Anna May (Folk / Jazz / Doo Wop / Country / Sheer Quality)
Effortless quality. Anna May has the confidence to just strum and sing and I could listen to her all day long. And she's muttering about coming to play in London so keep an eye out!
The word that came to mind when first listening to Anna May was effortless. In the new video, which you can see at the bottom of this post, she barely touches the guitar strings. Her mouth barely opens. But what sound! Although her Instagram handle nails her to the label folk I think she is a lot of other things as well. I would say country or jazz. Somewhere she mentions doo wop. Twice. This would make it 1940s most likely, a period close to my own heart at the moment. But in fact it feels timeless. She's very, very good.
I've been listening to Elegy and The Show most often today. Elegy is already out but the video definitely adds something. It will be available more widely on June 20th. Anna writes so well about her own music there's barely anything left for me to do.
Alternative folk artist Anna May tackles grief through the lens of Southern California on her newest single, Elegy. The video for Elegy, shot by Taylor Hungerford in Sherman Oaks, California accompanies the single. Elegy is the anticipated follow up to Anna's last release, The Show, which was KUTX's song of the day in August of 2024.
Note she is claiming alt-folk not alt-country but it is surely both. One of the things you soon notice about Anna is that she likes long songs. These are not very often three-minute miracles. We're talking Pink Floyd or early Genesis length. Wonderful ten-minuters that lightly caress your ears. She refers to these as soundscapes.
