Libby Weitnauer can’t sleep.
“Like fireflies / blinking luminescence in my eyes,” she sings. “The visions come / of things I need and things I’ve done wrong.” “These Old Nights,” from her solo debut Freehand, swings gracefully like ‘60s slow-dance R&B. It’s sweetly sad like “Sleep Walk,” appropriate for a song about worries keeping Weitnauer awake through the lonely hours of the night.
“I’m up too late / Can’t I just go back to sleep,” she pleads on the chorus. “These old nights / never fail to overcome me.”
Freehand, released under the name Libby Dale, is not shy with related themes. Anxiety, doubt, depression — Weitnauer touches on all, yet Freehand never feels heavy because she’s never stuck in whatever has her down. While this is Weitnauer’s solo debut, her long experience as a fiddler includes Jake Blount collaborative duo Tui and tours backing Kelsey Waldon and Margo Price. She also plays in contexts where the same instrument is called a violin, plus she’s made two albums with slippery-genred songwriter trio Dallas Ugly.
