Heidi Spencer

Heidi Spencer and the Rare Birds became fixtures in Milwaukee’s club circuit across several seasons, issuing a pair of earlier independent albums before securing a contract with Bella Union, the U.K. imprint launched by former Cocteau Twin Simon Raymonde, which resulted in the release of Under Streetlight Glow. Born in 1974, Spencer is the child of Milwaukee underground magazine co-founder and musician Jim Spencer, whose solo album Second Look is regarded in some circles as an early-’70s countercultural masterpiece. Upon her father’s early death she located his guitar in the basement and learned to play it herself. After finishing school she spent her teens drifting through more than a dozen states before settling back in Milwaukee, where she began making films—some screened at festivals—and composing songs.

Spencer started performing at 15 and writing songs at 18, drawing equal inspiration from Dolly Parton, Edie Brickell, Emmylou Harris, Stevie Nicks, and Tom Petty, although her spare, ethereal style echoes none of them except perhaps Parton’s earliest, more folk-oriented recordings. She assembled the Rare Birds, whose members included drummer/producer Bill Curtis, guitarist Matt Hendricks, pianist Jess Hrobar, double bassist Dave Gelting, and harmony vocalist Renee Pratt. The band’s debut album, Matches and Valentines, appeared independently in 2003 and was followed by Luck We Made in 2005. While Spencer’s music incorporates faint traces of British traditional and folk forms along with evident Americana qualities, its incantatory character—most clearly heard on the 2011 album Under Streetlight Glow—remains singular, defined by sparse atmospherics, hallucinatory lyrics, and melodies held in taut balance that convey a deep reservoir of longing.