The Bellingham Herald Article

From the article, "The Music of Willow: autumn, winter shade.", written by Ernest A. Jasmin of The Bellingham Herald, we get wonderful insight about Willow. The text from the article appears below.

"The music of Willow - the folk singer who plays Sunday night at Stuart's Coffeehouse - is linked closely to the weather. Since she makes her home in Seattle, smack dab in the middle of the drizzly Pacific Northwest, the correlation isn't conducive to upbeat pop. 'I do definitely connect spirituality to the Earth's cycles and seasons', says Willow, 29. 'Most of my music tends to be very introspective because of that...I tend to write most of my songs in autumn and winter.' The result is a passionate, angst-filled collection of acoustic songs, as gathered on her self-published, self-titled 1999 debut. On the recording, Willow's voice -- which draws comparisons to Natalie Merchant and Joan Baez - ranges form a hushed lullaby to a soaring, anguished wail, as she explores themes of personal anguish and religious doubt. The singer/songwriter says she draws most of her material directly from life experiences. Willow's father is a pastor, and her youth revolved around the church. By 1991, she had enrolled at Multnomah School of the Bible in Portland, OR., and found herself in the midst of a spiritual crisis. The school's conservative doctrine didn't sit well with her evolving paradigm. She dropped out after one year, but continued to struggle through her beliefs even as she acted as a youth minister at her church. 'It's kind of like I had these two people inside me.' Ironically, she treasures the experience. 'It was actually the best thing that ever happened to me because it really challenged my way of thinking...really it was the best way I could have spent that $7,ooo. I thoroughly found a part of myself I could tap into.'

Other forces were also at work at that point in her life. She had told her boyfriend (eventually her husband) that she'd always wished she played guitar. One day he handed her a cheap guitar he'd found in a pawnshop. 'I thought, how sweet, but I don't know how to play it .' Artists friends taught her some basic chords and blessed with lots of free time, she retreated to her small studio apartment to tinker through the rest. The results were invigorating. '...the songs just poured out of me,' WIllow says. She first debuted her songs at Portland's Saturday Market, but eventually moved to Seattle. Willow's sound Sunday will differ from her CD in that guitarist, Kevin Wood, bass/violinist Ken Stubblefield and drummer Jeremy Sever will accompany her. The band is planning to hit the studio this summer to record Willow's follow-up CD."

~ Ernest A. Jasmin, Bellingham Herald