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With a voice that emerges out of nowhere, hovering over gentle acoustics like a ghost, Marissa Nadler sings with a grace that is nearly as disarming as her shyness.  Nadler has recently released her fourth album to date, 2009’s Little Hells.  Though she doesn’t change style or direction throughout her releases, they are all quite effective in their inherent sensitivity.  She doesn’t use a ton of difficult to understand metaphors in her songs but describes a scene as if she was telling you the things she would notice after a traumatic incident such as a broken heart or the death of a friend.

Though she did have Carter Tanton, a member of the band Tulsa, come up and play a few songs with her, Nadler really didn’t need any supplement to her beautiful finger plucking.  The sound of her voice could easily be classified as timeless as if it could emerge from a Renaissance era.  One might imagine her playing in desolate but verdant forests in this and all previous lives.  In fact, it’s difficult to imagine her in any other role besides that of musician as she fits it so perfectly.

It wouldn’t be too far off to describe Nadler’s on stage sense of fragility as how some remember the former Chan Marshall of Cat Power.   She is quiet and understated, which is exactly what one might expect from her recorded songs.  She doesn’t make a great deal of stage banter between songs and apologized for this a couple of times, admitting that she just felt very shy.  However, what her sets lack in a sense of entertainment appeal, they gain in genuineness.  Nadler is a deep feeling sort of woman and that’s precisely what makes her songs so intuitively memorable.   She could easily decide to be a recluse and vanish in thin air but her fans would all suffer immensely for that.

To be clear, Nadler is also a very accomplished guitar player and has a way of finding the sweetest melodies and repeating them to the point where they resonate.  She doesn’t exactly seem like she would fit in the “singer/songwriter” category, though this is technically true.  One doesn’t feel that her folk songs were created for fame and glory, though.  Most likely, they were born into this world because they provided Nadler some peace.  It would be remiss not to add how capable they are of providing comfort to others, as well.