Taste Test: Katie Dahl rides to the end of the world with ‘Helen’
The folksy storyteller wanders back into the past on a new song.
Welcome to Taste Test, a song/video review series of SubmitHub-only gemstones
The past can come roaring back when you least expect it. The noises grow into a monstrous growl, strangling the senses, and cracks of thunderous emotions pierce deep into your eardrums. Folk singer-songwriter Katie Dahl manages to wrangle such a perfect storm with her nostalgia-kissed song called “Helen,” which initially sprouted upon rediscovering an old college-written poem. Her acoustic guitar is a trusty one, indeed, and with little else in the production, her voice is as a canary fluttering to and fro amidst a dusty whirlwind that kicks up beneath her. “Boil the kettle / Pour it out,” she sings. Her words splash across a stark white canvas, pastel and electrifying, and in such simplicity, she impresses with a poetically-nurturing spirit.
“Helen” is lifted from Dahl’s new album, Wildwood, out everywhere now.
Listen below:
