Kassi Valazza

The latest album from Kassi Valazza finds her splitting time between the Portland roots that fed Knows Nothing and New Orleans, her new haunt these days. Valazza’s sound has often eschewed the expectations of genre and geography; spiking her cloudy country with Anglican folk and ‘70s Laurel Canyon touchstones. While the move to New Orleans has helped shape the new album, there’s not a lot of the city’s cultural touchstones in the bones of From Newman Street. In fact, even the title is a tribute to her Portland apartment. The town remains a pale specter over the expanse of the album, a record that’s fraught with living up to your own expectations and coming to terms with the shadows of age.

The record boasts some of Valazza’s most vibrant songs, from the Joni reflections of “Your Heart’s A Tin Box,” to the mirrored maze of “Time Is Round,” playing out its plaintive whisper among a few psychedelic refractions. Though, vibrant doesn’t by any means imply upbeat. The record also finds Kassi diving deep into contemplative corners, curling through the air like candle smoke on “Small Things,” and singing through the sighs on “Weight of the Wheel.” Like her last, the record is a masterful distillation of the connections between country and folk, following the Ley Lines between the genres. Embellished with organ, flute, steel, and strums, the new album lets the listener lounge in Valazza’s melancholy, a comforting cocoon that’s tempting to return to, time and time again.

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