Kassi Valazza

There is a cult-like fascination growing around Kassi Valazza following the self-release of her 2019 debut album Dear Dead Days and her surprise 2022 EP Highway Sounds. She is seated squarely at the vanguard of new American songwriters strengthening and broadening the sound of country music as she tours with celebrated acts such as Melissa Carper and Riddy Arman. The Southwestern native resides in Portland, a hotbed of songwriters producing albums that both bear the torch and bend the arc of American roots music, where she recently signed with Fluff a label known for launching Anna Tivel and Margo Cilker.Valazzas forthcoming new album Kassi Valazza Knows Nothing is a spellbinding collection of songs that dangle like protective magic talismans, catching dreams and glinting light. She hypnotizes listeners with a sturdy, yet gentle, voice and painterly songwriting imbued with an independent spirit. Though her music plays country cousin to British folk, calling to mind greats like Sandy Denny (Fairport Convention) and Karen Dalton, a Southwestern American streak carves its way through these solemn, sweetly sung melodies like a canyon.On the upcoming 10-song set, multi-instrumentalists from Portlands TK s backing band: Taylor Kingman (guitars, bass, vocals), Jay Cobb Anderson (harmonica, guitars, pedal steel, bass), Lewi Longmire (pedal steel, piano, bass, trumpet), Sydney Nash (organ, Farfisa, cornet, Wurlitzer), and Tyler Thompson (drums). The groups swirling psychedelia combines with Valazzas gutsy and graceful vocal poetry for a singular sound that washes over the listener like a flash flood, heavy and without warning.Album opener Room In The City introduces Valazzas high-lonesome, but never lonely world with sharp harmonica and reeling organ. She sings of a touring musicians longing for home, and a distant lover, with lyrical imagery of open skies, whistling winds, and sepia-toned rock formations: Did you think Id be out here feeling lonely? / If I said I thought so too itd be a lie / When I talk to you its hard to be withholding / And I was born to chase this blue out of my eyes. / In the still, I often wonder about your breathing / I rise and fall to its rhythm late at night / Clay canyons turn to plaster in my grieving / And our ceiling overtakes the sky.Using the physical world around her to paint metaphors from the soul, Valazza carries us through her mind and heart, ever the effortless narrator. Watching Planes Go By spins a cautionary tale about the dangers of standing still in life and accepting ones own fate. The song sets a curious and cosmic atmosphere of psychedelic folk-rock as Valazza reflects on the struggles of moving on, Autumn leaves turn to yellow / and green turns to jealousy / Watching days go by. read moreSpecial guest: Sequoia