Lucy Dacus

Lucy Dacus, a singer and songwriter, wields a rich, buttery voice that steers both her reflective indie rock songs and her closer personal disclosures. Rising out of Richmond, Virginia's indie circles during the mid-2010s, she pierced through online blogs and into leading indie channels via the lead single "I Don't Wanna Be Funny Anymore" from her debut album No Burden, released in 2016. That record displayed the songwriter's lighthearted yet piercingly frank command of language. After the strong critical response to her more intense second album Historian in 2018, she became part of Boygenius, a trio formed with fellow praised peers Julien Baker and Phoebe Bridgers. Her third solo album Home Video, noted for its greater tenderness and autobiographical tone, appeared in 2021 and charted just below the midpoint of the Billboard 200. With Boygenius gaining momentum, her first Top Five placement arrived in 2023 via the trio's debut full-length The Record.

Raised in Mechanicsville near Richmond, Dacus sang from an early age because her mother worked as a music teacher. She started keeping a regular journal in sixth grade, then spent high school attending shows and linking up with the Richmond music community. Following graduation she enrolled in a film program at Virginia Commonwealth University while intending to pursue music on the side, yet soon left school to focus entirely on songwriting.

Dacus assembled her first album on short notice after a contact at Starstruck Studio in Nashville alerted her to an available recording day. She recruited local players guitarist Jacob Blizard, bassist Christine Moad, and drummer Hayden Cotcher, then prepared the solo-written material as a quartet during the week before a single ten-hour session. Collin Pastore, the studio contact, handled engineering and mixing while sharing production duties with Dacus and Blizard. Richmond's Egghunt Records showed interest in the finished tracks, among them late 2015's "I Don't Wanna Be Funny Anymore," and issued No Burden in early 2016.

The album quickly drew notice in the indie press, prompting the band to record an Audiotree Live session in March that later surfaced as a digital EP. That June the 21-year-old Dacus signed with Matador Records, which re-released No Burden in September 2016. She next toured alongside the Decemberists, Sylvan Esso, and Car Seat Headrest before re-entering the studio with the same production team for her follow-up. Historian, carrying a comparable mood but fuller arrangements, emerged in March 2018 and reached number five on Billboard's Heatseekers chart. Later that year Dacus launched the collaborative indie supergroup Boygenius with fellow singer-songwriters Julien Baker and Phoebe Bridgers, issuing a self-titled EP in October and then mounting a three-way co-headlining tour.

On Valentine's Day 2019 Dacus issued a cover of Édith Piaf's "La Vie en Rose," launching a run of holiday-timed originals and reinterpretations tied to various occasions across the year. Those tracks gathered on the EP 2019, which Matador put out that November. Throughout 2020 she began writing and tracking her third album, drawing lyrical cues from her own adolescent years. Home Video arrived in June 2021, supported by opening slots for Bright Eyes and Shakey Graves plus her own headline dates. The widely praised LP registered on multiple domestic and international charts, peaking at 104 on the Billboard 200. The wry "Kissing Lessons," captured during the Home Video sessions, surfaced on Valentine's Day the next year.

Dacus returned to the studio with Boygenius for their first full-length. Crafted both individually and collectively, the set presented a cohesive sound as the three songwriters' voices blended into a weighty, melodic, and gently bittersweet collection. Titled The Record, it came out on Interscope in March 2023, climbing as high as number four on the Billboard 200 while also topping charts in the Netherlands, the U.K., and Ireland. The group followed with the folk-leaning four-song EP the rest that October. Their growing stature meanwhile led to a tour that featured a sold-out performance at Madison Square Garden.