We first became aware of Meg Baird as co-founder of the mysterious psych-folk band Espers who released three excellent studio albums. She then went on to form the moody and thunderous Heron Oblivion and has also found time to release two solo records of her own and now has a new solo album Don’t Weigh Down The Light due for release on the 22nd June via Wichita Recordings.

As with previous releases, the foundation of the new record is her lyrical, precise, and propulsive fingerstyle guitar work and a voice that’s alternately soaring, tender, soothing, and deep with mystery—one that more than a few have likened to folk’s greatest female voices: Sandy Denny, Jaqui McShee, and Shirley Collins. She moved to San Francisco after a decade in Philadelphia and Don’t Weigh Down The Light is also a record of its location—recorded in a city struggling to stay a haven for dreamers, freaks, and weirdos while a new Gilded Age rolls over the land like a flood.

Listen to the gorgeous Mosquito Hawks and the equally sparse, haunting melancholia of Counterfeiters below.

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