Unfashionable but influential collaborative indie singer-songwriter enjoys a career-spanning retrospective following her untimely death earlier this year.
Lynn Blakey was not a name that gained a great deal of traction commercially but she was an influential figure in the indie rock and alt-country scene in her home state of North Carolina where she DJ’d on college radio in the early 80s; this was before forming Oh Ok in Athens Georgia with Michel Stipe’s sister Lynda (driven by the inspiration of seeing REM at a small local gig). She collaborated with others such as guitarist Mitch Easter in The Royal Opposition and guitarist Michael Chumbris in Glory Fountain, but her most well-known group experience was with Tres Chicas, a band formed in the late 90s in Raleigh, NC, with Blakey, Caitlin Cary (from Whiskeytown) and Tonya Lamm (from Hazeldine). The group sang together for a few years before releasing Sweetwater in 2004 and Bloom, Red and the Ordinary Girl in 2006. She was friends with Paul Westerberg of The Replacements (and was the inspiration for his Left of the Dial), and with Chris Stamey and Alejandro Escovedo with whom she sang harmony and background vocals, and who said of her “She means a lot to me, one of the most beautiful humans I’ve ever met,” and “the voice can reflect a person’s inner soul when someone has a voice like hers, so beautiful and clear and angelic.
She was well known to a lot of other artists, many of whom spoke of her warm, emotive vocals and her lovely, welcoming personality.
She released a solo EP, Meadowview, in 2011 and was then involved in a number of other collaborations (indie rock with The Salt Collective and guitarist Stephane Schuck being one of the latest), but she was latterly battling metastatic cancer and sadly passed away in February 2026 at the young age of 63.
An 18-track album, Dreams are Lovers: A Retrospective, should introduce listeners to an artist who could and perhaps should have been better known. Curated by Chris Stamey, it includes selected tracks from her own recordings and a number of those collaborations she had during her career. It is easy to see why this retrospective was put together – it creates a profile for an artist who would possibly have remained something of a ‘lost immortal’ – with a talent hidden in plain sight, and the proceeds will go to mental health and wellness charities in North Carolina that were clearly close to Blakey’s heart.
The songs cover a range of styles, from indie-rock, alt folk, pop-infused country, americana and even classical, a semi-operatic version of Bach’s Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring with her violinist husband Ecki Heins (The so-called Stolen German of the credits), who appears on a number of tracks. This particular track was clearly important to Blakey as it featured in a 2018 Christmas album, but it is a bit of an outlier here and doesn’t really fit with the rest of the collection.
There are some fine tunes in the compilation and several retro-sounding songs, such as the quasi-political closer Army of Love, which has a catchy tune, great backing and harmony vocals, and a big nod to 70s Australian folk group The Seekers. Her vocal prowess allows Blakey to attack any style, but the standouts in this collection are the tracks taken from the Tres Chicas albums where she benefits from some really excellent harmony vocals from Cary and Lamm; Heartbeat, Sweetwater (a lovely gentle ballad), and Drop Me Down (a gently swinging organ-driven gospel-style rocker where piano and organ work seamlessly together): “Drop me down into the water, help me wash my sins away”.
The album opens with a mid-paced rocker Rest from her 1990s collaboration in Glory Fountain, but it is Heartbeat that makes you first really listen, and there follows a run of lovely tracks, including a highlight from The Salt Collective; How We Breathe features some nice harmonies from Matthew Caws and Kimberly Rew and gentle guitar breaks from Schuck. This one only just tickles the edges of americana, has more of a 70s AOR pop-rock feel, while Sweetwater really hits the spot, the best of the Tres Chicas tracks. Immigrant Heart is a solo Blakey track with a warm vocal. Room with a View is a collaboration with Mitch Easter, but it is a rather forgettable slice of 80s indie-pop, before The Beauty of 23 (Slip So Easily), a wistful, organ-driven love song from Glory Fountain, which also subsequently appeared on a Tres Chicas album.
Love Finds has perhaps Blakey’s most emotional vocal, with help from The Stolen German, on a lovely, folksy ballad, with snippets of Auld Lang Syne in the backing vocals. Mike Mills from REM adds harmonies on the Salt Collective’s retro 80s In the Shadow of the Moon. Jangly guitars feature in a number of the earlier collaborations that take us toward the end of the album, interpersed with another lovely ballad, Easy to Love.
It’s a compelling compilation that traces Blakey’s musical journey over a three-decade period and highlights her versatile voice and evolving songwriting skills.
