Dusty Roses is the latest single from Portland-based folk artist Alela Diane. The artfully-shot video was recorded in the attic of Diane’s Victorian home, built in 1892, and features co-producer Sam Weber (Madison Cunningham, Anna Tivel) on guitar, Danny Austin-Manning on drums, and Sebastian Owens on upright bass. The combination of drums and bass is fabulously rhythmic and atmospheric. Though light and fluttering, Diane’s guitar is insistent while her vocal performance is intimate, her voice flowing through a gorgeous melody.
Diane says of the song: “I wrote this song about a dear friend of mine whose path took a wrong turn a number of years ago. I think she’s still alive, but no one knows where she ended up. I believe that we all have the capacity to lose ourselves along the way. I’ve seen it happen again and again, whether through mental health struggles, drug use, addiction, trauma, depression, or grief. So many of us have seen someone we love lose the light in their eyes and become a stranger to themselves. It feels like we’re all just teetering on the edge, and some just don’t have a sturdy enough footing to get back on track. This one is for all the lost girls.”
This is the final single from the brand new, just-released album Who’s Keeping Time?, out now on Fluff & Gravy Records / Loose Music. Diane recorded the Bandcamp-exclusive single Spring is a Fine Time in honour of the death of her friend, the Portland folk legend Michael Hurley. She participated in a tribute show for him and, in her grief, found new inspiration: “It was an epiphany to realise how much I missed my community. I felt very clear about what I wanted in that moment: I want to be alive. I want to see live music. I want to play it.” Influenced by loss and a renewed sense of community, Diane found herself experimenting with new material in her attic, and Who’s Keeping Time?, her seventh album, was the result.
