Hey, check out this song! It’s another longtime friend of Ball of Wax. Seattle/Portland/New York’s Brittain Ashford has played for a long time under her own name, but for her next release, perhaps due to its collaborative nature, felt moved to adopt a more band-like moniker, so it’s my pleasure to introduce you to Prairie Empire (though you might have heard them on the most recent volume of Ball of Wax).
The song “Snow” is a perfect example of some of the lovely things about Brittain/Prairie Empire’s music: The lush instrumentation of strings and simple yet propulsive percussion built around her buzzing, thrumming dulcimer; her mercurial voice, the lead so soft at times you think it might disappear, while at the end she backs herself up, along with a whole gang of friends, as if hollering from the other end of a phone line. Brittain is a very talented songwriter and singer with a fondness for old, weird instruments who’s joined with a great group of musicians in creating Prairie Empire’s self-titled debut. I look forward to its release this spring, as well as their performance March 13th at the Sunset Tavern.
And now: check out this song!