Anna St. Louis

American songwriter Anna St. Louis channels a broad array of classic folk and country performers into her dusty, wistful sound while shaping those sources into a voice entirely her own. After finishing college she settled in Los Angeles, where she joined a circle of kindred musicians that led to the 2017 appearance of her debut cassette, First Songs, on Kevin Morby’s Mare label. Warm press attention followed, and the next year she issued her first full-length album, If Only There Was a River, through the Woodsist label. Her 2023 sophomore release, In the Air, enlarged her palette with denser arrangements and orchestral flourishes.

St. Louis spent her early years in Kansas City, where she painted and sang with punk bands. She studied at art school in Philadelphia and moved to Los Angeles around 2013 after graduation. Working alone, she drew on enduring touchstones such as Neil Young, Patsy Cline, Elizabeth Cotten, and Buffy Sainte-Marie, folding them into a spare indie-folk style colored by melancholy and a Midwestern restraint. Rough online demos of her first songs surfaced in 2015. Roughly a year after First Songs, the full-length If Only There Was a River arrived, produced with assistance from Morby and King Tuff’s Kyle Thomas, and was promoted with shows that included opening dates for Waxahatchee.

Once touring slowed, St. Louis withdrew to Upstate New York, taking work as a hotel clerk while slowly composing new material. Those songs became her second album, In the Air, tracked during two extended Los Angeles sessions with producer Jarvis Taveniere and contributions from musicians linked to Spoon, Vagabon, and Cut Worms. Released again on Woodsist in June 2023, the record displayed a more expansive and refined musical maturity.