Multi-instrumentalist Anna Vogelzang has been creating songs since 2000, but it wasn’t until 2007 that she was able to take them around the country. The folk-pop artist has been on tour supporting the release of Driftless, her upcoming EP (out November 11 on her own Paper Anchor Music), following 2012’s critically acclaimed Canary in a Coal Mine.

For Driftless, Vogelzang recruited a group of midwestern musicians – including drummer Shane Leonard (Field Report), vocalist Amanda Rigell (Count This Penny), bassist Ben Willis, clarinet and sax player Cheston VanHuss (PHOX) and cellist Patrick Reinholz – to create the EP’s six seamless and gritty tracks.

On stage, Vogelzang plays the banjo, guitar, ukulele, glockenspiel and kalimba, but has always placed her melodies at the forefront of her music, and Driftless is the perfect example. Many of the songs on Driftless were written in 2014 as a part of the “song-a-week” project at RealWomenRealSongs.

“Kay,” the newest track from Driftless, was written from the perspective of Vogelzang’s grandmother, and is a re-imagining of the beginning of the relationship between her grandparents. “This song explores memory, which my grandmother lost later in her life, and goes through trying to describe those feelings of being young and in love when you can’t quite find the words, or quite remember what someone looked like, or felt like,” Vogelzang explained. The band recorded “Kay” live, giving the track a strong, brassy sound and an all-inclusive tone that’s prevalent throughout  the record. Listen to “Kay” below, exclusively through Elmore, and click here to pre-order Driftless.

– Samantha M. Lopez