For You Only

Music as pure and necessary as anything Alan Lomax found. - Greg Sorrel. Daughter of Mennonite missionaries, raised in Zaire and Freeman, S.D., Rachel Ries performs prairie swing and city folk. Like Andrew Bird and Erin McKeown, Ries has developed an urban cult following based on a fresh approach to musical forms of the '20s and '30s. Recorded on vintage mics, her vocals recall Billie Holiday and Maria Muldaur, with guitar angel Mississippi John Hurt looking over her shoulder. Her lyrics range from the romantic simplicity of jazz standards to the distilled intensity of poet Anne Sexton. Ries has an adventurous ear for melody and a voice flexible enough to accomplish it. Features banjo, fiddle, piano, pump organ, retro percussion.