"Our lives are buried in snow," Alela Diane cries on "White Diamonds," from her second album, To Be Still. Her rustic folk tunes are often as magical as the natural wonders she evokes, with her lilting vocals and stark acoustic guitar threaded with mystically exotic strains of violin. It certainly must help that she hails from the small town of Nevada City, California, which must be located in some kind of enchanted musical vortex, since it's home to more weirdly wonderful psych-folkies (including Diane's pal Mariee Sioux) per capita than anywhere else in America.
Brooklyn singer Marissa Nadler's new CD, Little Hells, is also rooted in folk, but such songs as "Rosary" and "Diamond Heart" are wrapped up in a shoegazer haze of spacey echoes and gossamer sound effects that make her chillingly beautiful vocals feel otherworldly and positively dreamy.
Fort Worth's Bosque Brown similarly exists in the folkie realm and opens this touring show.
