The word “country” is enough to scare plenty of music fans away, but it shouldn’t scare you away from listening to Dottie Scharr‘s self-titled EP. The indie-folk singer-songwriter—recently graduated from Berklee College of Music—finds the country and bluegrass roots in her music to be integral.
“I’ve always been most drawn to country and bluegrass because of the lyrics,” she said. “I think there’s something really powerful about the simplicity of the music, because it forces you to be really genuine.”
But Scharr also takes strides to ensure her music draws inspiration from genres other than country.
“We (my band and I) have been playing around with different instrumentations lately,” she said. “We’ve added horns to the live show, as well as more guitar effects—so I think that frames these songs in a way that’s more likely to catch peoples’ attention.”
When asked to describe her music without genre words, Scharr said that it’s “pretty personal and intimate music with an organic feel, but there’s a dreamy, ambient quality as well.”
The EP is certainly dreamy and ambient, yet juxtaposed with heavy lyrical content; “Dead Or Alive” touches on the emotional pain of having a broken heart and facing the realities of the world. “I don’t know if I’m dead or alive,” Scharr sings brightly. “I need to feel something.”
If you find yourself enjoying Dottie Scharr, keep your eyes open for a full-length in the future. Scharr told us she has “a couple new songs already and some older unrecorded material in mind.”
Get a first listen of the EP below, or grab a copy on iTunes: