Dawn Landes goes to Nashville

When she’s not publishing records under her own name, Dawn Landes has fun with people as varied as Sufjan Stevens, Nico Muhly, Norah Jones, Will Oldham, Andrew Bird and even Laurent Voulzy!

With Meet Me At The River, the songwriter from Kentucky, active since 2002, adds another trophy to her victory shelf: Fred Foster. THE Fred Foster, country production legend who worked with Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Ray Price, Roy Orbison, Dolly Parton, Kris Kristofferson, Tony Joe White, Billy Joe Shaver among other myths of this calibre.

At 87 years old, the master agreed to come out of his retirement and sit behind the console for the Landes album and, even better, to book her a team of 5-star musicians among whom we find the drummer Eddie Bayers, the harmonica player Charlie McCoy, the pianists Bobby Wood and Steve Nathan, the mandolinist Bobby Terry, guitarist John Willis, violinist Larry Franklin, pedal steel player Russ Pahl, bassist Larry Paxton and even singer Bobby Bare, for the duo I Don't Dance...

Starting out as very anchored in folk, with a Cat Power-like checked shirt tendency, Dawn Landes has since moved closer and closer to country music. But with her album Sweet Heart Rodeo, recorded in 2010 in her Brooklyn studio, she had succeeded in perfectly synthesizing her multiple whims, whether they come from Appalachian landscapes or from the New York pavement. Like a cowgirl macadam of the third millennium... This time, thanks to this "100% Nashville" album, she plunges body and soul into country music, concentrating on her strength: song writing.

Sitting against an authentic and unadorned Americana soundtrack, she shows a true gift for composition inspired by her pen heroes, Hank Williams, Hank Cochran, Dolly Parton and Lucinda Williams. This album was conceived at Sound Emporium, the mythical studios built in 1969 by "Cowboy" Jack Clement and where Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, Taylor Swift, Patty Griffin, Willie Nelson, Kenny Chesney, Alabama Shakes, Jason Isbell and many others have passed through...