Jana Hunter

Hailing originally from northern Texas, Jana Hunter has been writing and recording songs for the past 16 years. Hunter's songs, usually featuring many overlapped tracks of her own voice, acoustic and electric guitars, and the violin (Hunter's first instrument) were recorded on tape machines for the better part of 10 years.Hunter, raised in a large, religious family and trained as an orchestral violinist from an early age, followed melodic obsessions and a gift for striking listeners as being near-"haunted", and developed a signature sonic topography.In 2005, Hunter released a split LP 12" with Devendra Banhart as well as a solo debut album entitled Blank Unstaring Heirs of Doom. She followed with 2007's There's No Home full-length and an EP bearing the title Carrion, disciplined works that showcased her ability to write and compose.Hunter's most recent work is still at times bleak, even grim, but more often rapturous, lush and resplendent, and represents a marked refinement of her already considerable melodicism and sensitivity. On record and on stage, with or without her band, it's these things as well as Hunter's Cheshire-cat charisma, imperturbability and classic-era way with song that continue to make her a looming specter on the horizon.