Although I’ve been a fan for several years, I’ve somehow yet to introduce readers and listeners of Higher Plain Music to Squirrel Flower. Today, she announced her sixth studio album entitled ‘Say a Prayer to the Gods of Getting Going’, so it felt like the perfect time to correct that error.
Squirrel Flower, aka Ella Williams, has been making indie folk-rock for many years. Sometimes, the music is more plugged than others. Elsewhere, there may be a country twang instead. Occasionally, something more witchy pops out. Squirrel Flower perculates around this trinity of indie rock, and it feels like the new album is taking a more rustic folk approach. Lead single ‘Reelin’ features an accordion as the opening instrument, and its harmonium-esque hum is joined by viola and recorder for its English country barn-like riffs. It’s difficult to make a recorder sound sincere, but this track does it through its reflective, world-weary delivery. I’m reminded slightly of Lisa Germano in her 1990s era.
Squirrel Flower mentioned in her newsletter that the lyrics started as an art piece on an overdue Kansas Turnpike toll bill. Writing about ‘Reelin’, she stated:
This song is my ode to the push and pull of domesticity and unravelling. Leaving and getting reeled back in, over and over and over and over.
The music video was born from serendipity and divine timing. There was a huge storm at the time Clay, Jackson and I had planned to shoot in this industrial area I’d been scoping out, and we called the shoot off. At the last minute, I looked at the sky and decided it’d be worth trying. We pulled up to the spot just as the clouds were breaking and a gorgeous double rainbow shot across the sky out of the sparkling city.
‘Reelin’ is out now, whilst the forthcoming album is available to pre-order on Bandcamp. You can visit the Squirrel Flower website for more information about Squirrel Flower and Ella’s various art projects.
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