Joanna Newsom is a harpist, pianist, harpsichordist, singer and songwriter from Nevada City, California. A follow-up to the The Milk-Eyed Mender (2004), her second album Ys (Drag City, 2006) (top) was named for a mythical city in Brittany, and features full orchestra arrangements by Van Dyke Parks and mixing by Drag City label-mate Jim O'Rourke. While the media have labeled her as one of the most prominent members of the modern psych folk movement, Newsom's songwriting incorporates elements of Appalachian music, avant-garde modernism, and African kora rhythms. On February 23, 2010 Drag City released Have One on Me as the official follow up to the harpirst's highly acclaimed second studio release, 2006's Ys. It is a triple album produced by herself and mixed by long-time collaborators Jim O'Rourke and Noah Georgeson, with the accompanying arrangements by Ryan Francesconi. Have One on Me received perfect scores and extremely positive evaluations by many publications, as well as earning Newsom favorable comparisons to other singer-songwriters such as Joni Mitchell, Laura Nyro, Rickie Lee Jones and Kate Bush. Allison Stewart of The Washington Post called Have One on Me "her magnum opus, a three-disc set being likened to a freak-folk Sandinista!, though it feels more like a musical Ulysses." Spin's Andy Beta expressed that Newsom "gives what few artists can deliver: a self-contained world of warmth, crystalline detail, and intimacy that lies far beyond a Twitter feed" in his 4 star review. Will Dean of The Guardian pointed that "at two-hours-plus, it's a record that demands concentration to appreciate its splatterings of beauty. But pour yourself a glass and listen, because they don't make them like this too often."
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