DOWNLOAD: "Black Silk" via Soundcloud / via direct mp3

There’s a rare confidence to Emily Jane White’s songwriting: it’s at once generous and tough-minded, reflective and unsentimental. White possesses a singular voice inspired by the raveled threads of the uncanny in American culture, including depression-era blues and classic works of gothic literature such as Toni Morrison’s Beloved and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper.  Armed with little more than acoustic guitar and her fragile alto, she offers complex tales of melancholy and isolation, which have captured the attention of NPR, Pitchfork, The Fader, and more. Having recently returned to the Bay Area from a 4 year European touring stint, Emily signed to neighboring label Antenna Farm Records (Papercuts, Agent Ribbons, etc.) for the North American release of Ode To Sentience, her third album, out May 22nd.  The first single "Black Silk" is available now as a free download, along with an accompanying live acoustic video.  She's also announced a string of Spring tour dates, including Noise Pop in San Francisco and SXSW in Austin, opening dates for Jolie Holland, and more. Full list after the jump.

Ode to Sentience is her most realized work to date. Drawing upon finger-picked folk, traditional country, classical music and rock, White creates an expansive space for her intuitive lyrics and elegiac vocals. The spare skeletons of the songs on Ode to Sentience are fleshed out with subdued electric guitar thrums, diaphanous organ, ethereal pedal steel guitar, lush strings, and White’s dusky alto with its signature catch.  Her indelible sound has earned White a devoted European following, prompting her to tour there regularly.  The album bares an emotional potency, betraying her keen eye for the power dynamics of interpersonal conflict, melancholy, and confinement. White herself though, doesn’t wallow in darkness and morbidity; instead she considers her work to be unifying, an empathetic reflection on the universality of adversity. She sings of individuals “dwelling within oppressive circumstances while seeking liberation despite their isolation and silent suffering.”

This sensibility betrays White’s provenance. Raised in Fort Bragg, California, a seaside town nestled in the misty, secluded woodland of the Mendocino Coast, it could be said that optimistic melancholy and isolation don’t only suffuse White’s songwriting, but are in her bones. Her passion for social justice informs her songwriting, evidenced by her previous releases Dark Undercoat and Victorian America, which contended with the state of New Orleans post-Hurricane Katrina. Ode to Sentience is equally engaged as White’s previous works, but delves deeper into the fundamental dynamics of injustice.
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Emily Jane White - Tour Dates
2/23 - IODA Sessions, SF, CA.
2/24 - Swedish American Hall, SF, CA. w/ Jolie Holland - Noise Pop
3/1 - Albert St. Pub, Portland, OR.
3/4 - Bootleg Theatre, LA, CA. w/ Jolie Holland
3/5 - Zoey's, Ventura, CA.
3/14 - Dominican Joe's, Austin, TX. w/ Jennifer O'Connor + more. New Granada Acoustic SXSW Showcase (time TBD) - SXSW
3/17 - East Side Tone Sessions, Austin, TX. w/ Dana Falconberry, Foxtails Brigade & more...2pm - SXSW
3/17 - Mason D'Etoile, Austin, TX w/Laura Gibson, Matt Bauer + more. 6pm - SXSW
3/17 - Maggie Mae's Gibson Room, Austin, TX. w/Y La Bamba, Agent Ribbons, Radiation City & More...Antenna Farm/Tender Loving Empire/ Self Group official SXSW showcase. 10:15pm
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Click Here  for Emily Jane White playing "Black Silk"
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Emily Jane White - Ode To Sentience
Out May 22nd on Antenna Farm Records
Tracklist:
Oh Katherine
The Cliff
Black Silk (free download)
The Black Oak
I Lay To Rest (California)
Clipped Wings
The Preacher
The Law
Requiem Waltz
Broken Words
 

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Antenna Farm Records