Archive for the tag "california"

Though Edith Frost is now technically a Yankee (she moved from her native Texas to Brooklyn and then Chicago), the altcountry crooner still whips up folksy ballads that reflect her hometown roots. Her third full-length, Wonder Wonder, released last July, lives up to the promise of its title. Frost is characteristically melancholy, but this time around she lightens up considerably, penning quirky tracks that are occasionally downright playful. A talented singer/songwriter, Frost has always been open to experimentation. On Wonder, she tinkers with bells, violin, chimes, pedal-steel guitar, and harmonica, and the gamble pays off: These instruments form the perfect counterpoints to her expressive, brooding voice. Frequently compared to Patsy Cline, Frost bares all without shame, and in the process makes heartbreak sound so appealing that you’ll be tempted to pick a fight with your lover just to have a taste of what she’s going through. Fellow Windy City band Central Falls opens for Edith Frost at the Bottom of the Hill, 1233 17th St. (at Missouri), S.F. Sarah Dougher and the Court and Spark are also on the bill. Admission is $10; call 621-4455 or go to www.bottomofthehill.com.

Sometimes feeling bad sounds pretty darn good. Frost’s third full-length album finds her wondering (repeatedly) about the possibilities and limitations of love. Some lines can border on the mawkish ("Let me melt into your starry eyes"), but most ring true, especially when filtered through Frost’s smoldering alto. Her vocals are a perfect match for the fireside intimacy of the acoustic, often country-inspired ballads that make up much of the album.

With her forbidding, Victorian-sounding name and haunting songs, it’s tempting to romanticize Drag City songstress Edith Frost as some sort of distant, enigmatic poet; yet a visit to her homemade webpage reveals a warm, disarming person who really wants to share her songs with the public. Regardless of her ersonality, she continues to weave an enchanting musical tapestry with her latest album, Telescopic.

When FROST melts, she writes about it

It’s not hard to get singer-guitarist Edith Frost to talk about her personal life.  She freely discusses the divorce and the short-lived relationship that made her life so difficult that she moved from New York to Chicago.

On her self-designed Web site, she actually had to discontinue her diary entries because she was including too many details from her everyday life, writing explicitly about her friends and her dreams in order to create a "virtual Edith."

This four-song EP provides a voyeuristic glimpse into the innermost sanctum of songwriter Edith Frost, a silvery-voiced Austinite-turned-Brooklynite with a few insecurities to work out. Though Frost has hearned her keep in a variety of country and rockabilly bands, her spare, compelling songs don’t need the kind of help a melodramatic pedal steel guitar or upright bass would provide. Indeed, her striking demo tape — with one exception, it’s nothing more than a rudimentary, buzzing guitar and her eerie doubled-up vocals — was enough to convince the folks at Drag City to press the recording as it was.