Joanna Newsom: Influences
Playlist - 15 Songs
Like her own knotty, idiosyncratic folk songs, Joanna Newsom’s influences strike a balance between old-fashioned comforts and radical revision, whether it’s Joni Mitchell’s diaristic flights or Harry Nilsson’s old-Hollywood surrealism. The through line isn’t so much a sound as it is the creative tendency to seek newness in sounds and forms that feel like they’ve already been used up—a sleight of hand that plays on shared histories to make the familiar feel strange and interesting again. Focusing heavily on the ’70s (Newsom’s professedly favorite musical decade), here’s a playlist outlining some of the artists and tracks that helped shape her.