Clare Burson

Clare Burson first drew attention in 2003 through her self-produced debut album, an earthy yet sweetly melodic collection of twang-infused alternative songs that drew favorable comparisons to Neko Case and Devon Sproule. Her parents had fostered an early interest in music by placing a butter-box violin in her hands when she was two-and-a-half years old, as she later told New Beats Magazine: “They put a butter-box violin in my hands when I was two-and-a-half years old. I didn’t have much say in the matter.” A classically trained violinist who followed the Suzuki method throughout childhood, Burson discovered fiddle traditions once her family relocated to Nashville during her teenage years. After earning her degree from Brown University in the early 2000s, she had absorbed Klezmer, bluegrass, and Celtic styles while also teaching herself guitar. Despite lacking a publicist, label, or manager, her 2003 self-released album The In-Between received broad critical praise, earned airplay on college stations, and was named one of the best D.I.Y. albums of 2004 by Performing Songwriter Magazine, ultimately selling five thousand copies. The resulting attention led her to collaborate with several alt-country veterans—including David Henry of the Cowboy Junkies, Lex Price, and Fognode—on the 2005 EP Idaho. She issued her second full-length, Thieves, independently in 2007. Rounder Records then signed her for the 2010 release Silver & Ash, a project largely inspired by her grandmother’s experiences in the Holocaust.