sensibility while parading elite lyrical strengths. A book of poetry, or a beautiful song, it’s all the same in their world. “And now I sow Fritillaries.” It rings like the bands personal anthem, their mantra, how everything about their existence culminates in these works. “I’m unearthing something I cannot see, I imagine reaching to grab the left hand of a king folded in the earth.” This lyrical gold; it can’t be mined from reluctant minds, it has to be pillaged from the fortune of experience.
Enjoy Unearthing now on our Emerging Folk playlist.
Will Spencer finds melancholy beauty on his new single Misty Rain. Right out the gate a finger picked guitar frolics beneath his lower timbre, before giving way to his intoxicating upper register. Quivering between a falsetto and a soulful croon, it recalls Jeff Buckley’s iconic affect and range. This unfamiliar beauty transcends convention, it gives Spencers presence rarity, like an elusive flower that only shows itself in reclusive places. The vocal talents are lifted by great writing and effective arrangements. The brushed snare rhythm gives this sad song a groovy pick up, and the pianos evolution matches his voice in how it builds through the song.
As a writer, these vibes are familiar to artists like Damien Rice, the words are undeniably somber while the music is gorgeous. There’s a hint of resolution in the lyrical design, but Spencer can’t escape the rain. “Todays the day I see the poetry in everything that passes by the evergreens. I never felt this feeling. Sunlight in the evening, but this is life. I see it now. I’ll never let my life fall down but here by my window all I can see is Misty Rain.” In the grips of depression, even in your most optimistic moment, it cripples you. Unrelentless, like Spencer’s rain, it’s take an unwavering effort to escape.
Spencer is smart to showcase a tasty electric guitar solo in the songs outro, channeling John Mayer and his folk to blues rock crossover. Spencer is an intelligent writer and arranger impossible to bottle in, only his first release, we suspect he will explore an array of styles in works to come.
Enjoy Misty Rain now on our Emerging Folk playlist.
Jennifer Jordan took a shot, and walked away with the foundation for a music career in the form of a professionally recorded release. The single I Keep Trying is the debut introduction in advance of an upcoming EP. Grammy Winning Producer Forest Glen Whitehead produced this track which will be part of a larger EP project due later this year. As chance would have it, Jordan, a Nashville area resident, submitted themself for an opportunity to intern with the producer, and was selected as one of 7 participants for the mentorship. Forest Glen Whitehead has worked with Kelsea Ballerini, Mickey Guyton, and more.
This was no happy accident, Jordan’s been taking in every inspiration Nashville has to offer, soaking in the best of both classic and indie country. A student of style, I Keep Trying can hang with the best of them. It has the melodic intellect of 90s classic hits with the spirit of the underground. It has the crossover potential of Tenille Townes and Ashley McBryde, destined to be enjoyed by mainstream lovers and musical elites equally, but undeniably country. Jordan’s voice, captured perfect by Whitehead, is smokey and rich. It’s ripe with personality and depth. It retains all the hurt and snark of the struggle it took to get here, and a bit of relief for knowing this day has come.
Lyrically, I Keep Trying recalls the fleeting realties of aspiring songwriters. Regulated to part-time careers, it’s hard to place how to fit in, how to make sense of it all. It gets a little insane, and the emotional see-saw repeats itself until you either catch a break or quit. Some have the grace to power through. Jordan offers this about the songs meaning: “it’s about still finding the resilience and persistence to keep on trying despite the things we’ve been through trying to convince us we don’t belong and shouldn’t even bother”.
Enjoy I Keep Trying now on our Emerging Folk playlist.
The Wild Is Calling 