Margaret Glaspy

In an era of excess and endless distraction, the New York-based singer/songwriter Margaret Glaspy rejects the noise in favor of something far more essential. On the self-possessed title track for her new album I Am Both Glaspy offers an ardent refusal of any outside pressure to compromise her multidimensionality. That embrace of complexity runs throughout the album’s eleven tracks. In the making of I Am Both, Glaspy stepped away from social media and soon discovered a clarity of mind she hadn’t experienced in years, followed by a sustained burst of creative momentum. As she penned her lyrics in longhand and then polished them up on a typewriter, Glaspy assembled a selection of songs that span from fictional vignettes to unguarded self-revelation to empathetic observation of the troubled world around her. I Am Both emerged from three days of sessions at New York City’s Reservoir Studios, where Glaspy recorded live with drummer/percussionist Jay Bellerose (Bonnie Raitt, Robert Plant, Alison Krauss), keyboardist Patrick Warren (Tracy Chapman, Tom Waits, Bruce Springsteen), and bassist Ross Gallagher (Paula Cole, Grails). Produced by Joe Henry (the three-time Grammy-winning singer/songwriter/producer known for his work with luminaries like Aimee Mann and Joan Baez), I Am Both ultimately stands as a striking new statement from one of the modern music canon’s most formidable songwriters.