Little Songs

"The tinge of cold in the back of your nose, not quite bracing yet, mingling with the homey smell of a woody burn, unlike that of the waxy-wicky shabbat candles - or maybe birthday; the pregnant curve of the spongy foam that buffers your lips from the gas station cappuccino on the long drive back from Massachusetts; the constant motor of purrs and the limply lilting kneads from your cat on the wool blanket; the consistency of the drips of chocolate that pool under your croissant you promised yourself you wouldn't buy when you can no longer cope with the unique pain of everyday-feelings; the rush of cool calm in the pit of your tummy when you first saw the way the sun shines off the water through that tiny corridor between the stucco units of Villa Charlotte… These are little things, little stories, little feelings, little songs; but that doesn't mean they don't matter."

Seven months after Gare Du Nord Records' release of Joel Henry Little's dense and knotty third album, Ephphatha, comes something slightly breezier: Little Songs - a group of 16 short, mostly-unrelated tunes ranging in subject from Greek mythology to a Proustian moment at a CVS sparked by a can of Arizona iced tea to a fictional oil baron's conflicted love of his trade, with a couple detours into 19th-century poetry in between. As ever, it was entirely recorded at home by Joel, with the help of his mother, Amy Dulsky Little, on violin here and there, over the course of about a year (April 2019 - April 2020).

Joel Henry Little is a 22 year old singer-songwriter based in New York City. He has been self-producing original songs since the age of 12 and has amassed a unique and genre-defying body of work that borrows equally from folk, classical, and musical theatre traditions. Little's lyrics are at once deeply personal and often allegorical, and seek to both challenge and connect with listeners intellectually and emotionally. Influences include Joni Mitchell, Richard Dawson, and Joanna Newsom.