This brief but impactful new EP embraces the sounds of ’60s and ’70s folk music across five instantly-timeless songs Joan Shelley has been relatively quiet in the public sphere since the release of her excellent 2022 album “The Spur”, and we’ve since learned that’s due in part to a couple major life changes: she gave birth to her daughter and moved from the place she was raised in rural Kentucky. Throughout all of that, she’s written five new songs that make up her brief but impactful new EP “Mood Ring“. Made with contributions from James Elkington, Nathan Salsburg, Julia Purcell, Lou Krippenstapel, and Jim Marlowe, the EP is the latest in a long line of instantly-timeless records from Joan, and it captures all the same magic that we’ve come to expect from her.
True to Joan’s usual form, it echoes ’60s/’70s folk singers like Joni Mitchell and Sandy Denny while fitting in nicely with a range of likeminded contemporaries–anything from Jessica Pratt to Bonny Light Horseman to Joanna Newsom–and the songs feel like classics that you’ve known your whole life. It’s a type of music that never really goes out of style, and every new Joan Shelley release reminds you that she’s one of this genre’s most reliably strong songwriters around.
The Fat Angel Sings 