Austin’s Keeled Scales record label has announced a new addition to their already outstanding roster in the form of Lafayette, Louisiana musician, Renée Reed. Her self-titled debut album is set for release on 26 March 2021.
Born and raised in southwest Louisiana, her roots are steeped in Cajun culture. According to her bio, she grew up on the accordion-bending knee of her grandfather Harry Trahan, in the middle of countless jam sessions at the one-stop Cajun shop owned by her parents Lisa Trahan and Mitch Reed, and soaked in the storytelling of her great uncle, the folklorist Revon Reed and his infamous brothers from Mamou. She was surrounded by a litany of Cajun and Creole music legends, both backstage at the many festivals of Southwest Louisiana, and on the porch of her family home.
Reed also explored folk music outside of those early circles – she even attended a Richard Thompson masterclass camp in the Catskills outside of Woodstock, New York. She developed an affinity for outsider art and then discovered 1960s French pop. The discovery of artists such as Serge Gainsbourg, Françoise Hardy, and yé-yé mark a point at which she began to forge a bridge between her many influences.
Whatever anyone says, you’ll still be surprised by the music Reed creates, she’s far from predictable. On her latest single ‘Fast One’, also out Song of the Day, she delivers a lo-fi gem on which she plays beautiful circular patterns on the guitar, accentuating that dreamlike quality she has in those subdued vocals as she draws you ever closer. Underneath the rounded warmth of her sound, there is a deeper duality – Renée says it’s a song full of anger.
The songs on Renée’s self-titled debut album chronicle a three-year period. These are songs about toxic relationships, seeing ghosts, ancestral baggage and blessings, and daydreaming about a lover.
Available March 26, 2021 on LP, CD, & cassette via Keeled Scales.
Photo credit: LeaAnn B Stephan