Nora Jane Struthers released her new album ‘Wake’ in February, 2015, a powerful statement of her own rock-n-roll awakening. Backed by her band The Party Line, the “beguiling…guided by fire” (NPR’s Ann Powers) Struthers mixes pedal steel with robust guitar riffs and her own fearless voice. The 11 original songs on ‘Wake,’ which Struthers self-produced, evoke the realization that she can, as she says, “reconcile my love of both bluegrass and Pearl Jam,” and make sonic magic. NPR Music’s The Record premiered lead track “The Same Road,” praising its “propulsive direction” and saying the song “should make anyone excited to hear the whole [new album].”
‘Wake’ leaves behind wistful narratives in favor of Struthers’ most personal, autobiographical songs yet. “I Don’t Care” brushes off her family’s expectations of marriage while “Dreamin’” conveys the restlessness of being home while itching to get back on tour, and “Mistake” finds her surrendering to vulnerability in a relationship. The album follows 2013′s ‘Carnival,’ which cracked the Top 10 on the Americana radio charts and launched the video for “Bike Ride” that debuted at #1 on the CMT Pure 12-Pack Countdown. The Washington Post likened Struthers to kindred spirits Emmylou Harris and Gillian Welch and Vintage Guitar said she “sing[s] as polished as an Opry pro,” but she nevertheless maintains a genre-defying inimitability on ‘Wake.’
A Jersey girl raised on roots music, who is now making rock records in Nashville, Struthers is impossible to pin down. Her amalgamation of sounds is supported in the studio and on the road by Josh Vana on guitar; Joe Overton on banjo, fiddle and pedal steel; Brian Duncan Miller on bass; and Drew Lawhorn on drums.
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