Tara Jane O'Neil - Peregrine (2000)

Peregrine is Tara Jane O'Neil's first solo record after spending years in such ultra-indie groups as Rodan, Retsin, and the Sonora Pine. Here O'Neil shows a much more intimate portrait of herself than you probably picked up in the road of Rodan. The experimental quiescence of sonorous slow pop project the Sonora Pine is a better starting point. Peregrine is melancholy and moving, beautifully lonely. This is the best sorrowful songwriting since Damon & Naomi's Playback Singers. To do this album, O'Neil holed up with a guitar, bass, piano, thumb piano, balalaika -- and some blues. First, she crafted her emotions into songs and played all the instruments. Then she added the studio guitarist Dan Littleton (Ida), noted jazz drummer Andrew Barker, and violinist Samara Lubelski (the Sonora Pine, Hall of Fame). Together they put just enough instrumentation on these sparse songs to keep the emotion from being completely naked.