About

Atop the West Allegheny mountains, in the least populated county east of the Mississippi, Elana Brody grew up on a farm surrounded by untamed forests as far as the eye could see. Every season, she’d see new plants and animals appear. Rhododendrons, mountain laurel and wild orchid lady slippers. Beavers in the pond and barred owls in the spruce forests. Brody’s family kept a reverential practice of going on quiet walks where she learned to keep her eyes and ears wide open, like a tracker. She brings this kind of attunement to her music—listening for the new, noticing the earthly details and staying agile in every moment. On her forthcoming EP, The Garden, Brody brings us back to her childhood homestead, with its fireside harmonies and songs to celebrate the earth’s glory. 

The Garden is a return to Brody’s roots. These are songs about how the holy rests on the earth—how the sacred is always findable if you listen for it. The title track is an appreciation for her mother’s hard work tending their homestead garden. Grounded in gospel piano, “The Sun” is an ode to the wondrousness of nature and the power of both human and more-than-human love. “The Insect” was written on a spiritual pilgrimage through Central America. Brody started it in Lake Atitlán in the Guatemalan Highlands and completed it at goddess Ixchel’s shrine on Isla de las Mujeres in the Yucatan. It’s a worshipful song about the power of prayer and being ready to receive true love. Throughout the EP, Brody borrows lines from poets Mary Oliver and Pablo Neruda as well as the biblical Song of Songs. The Garden features Samara Jade, Erik Kertes (Shakira), Jason Burger (Big Thief), Alec Spiegelman (Cuddle Magic), Kiara Ana Perico (Adele) and more. It will be released on September 20. (…Read more here)