Headwaters is the sophomore album from Virginian indie folk singer Alexa Rose. A series of minutely-observed vignettes that feel intimate and expansive at the same time. It captures the sweetness of life without avoiding any of the pain, with songs about time and its constraints, peppered with precise details pulled from Rose’s own life that make universal themes seem personal, inviting the listener to make each song their own.
Headwaters are the source of a river. The furthest point from where water merges with something else. They are not mighty. Just a network of small tributaries, like a creek, not necessarily picturesque, but they’re the most important part of the river. Water is fluid and inconsistent and sacred and indifferent. You can be miles down a river, but you’re still at the origin. And in that way, water feels like it has transcended time. That’s how these songs found me—the way memories find you, in that slivering, elusive water. As quickly as you come across them, you bend in another direction.
The tale of wayfaring songwriter Shay Martin Lovette is shaped by an enduring creative pursuit, an inseparable connection with the natural world, and a deep appreciation of the nonpareil musical voices of the past. Two years after his noteworthy debut, Swift Drifter, Lovette brings forth his sophomore record Scatter & Gather, a collection of songs that signal an undeniable shift in the gravity of his writing and arranging. Written mostly from a remote, creekside cabin, the songs reflect Lovette’s role as a versatile harmonica-wielding, wordsmith, drifting between the formulas of folk, indie, and homestyle roots music.
Recorded at the famed Rubber Room Recording Studio in Chapel Hill, North Carolina with producer Joseph Terrell of Mipso at the helm, Scatter & Gather draws in a force of celebrated North Carolina talent including members of Mipso and Watchhouse. With a polished and expanded grandeur, Scatter & Gather’s panoramic luster and attention-grabbing lyricism mark this collection as Lovette’s trophy output; confidently candid, indisputably original, and visually connected by the masterful quilted album artwork of Darryl Norsen.
Lovette’s songcraft has elicited high praise from American Songwriter, The Bluegrass Situation, No Depression, Under The Radar Magazine, Glide Magazine, and New Commute.
