Eliza Edens

Philadelphia singer-songwriter Eliza Edens grew up in rural Massachusetts with parents whose occupations clearly affected her own worldview. One is a gardener, one is a journalist, and in Edens’ new record Time Away From Time — self released this past week — we find a keen wordsmith with a love of nature; her lyrics are populated with images of mountain peaks and valley crocuses, of oceans and deserts.

Moreso than the broader ecological world outside of our insular personal world, Edens’ record is a reflection on all things temporal — the passing of hours, the passing of years, the collective journey into the future from which we cannot return. And she delivers these ruminations with a warm, wistful, contemplative voice reminiscent of Laura Marling, Judee Sill, and Joan Baez.

“Garden Of Sound” opens the set on a fast acoustic fingerpicked lead, with atmospheres built around it with e-bow guitar by Dexter Wolfe, saxophone by Nelson Devereaux, and mallet cymbal washes by Murphy Janssen. Edens worked with an exemplary roster of players on this record — the arrangement of string players Lyle de Vitry, Greg Byers, and Clifton Nesseth on “When Silence Turns To Sound” is particularly beautiful — but her voice and words lead the journey.

The pensive rocker “Long Drive” has a Jeff Tweedy-ish outlook, a nervy discomfort with the ultra-connected world: “You’re a whisper in the streaming sea of telephone wires and flashing screens.” Those themes echo on the anxiety-fueled “Days, Nights,” which Edens said on social media is “a great song for spacing out on public transit, dreaming of past lives, and reveling in the last bits of icy chill that winter has to offer.”

The title track is a master stroke of pacing, with the chorus set apart from the verses by a complete pause, and the silence within that pause contains entire worlds — “steal me away from minutes and hours and days,” Edens sings, and truly she and her players are able to offer listeners that escape into contemplation, if only for a fleeting moment. Finding space for thought is also a theme in “I’m No Prisoner Of Time,” which she wrote after returning from a 10-day silent Vipassana meditation course and reflecting on that experience. “I’m here to release myself from time again,” she sings, and it’s a moment of peace we all could use.

Time Away From Time was recorded in part thanks to a grant from the revered Cambridge folk venue Club Passim that Edens received in 2017; she was supposed to play an album release this Sunday at Ortlieb’s, but that is obviously no longer happening, and she’s turned to live streams instead, using them to collect donations for Passim’s emergency relief fund to help artists affected by the Coronavirus pandemic.

Listen to Time Away From Time below, grab a download or order a physical copy at Bandcamp, and follow her on Instagram for more on future virtual gigs. - WXPN's The Key

From the moment Eliza Edens opens her debut album, we find ourselves wrapped in a gorgeous blanket of sound. The Philadelphia-based singer/songwriter weaves wonders with Time Away From Time, a stirring and intimate alt-folk tapestry full of space to breath, light to see, and moments of truth tailor-made for in-depth introspection.

Independently released April 17, 2020, Time Away From Time marks a resounding introduction for Eliza Edens. The Western Massachusetts-born, Philadelphia-based singer/songwriter first introduced herself in 2017; her Lowlight EP is a fun and nuanced collection, with songs like “Balaclava” offering immersive soundscapes and a balance light acoustic guitars and layers of organic horns and other strings. Preceded by the singles “Days, Nights,” “Ramble,” and “I’m No Prisoner of Time,” Time Away From Time presents the next level of that talented songwriter we first met just three years ago.

Edens’ guitar alternates between fierce and lush, delicate and dynamic; describing the nuance of her instrumental performance alone could fill a small library with contrasting adjectives. Add to that the stirring inflections, gilded tonality, and subtle emotion flowing through Edens’ voice, and we begin to understand the brilliance driving every second of her album. Time Away From Time may very well be an understated alt-folk masterpiece, but that’s for time to ultimately decide.

Edens self-describes as making music “in a world distinctly separate from the constraints and speed of modern living,” pulling inspiration from time, everyday life, nature, and more. Her expressive finger-picking abilities coalesce with her dazzling vocals and a litany of musician friends to create nine seamless little worlds whose sonic textures invite us to tune in and indulge: To lay our weary heads on a bed of sound, if only for a while. Music like this is the kind we can dwell in; the kind that helps us let go of our tensions and doubts, stress and strains.

Like an oasis in a desert of noise and sound, Time Away From Time isn’t an escape – it’s a destination.

However you choose to hear Eliza Edens’ music, know that you are in for an out-of-body journey you never thought possible in the alt-folk canon. Experience the full record via the below stream, and peek inside Eliza Edens’ Time Away From Time with Atwood Magazine as the artist goes track-by-track through the music and lyrics of her debut album! - Atwood Magazine

Everything about Eliza Edens‘ new single is gentle. From its lyrical metaphors for pain and struggle to its seamless transitions, there’s a soft touch and a sense of delicacy in every little corner of “Ramble.” An uncomplicated beacon of light and hope in dark times, this folk tune is a calmly swaying antidote to all kinds of negative feelings.

The slide and swell of the lap steel and the distant shine of the bowed xylophone really expand this song’s sonic landscape and allow the melody blossom. Lyrically untangling hardship in terrestrial, skyward, and musical imagery, “Ramble” always returns to a comforting resolve. It’s the kind of song that settles snuggly into ears and hearts with one listen and only becomes more tender with every repetition.

Eliza Edens’s debut album, Time Away From Time, will be out April 17th. Listen to more Eliza Edens here. - Swell Tone

Raised in Massachusetts and currently residing in Philadelphia, Eliza Edens weaves a delicate, finger picked brand of folk music. Taking inspiration from the slower rhythms of geological time, her debut full-length Time Away From Time removes itself from the rush of modern life to probe and ponder at a more leisurely place, finding beauty and melancholy in both nature and the process of living.

Lead track ‘Garden of Sound’ welcomes you into this world. Carved from a wistful fondness, the song balances intuition with mystery, offering a natural ambiguity where knowing and unknowing marble into something wonderful. - Various Small Flames

“‘Ramble’ is an ode to hope,” says singer/songwriter Eliza Edens. I could use some of that these days, how about you? I first heard the song a month or so ago, and I immediately listened to it four or five times in a row. It is striking in its simplicity and depth. Edens’ vocal is understated and gorgeous and the instrumentation matches her subtle delivery. A lap steel guitar, played by producer and multi-instrumentalist Dexter Wolfe, slides in easily after the first chorus. Many sounds I can’t quite place, and that’s just fine by me; this song feels right.

Reflecting on the song, Edens says, “sometimes we mess up and fall down, we can always choose to get back up again. Things will get better. Possibility and opportunity are around the bend.” As many of us are stuck inside, being isolated and feeling isolated, the idea of rambling around sounds pretty intoxicating. For now, we need music like this to keep us company, to help us imagine what it’ll be like down the road, to be a soothing presence during this anxious and uncertain time.

Eliza’s record, Time Away From Time, comes out April 17 and we’re so pleased to give you this sneak peek of “Ramble.” Listen, listen again, and enjoy. - Red Line Roots

It is funny what hooks you into an artist's sound for the first time. For me, when it comes to Massachusetts' raised, Philadelphia based singer songwriter Eliza Edens it was the way she sang the word "you" during the beginning moments of her song Days, Nights from her upcoming debut album "Time Away From Time". Amid a bass line with a clock like cadence and pearly acoustic guitar picking rhythms she draws out "you" in a long beautiful sustain. It made me notice the nuances in her voice, her vocal ease as as storyteller and her ability to create ebb and flow melodies that reel you into her emotions. That initial peaking interest eventually drew me to the poetry of her words and lovely production cues like the falling away guitar on the chorus and dreamy harmonies. Love Edens' vocal aesthetic. Yes, it is funny what hooks you into an artist's sound for the first time. - American Pancake

PITTSFIELD — Since its opening season in 2017, the Shaker Barn Music series at Hancock Shaker Village has given roots music a prominent central Berkshire stage in the months leading up to FreshGrass in North Adams. The living history museum has booked acts such as Dom Flemons, The Sweetback Sisters and Anna & Elizabeth over the past two years, tapping into Appalachia and other roots hotbeds throughout the world.

But while these performers may hail from across the globe, music curator Karl Mullen hasn't neglected the talent in the living history museum's immediate surrounds. Local openers have been part of the series since its outset, and Mullen plans to continue exposing Berkshire residents and regional acts to headliners' larger audiences.

"I really want to go out of my way," Mullen said.

For example, later this season, Western Massachusetts-based musicians Izzy Heltai and Corey Laitman will open for The Mammals (July 27) and Nellie McKay (Aug. 24), respectively. And on Sunday night, Williamstown native Eliza Edens will play before The Suitcase Junket, Matt Lorenz's one-man project that involves multiple unconventional instruments (thrift store forks and broken bottles, for instance) and throat singing, among other blues rock and roots surprises. Lorenz will be touring behind the release of his latest album, "Mean Dog, Trampoline."

"I was so absolutely excited when Karl emailed me and was like, 'Hey, do you want to open for the Suitcase Junket?' because when I first discovered his music three or four years ago, I was just so obsessed with it, his album, 'Make Time,'" Edens told The Eagle by phone recently. "He's an incredible songwriter and has created such a unique way to express the songs with the sounds he makes."

It won't be Edens' first performance at Shaker Barn Music. The alt-folk singer-songwriter opened for Sarah Lee Guthrie in 2017. Mullen recalled the two teaming up to offer a rousing rendition of "This Land Is Your Land." He wasn't surprised that Edens could hang with Guthrie, the folk singer who calls Washington home. Ever since Edens began playing at Mullen's personal barn series on his Williamstown property, he saw the strength of her music's emotion and delivery, that she was "worthy as a national performer."

"Human emotion is so complicated, and I feel like ... if you do a good job writing a song, it should scrape the surface of that kind of emotion in some way," Edens said.

Her debut EP, "Lowlight," mines some of those sentiments. In the title track, she sings about sorrows and shadows, buried and evasive presences alike. It's soft music.

"People find them relaxing and quiet songs to just listen to as they're going about their day or falling asleep," Edens said, laughing. "A lot of people say they fall asleep to it, which I guess I can take as a compliment."

Edens is now using a 2017 Club Passim Iguana Music Fund Grant to make a new album, some of which is being recorded in the childhood home where folk-loving Betsy Johnson and Bill Densmore raised their daughter on a healthy diet of the Beatles and James Taylor. (Densmore serves on The Berkshire Eagle's advisory board.) Though her finger-picking guitar style is a big part of her current musical repertoire, Edens started out on the piano.

"I took piano lessons, the Suzuki by-ear method, at age 6. I took them for a year, and I totally quit because I hated my piano teacher. We didn't jive," Edens said. "But then I took up lessons again when I was 15, in high school, and just had an absolutely amazing piano teacher (Susan Hadfield) who was so encouraging and positive and really instilled a lifelong love of what music is and what music can be."

The 2011 Mount Greylock Regional High School graduate who attended Colorado College and now lives in Philadelphia knows that musical bonds travel.

"One of the biggest ways I feel like it's affected my life is just the sense of community that surrounds any group of people making music," Edens said of the art form. "That's a big part of why I do it." - The Berkshire Eagle