SPINSTER

23/07/2024

Thrilled to announce that sound artist and composer amelia courthouse (aka Leah Toth) is returning with a dazzling new album of her singular “hymnambient” music, BROKEN THINGS, out 9/6 on limited edition vinyl & digital formats. 🌺🎹✨🎤

On her first album since RUBY GLASS (SPINSTER, 2019), courthouse builds on her previous album’s textures, moods, and evocations of memory, adding bold new colors and dimensions. BROKEN THINGS again finds courthouse constructing modernist hymns on piano, organ, and synthesizer, buttressing them with field recordings, room tone, and even the snores of her beloved dog to complete her intimate and evocative compositions. Standout track “Keep Your Arms,” also makes an unexpected foray into a hazy antique art pop featuring courthouse’s plaintive, unassuming vocals and a lullaby-like chorus, layered over ebow by James Toth (Wooden Wand).

As inspired by uncompromising artists like Nam June Paik and Charlotte Moorman as she is sound experimentalists like Scott Tuma and the Protestant church music of her youth, courthouse’s deeply personal, idiosyncratic work continues to encompass a mosaic of influences and inspirations. It is art that suggests media as a memory bank, sound as both salve and salvation.

Pre-order BROKEN THINGS on our Bandcamp now, where you can also listen to the first single, “Vihangi." https://ameliacourthouse.bandcamp.com/album/broken-things

Photo by Amy Glantz
Album artwork by

22/07/2024

"This is a lovely record, rich and sorrowful in parts, playful and quick-fingered in others. It will not make you sad, but rather locate your own sadness and echo it back like a tuning fork, a reminder that we share the struggle and transcend it only together." - Jennifer Kelly, Dusted Magazine

West of Roan - The Bell There’s a Roan Mountain in Eastern Tennessee, an area steeped in Appalachian tradition: string bands, murder ballads, mountain hops and frolics. It’s not clear if that’s the...

19/07/2024

"Schermer and Showalter (West of Roan) deliberately build worlds such that the beauty of these songs comes from their appearance as imperfect but deeply-felt reflections of things much larger." Thanks Rosy Overdrive!

Welcome to mid-July! It’s a Monday, and today Pressing Concerns is going to be looking at three great records that came out last week (albums from Macseal and West of Roan, and an EP from Ten…

18/07/2024

"What I find most valuable about Queen of Eyes is the way its makers become translucent within the music...I would call this music timeless, but that cheapens its effect, too: It’s more time-spanning, time-bending, reflecting a present teeming with elements of the past."

Beautiful review of West of Roan's QUEEN OF EYES by Ann Powers for NPR Music!

In an era when connecting the tidbits of an artist’s private life can seem more important than following a musical thread between songs, West of Roan's Queen of Eyes revives faith in the power of the concept album.

15/07/2024

West of Roan's QUEEN OF EYES in great company with pal Jake Xerxes Fussell, Cassandra Jenkins, Sturgill Simpson, and others in NPR Music's New Music Friday last week! Thanks, Ann Powers for the shoutout.

NPR Music's Ann Powers and Daoud Tyler-Ameen present the noteworthy albums out July 12, including new releases by Nashville iconoclast Sturgill Simpson, poignant lyricist Cassandra Jenkins, pop rebel Remi Wolf and more.Visit npr.org for the long list of albums out July 12 and playlists of their top....

12/07/2024

Happy release day to West of Roan's hauntingly beautiful sophomore album, QUEEN OF EYES!

Praised by Songlines, Bandcamp, Record Crates United, Dusted Magazine, Raven Sings The Blues, and others, the album revolves around a central original archetype, the Queen of Eyes. She is a god of doorways and portals, a god of seeing in the dark and in dreams, a saint of weeping in sorrow or in joy. The resulting record is a resonant balm for a fractured culture, a bridge across the void, a solace for listener and singer alike. 👁️🚪🌊🧶

QUEEN OF EYES is available on cassette, CD, digital on our Bandcamp: https://westofroan.bandcamp.com/album/queen-of-eyes

Album art by Sarah Bachman with block prints by Annie Schermer
Photo of the band by Blake McMeekin

08/07/2024

West of Roan's QUEEN OF EYES is Bandcamp's album of the day! "West of Roan take this healing gently and purposefully, creating spaces for the listener to identify and articulate the nature of their own wounds."

Such a lovely review by Mike McGrath-Bryan. QUEEN OF EYES comes out this Friday on tape, CD & digital!

Annie Schermer and Channing Showalter explore profound grief and euphoria on West of Roan's haunting second full-length.

01/07/2024

"West of Roan have a way of crafting songs that feel like passed traditions—stories that slip from generation to generation on soft gusts of guitar and twined voices. Their new album, a collection of imagined myths centered around a figure they call The Queen of Eyes, turns their tales into a tapestry, a cradle for our cultural grief."

Thank you for the lovely words, Raven Sings The Blues! https://www.ravensingstheblues.com/west-of-roan-by-all-the-light/

Watch the animated video for "By All The Light," The 3rd and final single off QUEEN OF EYES, via RTSB or on our YouTube channel, and pre-order your copy of the record on our Bandcamp.

28/06/2024

The evocative animated video for West of Roan's "By All The Light," "a dreamweaver recalling the bucolic works of Anne Briggs, Joanna Newsom and Big Blood" premieres today via Songlines! The song is the 3rd single off QUEEN OF EYES, out 7/12 on tape, CD & digitally.

Watch via Songlines or our YouTube Channel, and pre-order a copy of the album on our Bandcamp.

Myth-steeped US folk duo herald forthcoming full-length with symbolic representations of fable, allegory and spiritual-cipher semiotics

24/06/2024

Congrats to our friend & collaborator Sophie Abramowitz on her American Folklife Center Parsons Award, which will support research for an exciting & important future SPINSTER release!
https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2024/06/afc-fellowship-and-award-recipients-2024/

12/06/2024

Thank you to Record Crates United for premiering “Let No One Steal Your Thyme,” the 2nd single off West of Roan's forthcoming album QUEEN OF EYES. RCU says, “Inspired by mental health, mythology and the importance of hope and friendship, this is an important and moving album that we need in this cruel and increasingly inhumane world.”

While many of the tracks on QUEEN OF EYES have the symbolic transcendence of much older ballads, “Let No One Steal Your Thyme,” also known as “The Sprig of Thyme,” or “Let No Man Steal Your Thyme” is the lone traditional song on the album. West of Roan’s arrangement, with its harmonies and softly finger-picked guitar, is inspired by the singing of British folk singer Anne Briggs. Listen to it on any streaming platform, via RCU, or on our Bandcamp where you can also pre-order a copy of QUEEN OF EYES on CD, cassette, or digital formats.

West of Roan reimagines the eternal folk tune, “Let No One Steal Your Thyme,” in the most tender and simplest of ways, honoring both the traditional roots of the song as well as the style and artis…

31/05/2024

Thank you to Laurel Premo for the kind words about West of Roan's forthcoming album QUEEN OF EYES, out 7/12. You can listen to the first single "The Bell" and pre-order a copy on cassette, CD, or digital formats on Bandcamp now. https://westofroan.bandcamp.com/album/queen-of-eyes

"West of Roan does their weaving work slowly, which is the real way that workings are woven in deeply. Enchanting repetition and riddles, they stretch out spaces inside of familiar language and create new openings for us to move through.” -Laurel Premo

Photo: Blake McMeekin

22/05/2024

"It’s a song that calls for healing in a world that’s become scarred and scorched. Like an ancient prayer, the pair implore their chosen totem for healing, or at the very least, an audience to plead their case. It’s a perfect start to the upcoming Queen of Eyes, the band’s first outing for SPINSTER."

Thank you to Raven Sings The Blues for the lovely words about the first single from West of Roan's QUEEN OF EYES!

West of Roan dig into a folk tradition that brings to mind the Appalachian lean of The Black Twig Pickers, Joseph Allred, or House & Land. “The Bell,” contemplates ancient gods & ancestral wounds, creaking into view on harmonium & fiddle. SPINSTER https://tinyurl.com/mr2x73ra

21/05/2024

Today we announce our upcoming release, West of Roan's QUEEN OF EYES, a collection of deep and resonant original myths from the Pacific Northwest duo.

To form their earthy and intimate sound, friends Annie Schermer & Channing Showalter (both members of Doran), draw from unaccompanied ballads, shape note hymns, and traditional Georgian, Irish, and Scottish tunes. Their carefully crafted songs with intuitive harmonies and sparse string and harmonium instrumentation move from sweet to dissonant, following emotional arcs beneath the surface.

As the duo spent time in collective imagination, journeying to their respective inner worlds and under worlds to compose the songs on their sophomore release, a figure emerged: the Queen of Eyes. She is a god of doorways and portals, a god of seeing in the dark and in dreams, a saint of weeping in sorrow or in joy. The resulting album is a resonant balm for a fractured culture, a bridge across the void, a solace for listener and singer alike.

QUEEN OF EYES will be released on July 12 on cassette, CD, and digitally. You can pre-order the album and listen to the first single "The Bell" on our Bandcamp now. https://westofroan.bandcamp.com/album/queen-of-eyes

Mixing and Mastering by Studio 808A
Album art by Sarah Bachman
Photo by Blake McMeekin

20/05/2024

Keep your eyes on this space tomorrow for a new album announcement from an artist featured on one of our two compilations. It is a real beauty! 🌼👁👑

03/05/2024

Happy Bandcamp Friday! We're glad to let you know that Rosali's NO MEDIUM LPs are back in stock in our Bandcamp store!

Pick up your copy: rosali.bandcamp.com/album/no-medium

NO MEDIUM (2021) is Rosali's 3rd solo album, her 2nd release with SPINSTER, and first with the David Nance Group aka Mowed Sound. The album has been widely acclaimed by outlets from UPROXX to Pitchfork, with Uncut Magazine's Erin Osmon calling it "the most powerful country-rock barn burner in recent memory." Its ripping guitar jams and lilting rock ballads propelled Rosali into the spotlight, prompting her signing with Merge Records and release of what many are calling this year's album of the year, BITE DOWN.

02/04/2024

"The difference in lyricism displays the changing ethos in country music, from authentically magnifying the underclass experience to a shortcut to perceived authenticity." - Yasmin Williams on Cowboy Carter

For all her declarations of being authentically country, Cowboy Carter arrives on the back of booming business for the genre and is all about the star, not the roots music supposedly at the project’s heart

05/03/2024

Our food-themed comp MEASURE, POUR & MIXTAPE: MUSIC FOR COOKING concludes with Nashville songwriter Ziona Riley's “Folly of Tomato” a whimsical and darkly comic song on nostalgia, youth, and the ephemeral quality of food.

Listen and pick up a copy of the tape on our Bandcamp here: https://spinstersounds.bandcamp.com/track/folly-of-tomato and find more of Ziona's music at zionariley.com.

📷:: Anna Zeitlin

01/03/2024

Happy Bandcamp Friday, friends of SPINSTER!

We're busy working on some exciting new releases we'll be announcing soon, but in the meantime, we're offering a 20% discount off anything on our Bandcamp TODAY ONLY with the code HAPPYMARCH

https://spinstersounds.bandcamp.com/

26/02/2024

We had so much fun curating a foodways-themed playlist for Smithsonian Folkways Recordings! With thematic connections to our most recent release, MEASURE, POUR & MIXTAPE: MUSIC FOR COOKING, the playlist brings together food songs from across the Folkways catalog for a sonic meal of snap beans, potatoes, cornbread, pie, singing turkeys, and more, paired with blueberry wine and served by a well-tipped waitress.

Shoutout to D. Norsen Design for the great graphic, which evokes early Chez Panisse and Moosewood signage, and connects to our guiding inspiration for the selections: "What if Les Blank soundtracked a (another) foodways film."

Listen on any streaming platform and read more at

In the field of folklore, "foodways" is the study not just of food itself, but the wide range of social and cultural practices surrounding food—from cultivation and harvesting to preparation, feasting, and even songs sung during those processes. In fact, foodways could be considered the most visib...

20/02/2024

On MEASURE, POUR & MIXTAPE: MUSIC FOR COOKING, Afrilachian poet Crystal Good takes us into the memory space from the perspective of a non-cook, as she considers the way the domestic responsibility of cooking has been a source of violence and disempowerment for women in her family.

Listen and pick up a copy of our food-themed tape on our Bandcamp here: https://spinstersounds.bandcamp.com/track/food-poem
Find more of Crystal Good's work at on Instagram and at Black By God The West Virginian.

13/02/2024

Texas-based duo Little Mazarn's “Thanksgiving” on MEASURE, POUR & MIXTAPE: MUSIC FOR COOKING is a pithy and tender vignette of vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Lindsey Verrill’s uncle who she says, “briefly played on the Dallas Cowboys but mostly played football with me on Thanksgiving.” The song is a reminder of the power of food—in this case, Miller Lite, a bag of Oreos, and Thanksgiving dinner—in evoking memory.

Listen and pick up a copy of the food-themed tape on our Bandcamp: https://spinstersounds.bandcamp.com/track/thanksgiving and find more of Little Mazarn's music at www.littleMazarn.net

06/02/2024

On MEASURE, POUR & MIXTAPE: MUSIC FOR COOKING, Sisters Tiffany Ayalik and Inuksuk Mackay of P I Q S I Q bring their ethereal composition and Inuit-style throat singing—a tradition they embrace as “not only as a musical expression, but as a radical, political act of cultural revitalization”—to the hauntingly beautiful and swirling “Akugulu: Then You Stir.”

Listen and pick up a copy of the tape on our Bandcamp here: https://spinstersounds.bandcamp.com/track/akuglugu-then-you-stirand find more of PIQISQ's music at piqsiq.bandcamp.com.

30/01/2024

On side B of MEASURE POUR AND MIXTAPE: MUSIC FOR COOKING, the cassette moves into more abstract territory as New York-based improvisational percussionist Jess Tsang uses kaotori, a jello mold, cutting board, antique silver plate, bass drum, and her own voice on the rhythmic drone of “Follow the Steps.''

Listen and pick up a copy of the tape on our Bandcamp here: https://spinstersounds.bandcamp.com/track/follow-the-steps and find more of Jess Tsang's work at www.jesstsang.net.

📷 : Alexia Webster

23/01/2024

Listen to award-winning Polish folk trio Sutari's entrancing a capella polyphony, layered over cooking sounds on "Kuchenny (Kitchen Song)," on side A of MEASURE, POUR & MIXTAPE!

https://spinstersounds.bandcamp.com/track/kuchenny-kitchen-song

W oczekiwaniu na premierę naszego nowego albumu polecamy kuchenną składankę "Measure, pour & mixtape " od SPINSTER a w niej nasz Kuchenny 😘

A Wy przy jakiej muzyce lubicie gotować?

🍽️🧅🎶

While waiting for the premiere of our new album , we recommend the kitchen compilation "Measure, pour & mixtape" from SPINSTER. You will find there our Kitchen Song 😘

What kind of music do you like to cook to?

23/01/2024

On MEASURE, POUR & MIXTAPE: MUSIC FOR COOKING, Nashville songwriter Lou Turner (Styrofoam Winos) gives us “Ride The Melting.” Featuring the sound of butter browning and inspired by a Robert Frost line, she confesses her recent approach to the domestic processes of cooking, writing, and living, singing “I’ve been harvesting without taking, reaping without grieving, yielding to the unseen.”

Listen and pick up a copy of the food-themed mixtape on our Bandcamp, https://spinstersounds.bandcamp.com/track/ride-the-melting where you can also get Lou Turner's two latest albums MICROCOSMOS and SONGS FOR JOHN VENN.

📷 by Trevor Nikrant

19/01/2024

Side B of MEASURE, POUR & MIXTAPE: MUSIC FOR COOKING kicks off with iconoclastic American folk legend Michael Hurley’s “Clatskanie,” named after the small Oregon town and birthplace of writer Raymond Carver. The previously unreleased tune’s oft-repeated phrase “cook fish, bake pie,” may be Snock’s own cheeky attempt at summoning two of his most favorite foods. 🎣🥧

Listen and pick up a copy of the food-themed mixtape on our here: https://spinstersounds.bandcamp.com/track/clatskanie and find more of Hurley's music on his website www.snockonews.net.

📷 1: Hurley at 2018, by Emily Hilliard 2 & 3: A “pie of by and by” Sally Anne Morgan and Emily for him in 2014 🥧🍑🐦‍⬛