There is a cult-like fascination growing around Kassi Valazza. Her celebrated double LP Dear Dead Days garnered nationwide attention and it continues to grow in popularity. Her latest, surprise EP Highway Sounds was one of the most anticipated of 2022. Seated squarely at the vanguard of new American songwriters strengthening and diversifying country music and Americana she’s toured with acts like Riddy Arman, and Melissa Carper. The southwestern native resides in Portland, a hotbed of songwriters producing fascinating albums that both bear the torch and bend the arc of American roots music. Her new album Kassi Valazza Knows Nothing is a spellbinding collection of songs that dangle like protective magic talismans, catching dreams and glinting light. Valazza hypnotises listeners with a solid, gentle voice, on painterly songs about independence of spirit. Her band builds hallucinatory landscapes behind her as she works through unidentifiable emotions with unmistakable artistic gifts. If Country and Western music are the traditional homestead on the plain, Valazza is the wild horse running free in the steppe. There is an independence of mind and spirit about her music, and she’s managed to flesh that out on Kassi Valazza Knows Nothing, with lucid songs full of languorous characters, haunting the hallucinatory landscapes her band creates. Like a wild horse Kassi Valazza Knows Nothing is distant, untouchable power; graceful, glorious, then gone.