AND SOUTHERN STAR/Pink Vinyl

Description

Five years after her debut album Delivery, Mikaela Davis left her hometown of Rochester, shared the stage with Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Christian McBride, Bon Iver, Lake Street Dive, and Circles Around the Sun, and entered a new decade. But it is the constantly evolving relationships with her closest friends and bandmates that propelled the Hudson Valley-based artist on her latest album And Southern Star – a true collaborative effort that reflects on the choices we make and the people we always return to. The band, consisting of Davis (harp/vocals), Alex Coté (drums), Cian McCarthy (guitar/vocals), Shane McCarthy (bass/vocals), and Kurt Johnson (steel guitar), has been playing together for over a decade, and this is the first time they appear together on a full album. Weaving together melodies infused with 60s pop, psychedelia, and catchy folk rock, And Southern Star breaks down the reflection we used to recognize while trying to build a new one. It navigates the periphery of the past, the coexistence of isolation and excitement in a new environment, and the tension of moving away from what we thought we wanted, approaching it with a succulent and kaleidoscopic grace. "I finally feel like this album is more me than anything that has been released," Davis said, adding that producing the album with her four bandmates allowed them to forge their own ideas rather than someone else's. It is the band's collective entry into adulthood that has influenced much of the thematic landscape of And Southern Star.