Zoe Muth and the Lost High Rollers
Starlight Hotel
Ballard, WA
“Stellar by Starlight”
The ten tracks on Zoe Muth’s sophomore outing, Starlight Hotel, aren’t what most listeners would expect to hear from a woman living in a small Seattle neighborhood – the city that countless grunge and rock bands before her also called home. In other words, the Pacific Northwest isn’t exactly country music territory.
Which is why Muth’s latest songs are all the more impressive. Her musical aesthetic draws heavily from the traditional country sound of the South, and she pulls it off rather effortlessly, as though she grew up singing in clubs all over Kentucky. She displays a wide range of songwriting capability, offering a healthy dose of both up-tempo toe-tappers (“I’ve Been Gone,” “Come Inside”) and quiet ballads (“Before the Night Is Gone,” “New Mexico”) whose lyrics revolve around themes of embracing life, with or without that working class man by her side.
Whether she’s accompanied by a full band or an acoustic guitar, Muth’s voice remains the focus of each song. It resonates brilliantly throughout the album, striking a timbre somewhere between Loretta Lynn and Jenny Lewis. Muth is quickly building a solid niche that bridges yesterday’s and today’s female alt-country visionaries while maintaining a style that is undoubtedly her own. (Signature Sounds Recordings)
Produced by Martin Feveyear and Zoe Muth // Engineered, mixed and mastered by Martin Feveyear at Jupiter Studios, Seattle