Finches / Six Songs

Ulrike Records

San Francisco Bay Area acoustic duo THE FINCHES (CAROLYN PENNYPACKER RIGGS and AARON MORGAN) have been wowing local audiences with their endearing songs of fantasy architecture, filial love, and travel anxiety. Six Songs will disarm even the toughest of souls, as Pennypacker effortlessly charms any crowd within miles of her deceptively coy approach to musical storytelling. Unabashedly influenced by Leonard Cohen and Francois Hardy (“The House with Two Front Doors” borrows a melody from Hardy’s “La Maison Où J'ai Grandi”), the band brilliantly tread that fine line between pop and folk. On this their first release, Pennypacker already threatens to join that rare club of songwriters, from Vashti Bunyan to Tracy Thorn (Marine Girls) to Mirah, who manage to stay both sweet and poetically mature, warmly innocent but never crossing the line into sugary tweeness. Packaged in beautiful fold-up cardstock packaging, the cover is letter-pressed with a linocut drawn by Pennypacker herself. Look out for the Finches now out on tour with those love-lovers Whysp (ex-Lowdown), playing selected shows with Phil Elvrum’s Mt. Eerie.

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