Oliver The Crow's Top 5 Songs Right Now

EDITOR’S NOTE: No Depression’s new “Top 5” series, which kicked off last month with Rhett Miller, features a quick playlist in which roots musicians share what they’re listening to at the moment. It gives artists the chance to highlight their contemporaries, as well as classic songs getting them through the days. This installment comes from Nashville duo Oliver The Crow, whose second album, A Feather in a Hurricane, is due out November 28.

Even if Oliver The Crow doesn't sound familiar, its founders — cellist Kaitlyn Raitz and fiddler Ben Plotnick — can be heard in a myriad of places. Staples in the Nashville music scene, they've worked as performers, arrangers, photographers, and videographers, and with Rachel Baiman (ND Q&A with Raitz), Maya De Vitry, Emily Scott Robinson, The Bombadils, and more. Additionally, Raitz has been nominated for the Americana Honors & Awards Instrumentalist of the Year and played with Eric Church. Plotnick is a JUNO Award-winner (and four-time nominee) and touring musician with The Fretless.

In the last seven years since their self-titled debut, Oliver The Crow have experienced truly the extreme ends of human joys and sorrows: They bought a house together, mourned family members who passed, became dog-parents, survived the plague, and more. Feather in a Hurricane comprises a through-composed journey with folk songs, bluegrass stomps, and chamber music instrumentals. And while the married duo has chosen not to tour this album for their own health, wellness, finances, and commitments to other projects, Raitz and Plotnick are proud to share their deepest, most complex work yet.

On the cusp of release day for Feather in a Hurricane, No Depression checked in with Raitz and Plotnick to see what they're listening to these days. They replied with precision — specifically songs that make them cry!