The new single Cowboy by Deer Scout made me think of the Arthur Russell for some reason. That may sound presumptuous; after all, Russell’s short life saw him explore diverse music from classical and country to hip-hop and the avant-guard. Maybe it’s that untethered freedom I detect in the music of front person Dena Miller that led me here. Either way, while the press may compare her music to the intimacy and intricacy of Waxahatchee and Told Slant, elements it does possess, it also feels very homegrown, personal and refreshingly original.
The songs that makeup her debut album Woodpecker were written over a six-year period; in her own words, she approaches songwriting “as a process of boxing things up, or putting away a time capsule”, a quote that chimes with the lyrics “I’ll be a reminder another time” from her new single Cowboy that takes some inspiration from the naïve character Joe Buck of Midnight Cowboy played by Jon Voight.
Raised in Yonkers by parents who are both folk musicians, members of Spuyten Duyvil (pronounced “SPITE-en DIE+vul”), their punk attitude has undoubtedly formed a rich seedbed for their offspring’s experimentalism. Alongside Ko Takasugi-Czernowin on bass, Zuzia Weyman on cello and Madel Rafter on drums is Miller’s father Mark on guitar. His influence goes beyond his playing as the album features one of his songs, “Peace with the Damage”, originally released with his previously mentioned band.
The press quotes Philly’s punk cooperatives to Oberlin’s conservatory experimentalism to New York’s DIY history as influences. She also undertook an internship with the non-profit Philadelphia Folksong Society, an organisation that has 2,500 volunteers and also runs the Philadelphia Folk Festival. She was (or still is) studying politics with an eye towards law, and in an ‘intern-interview’ with the PFS, she said, “Local music scenes are a major site of community engagement and have a responsibility to foster social awareness in the community they create and in the content they produce, especially in times like these.” With an album about uncertainty and the unknown, compassion and connection, she fits right in with those ideals.
Woodpecker is out on April 8th – Pre-Order https://found.ee/ds_woodpecker