RADAR: Kelli Scarr

Brooklyn songwriter Kelli Scarr has had her fingers in a number of interesting projects over the past five years, from a two-year stint in Moby's touring band to her work with some local indie bands and fronting the electro-acoustic outfit Color of Clouds. But even with her foray into the intimate, starkly defined neo-folk of her excellent 2010 album Piece, nothing prepared us for the dramatic left turn into the wide-open Americana of her forthcoming new album Dangling Teeth arriving June 5 (Silence Breaks). Co-produced with Joe Rogers and recorded in Woodstock, Scarr's studio band surrounding her as they backed her new songs, Teeth gently bares some stripped, 70's-styled alt-country edge (think Harvest with a touch of Emmylou) while maintaining its own tightly focused vision. The title track is a balmy slow-dance decorated with touches of pedal steel, Scarr's beautifully modulated vibrato revealing what we've described as "a sense of vulnerability and a yearning dreaminess."

Kelli Scarr - "Dangling Teeth" (from the album Dangling Teeth)

Kelli Scarr - "Salt to the Sea" (from the album Piece)

More on "Dangling Teeth at NPR here...