I was first introduced to Rachel Ries music when she opened for CD release party I attended in Buffalo, NY. She is an incredible musician with a striking voice; pure and angelic but not innocent in any way. Her music is well composed with guitar backings that are equal to her extraordinary vocals. Lyrically Rachel discloses the inner dialogue inherent in human nature with sobering honesty. Incredible!
Rachel works off-and-on at a coffee shop down the block from my apartment in Chicago. She's friends with Anais Mitchell, a singer-songwriter who records on Ani DiFranco's "Righteous Babe Records," and they recently recorded a joint album that will be released on RBR...
Rachel's sound, for me, is country-folk-jazzish, along the lines of early Erin McKeown or Sarah Harmer's collection of old-timey songs, "I'm a Mountain."