Help produce Basic Folk by contributing at basicfolk.com/donate
Editor's note: Lizzie No interviews Erin Rae on Basic Folk! Be sure to go back and listen to Lizzie's previous guest host spots on the pod and subscribe, so you never miss Lizzie!
Singer-songwriter Erin Rae grew up in Jackson, Tennessee, which might ring a bell for our listeners because Valerie June is from the same town. There must be something in the water in Jackson because both songwriters are majestically creative, playful, spiritually minded, and bring a sort of supernatural calm to their work.
Erin gave college a try before falling in love with the camaraderie of the singer songwriter scene in tennessee. She dropped out and answered the artist’s call. She released an album with her band erin rae and the meanwhiles before her solo debut “putting on airs” in 2018. Erin’s knack for dreamy, deeply personal songwriting and velvety vocal delivery mader her a fixture of the nashville songwriter scene. Her follow up LP “Lighten Up” expands on her classic sound, while also surfing on the groovy waves of laurel-canyon influenced pop.
I had a ball talking to Erin about the making of this gorgeous new record, about 21st century feminism, about meditation, about being weird, and about which clothes make her feel most powerfully herself.