Alela Diane: To Be Still :: Music Reviews :: Articles :: Paste

Home again, eventually.

There’s a powerful weariness to 25-year-old Alela Diane’s voice as it dips and curls its way through her second album, woozy pedal steel glinting and shimmering all about her, hollow-hooved percussion trailing in her wake.

Like The Pirate’s Gospel, her cruelly unheralded 2006 debut, To Be Still is a staggering meditation on the idea of home in its many forms, and shares its predecessor’s knowing heart—young, but already familiar with the tugging weights of time, family and love. “Dry Grass & Shadows” and “Take Us Back” vie for reunion with hills and brambles left long ago but dreamt still; “Age Old Blue,” a devastating duet with outsider troubadour Michael Hurley, etches the roots of generations of women on sea-swept cliffs in fine enough lyrical detail to stir nostalgia in even the most landlocked soul. The album’s title itself is a wish that hopefully won’t come true; no stillness could be more beautiful than this folky fugue.
Listen to Alela Diane on MySpace.

Click here to download:

whiteasdiamondsdaytrotter.mp3 (3325 KB)

Alela Diane | White as Diamonds | Daytrotter Session

More info and videos here.

(via gorillavsbear.net: to be still)

Rough Trade Records has announced the signing of Portland/Nevada City’sAlela Diane, one of the most absurdly overlooked and underappreciated folk singers of the last few years (and, a gorilla vs. booze 07 alum). Her new LP, To Be Still, is set to be released on February 17 of next year. If you’re unfamiliar with Alela’s timeless and intensely affecting work, go here to download what is probably my favorite Daytrotter Session to date (only partially because I was there); hopefully this haunting unreleased gem from the session will appear on the upcoming record:

from Holocene Music:

Hailing from the deep woods and winding rivers of Northern California Gold Rush town Nevada City, Alela grew up singing songs with her parents (both musicians), and performing in the school choir. During a stay in San Francisco in 2003, she began teaching herself guitar and writing her first songs, blending tense, trance-like arpeggios, with warm, thick vocals and meditative lyrics about family and nature.

Written in response to a loss of home and familiarity, The Pirate’s Gospel is a powerful document of personal reevaluation and renewal set against the backdrop of generations past and future, mothers and fathers, life, death, and birth. The songs were composed during a trip to Europe and recorded in her father’s studio in Nevada City. Originally available only in hand-stitched limited runs, this pressing marks the first time The Pirate’s Gospel has been made available outside of Alela’s immediate circle of friends and fans.  

 Myspace