Issue #63: You Should Be Listening to Erin Rae

The Nashville singer-songwriter talks about her creative process and songwriting ambitions

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It's become trendy in recent years to refer to things as a "balm": a crutch word (hey, I'm as guilty as anyone!) that's shorthand for anything that soothes our little Information-Age addled brains. Yet I'm struggling to find a better word for the output of singer-songwriter Erin Rae, whose two solo albums Putting On Airs and Lighten Up are recent Americana masterpieces that sound the way a deep breath or a gentle breeze feels. 

In some ways, they're very familiar, full of low-key, often melancholy and introspective songs in a similar vein as those of so many other ambitious Nashvillians with acoustic guitars in hand. But in others, they're radically different. You'll get these songs in your head, their reflection and poetry balanced with hooks (find me singing, "I don't wanna have a bad mind") and (gentle, understated!) grooves. I came across Putting On Airs for the first time early in the quarantine days of 2020 (quite late, I know!), and the work that album did to keep me sane alone in my New York City apartment for…weeks…it was substantial. I have listened to it front to back more than probably…any other album since? If that's an exaggeration, it's a slight one. (It was on plenty of year-end lists when it came out, too!)

The album is wonderful, a collection of rich, optimistic, meaty songs arranged with deep care and an almost generosity to the listener. Erin's voice is exceptional, conversational and ethereal at once; her songwriting endlessly precise and evocative. "Everywhere I've been it's the same scene/through a broken-hearted woman's eyes," she sings on "Love Like Before," one of a dozen lines on that song alone that cut right to the quick. To me, Putting On Airs is one of the best Americana albums of the 2010s— and yet Erin isn't wildly famous! Make it make sense.

She went to California and broadened her stylistic palette with Lighten Up, which I reviewed for Pitchfork (I would have given it higher than a 7.3 but!) in my continued efforts to make Erin Rae famous (sadly, we're still working on this project). It's great, bright and smart and dynamic and fun; you can read my review for more on that project, but it's just as worthy of a front to back listen.

I got to catch up with Erin when I was in Nashville a few weeks ago, and we had a nice chat about what she's working on right now — digging into a lot of the challenges of following your muse when you're beholden to the churn of the business part of music. Here's a taste of what she's thinking about and working on when she's not watching the Memphis Grizzlies or fingerpicking guitar on Shaboozey songs (really! she's in the mix on "Finally Over” alongside Rachel Baiman on banjo — it’s one of my favorites from that album, I must have sensed it). “On Her Side” is her latest single!

What are you working on these days?

I was hoping that you could tell me [laughs]. I was like, "Maybe she'll have an idea." I basically have this summer at home. I'm playing Newport Folk Fest with Twain and my friend Paul DeFiglia — we had a covers record that we released [Jesus + More, out now anywhere you stream]. So that's our one show, probably our only show for that project. Then I'm playing Pickathon, and then a little tour with the Cactus Blossoms. But I was kind of just like, "I'll take the summer to write new music" — for the audio [leans into the recorder].

Last summer, I tried to set some deadlines for myself. I wrote some songs, and then demoed them with my friend Ryan [McFadden, who I recorded “On Her Side" with]. But it just kept feeling like I was rushing it. I'm doing some internal work and trying to release some stuff, and so you know, I'll pick up my guitar and write songs here and there. But nothing is really...flowing.

There's two album ideas. One is stronger than the other, or comes up more than the other. So I'm like, "Okay, I'm gonna call everyone and make the plan today." And then I'm like, "No, probably the cart before the horse." I don't know. I was talking to the girls in the group texts, Kelsey Waldon, Caroline Spence and Michaela Anne [they've even done a podcast about this group text, it's serious!]. They're like, "Just trust it. You might need this time." Trust the lull, I guess.

I mean, I feel like you've been doing a ton of touring in the past couple years! What are the two ideas you're toying with, if you're okay with sharing?

It is weird to be kind of in one place for a while. I'm mostly keeping them to myself for now. I go back and forth — I'm really inspired by the idea of making a record in the style of that single that I released, where I kind of self-record and then bring it to a friend to polish it up. I've been kind of wanting to lean into my relationship to myself and like, really release reliance on validation as part of that process. It may be that I'm not supposed to fully do that, and it is supposed to be like [this] because you're living with other people on Planet Earth, so you need to have some validation... But I've been wanting to get really clear: What do I want? How do I want this to sound? Because I do have instinctual ideas, but sometimes developing...it's hard work to work alone. It requires a lot of discipline, which...I'd like to develop [laughs].

It's interesting to hear you say that, because I feel like one of the things that I like so much about your music is that it just...sounds so good. The arrangements are compelling, and the way you use melody to make your lyrics memorable and hefty is so engaging.

Thank you. I have to credit the crew that I made the Putting On Airs record with so much, for kind of expanding the way I hear music or even what I listen for. Jerry Bernhardt, who co-produced it, led the way on a lot of the arrangements. He's such a great musician and has such a deep knowledge of music. I was introduced to so much around that time, and it kind of took me down some different listening paths. When it was time to do the [Lighten Up] record with Jonathan [Wilson — Father John Misty, Conor Oberst], we had the Scott Walker influence and it was just all-around more cinematic. One of my favorite musicians is Feist — she's so good. Her use of melody, how she plays guitar, how the percussion comes in...it's crazy. I love her so much.

Who are some of your other songwriting touchstones? 

Gillian and Dave — I mean, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, I shouldn't say their first names like I know them. [laughs] She responded very nicely to me on like, an Instagram DM...sooo. I love Fred Eaglesmith, Chris Smither. I think the storytelling style is still very compelling to me.

Going all the way back, when did you start songwriting? 

I didn't really start writing songs until after I graduated high school. I went to, like, one semester of college, and then I started going to open mics. I would write songs to be able to play them there. My mom is a writer, among many things, and she encouraged me early on to write poems and stuff — and there was always this idea that I could, I guess. I was thinking about that today, not in a negative way, but the audacity of like, "Oh, yeah, like I can write songs. Sure, I'll try this."

Maybe [it came from] just from hearing it throughout my growing up years — my parents did play music together, and my dad [Mike McKaskle, The Grindstone Plowboys] has written great songs — but also just the music that we listened to and hearing those turns of phrase over and over again for a long time. Like, "Okay, if I say this in this order, it sounds good."

Were there any songs during that time, maybe even before you were songwriting yourself, that you remember as just being like, "Oh, this is so cool that somebody wrote this"?

My dad loves Greg Brown. Brown has a song called "Spring Wind" that my dad covered all the time. Then there's a song called "Canned Goods" that's about like...it could almost bring a tear to my eye. It's basically just about his grandmother's house, and the produce that she would can and the experience of summer around that. The imagery is so strong, but it also lets you assign your own feelings to it, I guess. Basically any song that feels like that, I want to listen to that 1000 times. "Red Dirt Girl"? Yep, I'm gonna listen to that for 20 years straight and never get tired of it. 

What was the first song you wrote where you thought, "Maybe I actually have something here"?

At first I was just excited that I completed the structure of a song. I think the first one I wrote was very silly, but earnest in a way. It was called "Since You Left Me," I think I put it on my MySpace at the time. But I played it for open mic, and my friend that was running the open mic gave me a nod of approval and was like, "I like that." It's just such a good feeling to finish a song, to be like, "That is a complete idea."

Maybe this old song of mine, "I Hope You Get What You Need"? That was more where I was like, "This is capturing a feeling." The thing that’s interesting now is how quick I was to congratulate myself at the time on my early songs. [laughs] Like "Wow, I'm so good..." My parents were very supportive of me [laughs]. But now I'm like, "Maybe let's take a little time. Let's polish these up a little bit." I'm not a good editor. Like I don't know how to. Generally I try to write from like, the feeling place…

Do you feel some of that Nashville-type pressure, even like in the more Americana-whatever world, to keep up a certain pace of output ?

I definitely am feeling that in a major way. Just the speed at which things turn over now. You know, my team would like for me to have a new record ready to be out, and I would also like that [laughs]. But there is a part of me that still believes that it's okay to not give into that pressure. I kind of feel like now I've had the experience of making a record where I feel like there were some external pressures at play, and I was sort of experimenting with...trying them out, trying to make a song that is the speed of a radio hit. Not to liken myself to Johnny Cash, but I truly can't play fast [laughs]. I feel like he said that in a movie...I truly feel like I'm gonna have to like, lift weights to play faster, so we'll see. 

I get that it's a business and there's like a whole ecosystem of music, and I'm like, "Well, there's a lot of people saying a lot of stuff." I'm not clear on what I want to write about, and I don't want to rush that. 

Do you have a go-to songwriting process?

Traditionally, it's been that I'll just have an idea floating around, and then I'll sit down with it. Like, I'll make a voice memo and make a note of it, and then a couple of days later, try to sit down and be present and flesh it out. I feel like it works best to be in my kitchen or dining room, just to be able to walk around and play guitar.

I'm on a social media break right now, and kind of trying to peel back some things. My phone time is...astronomical [laughs]. Just trying to make some space and read some books. That's been really inspiring, and just fun. I try to pick up the guitar every day. 

With doing so much touring recently and opening for some fairly big name acts, does some streaming momentum come along with that? 

Hiss Golden Messenger, I feel like his fans have stayed with me since I did some touring with them in 2019, and Angel Olsen's fans, for sure. People have also found my music from the Kevin Morby "Bittersweet, Tennessee" song, which I love so much. I definitely feel people paying attention to my music and now I'm like, "Okay, I'm gonna give them the best next record that I can."

Just the way I think about music is changing a little bit. It used to feel more fantastical, though it still does, in a way. There are times where it definitely is like a magical thing, and like the connection with friends and spending time with other people, there's a lot of magic in that. Maybe I'm just like, more critical, more measured, in what I'm wanting to put out on my own.

I feel excited musically, too, though. I just signed up for a couple of voice lessons with this woman Emoni Wilkins, who's an incredible singer who lives in Nashville. I'm excited to keep expanding my skill set and just let things flow.

Are there any artists whose career would you like to (loosely) emulate?I

Feist, Gillian Welch. There seems to be space between [Feist's] records, and I think she adopted a little girl during the pandemic, and that's very cool too. I'm very interested in creating an abundant work life, but also in having a little house and maybe having a kid at some point — or two. I don't know that I have, probably much to the chagrin of my manager, like...objectives. I just want to keep making records and getting better at music and singing and feel like...in alignment, is mainly my goal. Which is not really like, capitalism-friendly necessarily. 

Is there anything else in the Erin Rae universe that the people need to know?

I would love to say a new record is coming right away. But we're trusting the process.

Check out Erin’s website to see when she’s coming to a town near you! She says more dates are coming soon :)