Psychic Strums

posted in: Artist Features • Pop

Sometimes it takes another person to point out something about yourself that you’re unaware of. In the case of Kansas City native Sara Swenson, that other person was a clerk in a guitar shop and that something was singer-songwriter. Swenson wasn’t one at the time, but took it as a challenge and began to write and perform. A few years later in 2009, she was dubbed Kansas City’s Singer-Songwriter of the Year. This doesn’t make that guitar clerk a soothsayer, just a great listener. Swenson’s talent is audible with just a few strums of her guitar, as her new single, Be Not Far, demonstrates. Spare, bluesy and terrifically romantic, the track shows off the gentle husk of her singing. A pedal steel drifts around low strums of acoustic guitar, adding a bright counterpoint to the quietude. Although warmth and calm prevail throughout the song, when Swenson’s voice lilts up into a higher register towards the end, you may get chills. This doesn’t make Swenson some sort of supernatural force, just a great singer-songwriter.