Maeri Ferguson

It was in the intimate moments of recording herself in pandemic isolation that Cornelia Murr crafted Corridor, the follow-up EP to her 2018 debut, Lake Tear of the Clouds. Self-recording and producing might be a daunting task, but it seems to have given Murr permission to expand and experiment. Corridor

There are a million things that could get in the way of finishing an album, and the courage it takes to do so cannot be overstated. When Caitlin Rose’s first new album in nearly a decade was derailed in early 2020 for obvious reasons, it could have been taken

Rayland Baxter was the only person who could harness the multitude of sonic pleasures on his latest, self-produced release If I Were a Butterfly. The predictably unpredictable Baxter holed up alone in an old rubber band factory in Kentucky for a year to work on Butterfly, studying the sights and

Two records arrived in early pandemic days of spring 2020 that proved timeless but also timely — salves for a terrifying time: Jess Williamson’s hauntingly ethereal Sorceress and Waxahatchee’s grounded, gut-wrenching Saint Cloud. Both were the kind of songwriter albums perfect for privately smiling through tears, solitary walks, and

Accepting yourself as you are takes work, and for Courtney Marie Andrews, it meant opening herself up to possibility. It meant writing a song a day, giving in to romance, and all the things that made her uncomfortable. The payoff was more than just a privately held personal one. It