
The Milk-Eyed Mender had sold 200,000 copies of as 2010, and helped garner Newsom an underground following. The track " Sprout and the Bean" was featured in the 2008 horror film The Strangers. She also appeared as a guest musician on Vetiver's 2004 self-titled album, and the following year, on Vashti Bunyan's Lookaftering (2005). In December 2004, she performed with Smog and Weird War at the Drag City "It's a Wonderful Next Life" Christmas party. The tour was the subject of the 2011 documentary, The Family Jams. Shortly thereafter, Newsom toured with Devendra Banhart and Vetiver to promote the album, and made an early UK appearance at the Green Man Festival in Wales. Drag City signed Newsom and released her debut album The Milk-Eyed Mender in 2004. He also gave a copy of the CD to the owner of Drag City, his record label. Oldham was impressed with Newsom's music and asked her to tour with him. Newsom's friend and bandmate in Golden Shoulders, Adam Kline, gave one of her CDs to Will Oldham at a show in Nevada City.

At the suggestion of Noah Georgeson, her then-boyfriend and recording engineer of the EP, she burned several copies to sell at her early shows. These EPs were not intended for public distribution. These homemade recordings were intended to serve as a document of her early work.

In 2002–03, after appearing as a guest musician on Nervous Cop's self-titled collaboration album, Newsom recorded two EPs, Walnut Whales and Yarn and Glue. Newsom at the Sasquatch! Music Festival, Washington, May 2005 Career 2002–2005: Career beginnings and The Milk-Eyed Mender She dropped out, however, in order to focus on her music, and returned to live with family in Nevada City. Īfter high school, she studied composition and creative writing at Mills College, where she played keyboards in The Pleased. She did, and later moved on to the harp which she "loved from the first lesson onward." She first played on smaller Celtic harps until her parents bought her a full-size pedal harp in the seventh grade. Her parents eventually agreed to sign her up for harp lessons, but the local harp instructor did not want to take on such a young student and suggested she learn to play the piano first. Īt the age of five, Newsom asked her parents if she could learn to play the harp. Newsom attended a Waldorf school, where she studied theater and learned to memorize and recite long poems. Her father played the guitar and her mother was a classically trained pianist who played the hammered dulcimer, the autoharp and conga drums. She was exposed to music from a young age. She describes her parents as "kind of idealists when it came to hoping they could protect us from bad influences, like violent movies, or stupid stuff". Īs a child, Newsom was not allowed to watch television or listen to the radio. She is the second cousin, twice removed, of Gavin Newsom, Governor of California. Newsom was raised in Nevada City along with her older brother, Peter, and younger sister, Emily. Her parents, both doctors, were "progressive-minded professionals" who had previously lived in the San Francisco Bay Area. Newsom was born on Janu in Grass Valley, California, the second child of Christine (née Mueller) and William Newsom.
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She has also appeared as an actress, with roles in the television series Portlandia and in the 2014 film Inherent Vice. Newsom has been noted by critics for her unique musical style, sometimes characterized as psychedelic folk, and her prominent use of harp instrumentation. She released two further albums: Have One on Me (2010), and Divers (2015), the latter of which outsold all of her previous albums. She would receive wider exposure with the release of Ys (2006), which charted at number 134 on the Billboard 200, and was nominated for a 2007 Shortlist Music Prize. Her debut album, The Milk-Eyed Mender, was released in 2004 to critical acclaim, and garnered Newsom an underground following. Born and raised in Northern California, Newsom was classically trained on the harp in her youth, and began her musical career as a keyboardist in the San Francisco–based indie band the Pleased.Īfter recording and self-releasing two EPs in 2002, Newsom was signed to the independent label Drag City.

Joanna Newsom (born January 18, 1982) is an American singer-songwriter and actress.
