Her Crooked Heart with Humbird – The Owl Music Parlor

HER CROOKED HEART is the new music of Rachel Ries – multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, producer, rock & roll choir director, sideman, singer. Her Crooked Heart’s debut EP, To Gentlemen, and forthcoming album, To Love To Leave To Live, feature members of Bon Iver, Shane Leonard and string arrangements by the inimitable Rob Moose.

Along with numerous and diverse collaborators through the years (including Hadestown mastermind Anaïs Mitchell), Rachel has proven herself ever-curious to expand her sound, her scope, and sail on past the confines of ‘singer-songwriter.’ After all, sometimes what the heart wants is poetry and a syncopated horn line; a string section and a bass synth – all leaving exultation and devastation in their wake.

Combining a wintry longing with the warmth of a familiar folktale, Humbird stretches between experimental folk and environmental Americana to embrace the unexpected. This music invites a refreshing dissonance into the house, it leaves breadcrumbs along the path and reflects light back at the stars.

But one thing has remained true since RR’s first homespun release: her sly and compassionate voice, excavating the depths of an all-too-human heart, armed with levity and a pen. It’s the messy humanity that’s of interest here. The trying and failing; the loving and losing and loving again. The choosing to be brave even when you’re shaking in your tattered boots. So please, make welcome: Her Crooked Heart. She’s been here all along.