Kora Feder - Some Kind of Truth (2025)

This showcase follows a reliable musical topicality that encompasses childhood, friendships, nostalgia & aging expectations. Melancholy? Maybe. Dire? Not so much. Maybe it’s simply an album of realistic music that explores what many listeners can relate to. Some people grow old, when they should accept maturity. And it’s a road everyone eventually takes…walk briskly, enjoy the view & the faces you meet along the way. Like Kora Feder.

There’s Some Kind of Truth to these 9 cuts from Kora’s sophomore LP produced by Justin Farren. This set was imagined by a folk singer who has weaved her songs with experiences that emanated from a backpack, guitar & her travels. Detroit-based Kora paints her songs with folky strokes, gentle folk-rock swipes, ambient elements & some lucent West Coast inspirations.

What I got from Kora is poignancy in her performance. Despite a voice that has clarity, she has a juvenile attraction. I didn’t say childish. I should better define it as a youthful attractive tone. She isn’t Lucinda Williams or Patti Smith. Her voice is not as playfully young as early Melanie Safka (“Look What They’ve Done To My Song, Ma” & “Brand New Key”). But Kora has a ‘60s hippie folky sincerity & she’s ripe for continuing in that viable musical idiom. Her songs are not silly, cliché heavy, or hippie-dippy. They have substance (“Paragraphs”) & Kora tells a good contemporary story.

Kora takes a page (knowing or not) from past songbooks by artists such as Ruthann Friedman (“Windy,” “People”), Melissa (“Medicine Mixin’”), Pam Polland (“Abalone Dream”) & Melanie Safka. What she hasn’t touched upon yet are the heavier tunes as recorded by the likes of the late Judee Sill (“The Kiss,” “Jesus Was a Cross Maker”) & Laura Nyro. Hey, good things come to those who wait.

But I like Ms. Feder’s originality. She writes good songs & makes them sound interesting. The instrumentation by a full-fledged accomplished band is a little spare sounding, however, this isn’t a rollicking foot-stomping bar band. What Kora does do is provide a genuine early Joni Mitchell-type musical narrative (“Jason Song”) that’s impressive & just poetic enough since Kora’s an observant songwriter. She has a sharp eye for detail & tackles subjects other songwriters seem to ignore.

As challenging as her subjects can be, Kora’s songs don’t swing for the dancing feet, or strike blows to the academic head — she goes for the heart. It’s where her words will linger best.