Itasca

The pseudonym of indie folk musician Kayla Cohen, Itasca’s wispy voice and guitar-picking style are reminiscent of the gentler branch of the singer/songwriter era, with traces of the timeless folk songs of centuries past. After making her Itasca debut with the self-released solo recording Grace Riders on the Road in 2012, she presented her ethereal acoustic songs with a backing band for the first time on her third album, 2016′s Open to Chance.
After taking up the guitar at age 13, Cohen experimented with noise and drone before settling into a delicate, amber-toned folk. She released a handful of cassettes and CD-Rs under her own name while still living in her home state of New York. After relocating to Los Angeles, she issued her full-length Itasca debut, Grace Riders on the Road, in 2012. The home-recorded follow-up, Unmoored by the Wind, was issued by Matt Mondanile’s New Images label in 2014. An eight-track instrumental cassette called Ann’s Tradition appeared a year later on Perfect Wave. Again led by voice and acoustic guitar, 2016′s Open to Chance featured a full band. It was released by Paradise of Bachelors, which also issued her like-minded fourth album, Spring, in 2019. ~ Marcy Donelson