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Where I'll Find You

Joan Shelley

2017

Where I'll Find You

Release Date:  2017

By Pitchfork

Reviewed March 27, 2017

Taken from the singer-songwriter’s upcoming self-titled album

Joan Shelley works best when she’s doing a lot with only a little. A minimalist at heart, the Louisville singer-songwriter keeps “Where I’ll Find You” pared down to its barest essentials. The opening guitar theme dives into a lake of pedal steel, echoing the water imagery of her lyrics (“Tell me where to land, I’ll aim this ship onto your sand”). Drummer Spencer Tweedy taps out a gentle country two-step rhythm, evoking slow-dance intimacy. It’s hard to miss the physicality of her language, the way she extends the metaphor into the body, especially on a line like, “I blamed the wind when my legs shook, but your eyes, that hungry look.” “Where I’ll Find You” bares a haiku’s graceful economy of language and meaning—sounding both old and new, spare yet lush.

8:00 PM · Mar 27, 2017