Fables / Ones To Watch

Fables

Indie / Alt Folk / Country

Fables

From: Auckland, New Zealand

Related Artists: Lucy Dacus, Joni Mitchell, Laura Marling, Big Thief

For the past decade, Jessica Bailey’s Fables ensemble has been a familiar fixture in Tāmaki Makaurau’s independent music scene. Their sound elegantly marries the intimate, bed-sit qualities of folk revival music with the expansive, range-roving sensibilities of alt-country and Americana, drawing comparisons to Gillian Welch, Laura Marling, Adrianne Lenker, and their peers. A songwriter who knows the devil is in the details: the ones you leave in and the ones you leave out, Bailey draws deeply from the highs, lows, and mundane middle of everyday reality. The result is economical but arresting narratives with a surreal slant. Call it folk obscura.