08.2021 Music Recommendation // HOME VIDEO (album) by Lucy Dacus

Last month, I had the incredible opportunity to attend an outdoor concert for the first time in more than a year. This show was very special to me, because the lineup consisted of one of my favorite recent musical discoveries (Lucy Dacus) opening for one of my old favorite bands from high school (Bright Eyes). My friend and I traveled to Bethlehem, PA to see the show, and not even a tornado warning along the way could stop us!

For my recommendation today, I want to urge everyone to check out Lucy Dacus's third studio album, Home Video, which came out in June of this year. Every single song on this album is dripping in nostalgia and sincerity; Dacus draws inspiration from her own coming-of-age experiences, never playing a character or putting on a persona when she sings.

My top song recommendations from the album — "VBS" which is about Lucy's experiences of meeting her first boyfriend at vacation bible school; "Cartwheel," which unpacks the feelings of being left behind by friends who grew up too fast; and "Partner in Crime," a lush song about a relationship with an older man that employs auto-tune in the most artistic way.

11.2019 Music Recommendation // Buffalo Rose

I'm a big supporter of live music, particularly local music, and one of the coolest experiences in my opinion is getting to follow and support local acts as they come up and find their success. One particularly talented local band that I have had the honor to see many times over the last couple years is Buffalo Rose. They are a folksy, six-piece ensemble from Pittsburgh, and their music features chillingly beautiful three-part vocal harmonies spread over a lush landscape of strings to make an incredibly uniquely evocative blend of modern soul and classic bluegrass Americana. They just recently got signed to a record label and have been touring as far and wide as Chicago, New Orleans, and New York, so I am very happy for them as their success continues to grow! I would recommend checking out their tracks Natural Disaster, Born, and I Feel So Good, which you can find on Spotify, Youtube, or the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh's database of local musicians, STACKS.

Staff Recommendation published in Crafton Public Library's monthly newsletter.