Folk - Looking like a young Rita Coolidge and hailing from the same town and tradition as pal Joanna Newsom, Alela Diane is a shimmering light in the singer/songwriter wilderness. Her bell-clear voice spins vibrant pastoral folk songs that evoke the beaches and moutains of the northwest. In true hippie style, she hand-made packaging for all 650 copies of her debut, The Pirate's Gospel, and that same care and attention to detail inform the music on To Be Still, out February 17th on Rough Trade. 

The spare guitar-and-voice arrangements of Gospel are replaced - augmented, rather - with eclectic folkrock instrumentation, including her father on slide guitar. Explains Diane, "I wanted to record this collection of songs using arrangements which would represent them in their finest form... It was challenging to delicately yet purposefully incorporate instrumentation into songs that I was so used to singing by myself. I was determined to make it work, because I wanted percussion! I wanted to hear the lonesome bow of the violin! I heard many harmonies in my head, and so I set out to capture them." 

You can listen to samples from the whole album here,and watch the video for "White As Diamonds" below, courtesy of pitchfork.tv

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