Smoke Siren

posted in: Artist FeaturesPop

Kristen Cothron

There are singers, and then there are singers. Kristen Cothron is the kind of vocalist blessed with a natural ability that all the training in the world can’t replicate. At first pass you may think jazz chanteuse, but this Nashville native won’t be pigeonholed so easily. Listen to the moody, dramatic Anthem and you’ll hear someone just as influenced by Fiona Apple and My Brightest Diamond as she is Sarah Vaughan. Cothron’s voice can drift up like ash or smolder in the embers. On Anthem she coats each lyric in veiled suggestion: A hint of contentment / An offer of violence / A glimpse of my descendants / And a shower of silence. Who knows what it means, but it sounds wonderful. Maybe It’s You is bright and fulsome, with organs, guitars and horns rounding out the groove, while High On Blues is a slow burning ballad, where guitar fuzz and organ bellows kindle the flame. It’s rare to find a voice like Cothron’s, even rarer to find a performer so effortlessly chameleonic. Keep an eye, and an ear, on this ingénue.