‘Sultry folk, like a Romany-Gypsy cabaret’

American/German folk singer Anja McCloskey plays Preston’s New Continental tonight.
Anja McCloskeyAnja McCloskey
Anja McCloskey

Ahead of the release of her second album, Quincy Who Waits, on July 21, she’ll bring her sultry sounds to the city.

The LP follows the winning formula of her first album An Estimation; described as “an eclectic collection, embodying elements of alternative, folk and traditional, built mostly around Anja’s masterful accordion”.

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However, where An Estimation was an album about friendship, roots and belonging, Quincy Who Waits covers issues of displacement, searching for a cultural identity and of leaving things behind – the result of two years of travelling.

“It picks up where An Estimation left off but in a way working on Quincy Who Waits has taken me further,’ says Anja.

“I have become more confident, musically and emotionally, through my travels and encounters and I feel that Quincy Who Waits encompasses this new found strength and independence.”

Written mainly while touring through America’s Mid West, Anja recorded the album in Germany. The highlights include mysterious first single Too Many Words and Insane, with its jaunty almost tango feel.

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The title track, Quincy Who Waits In the Daffodils, offers insight into Anja’s time in America. “I spent months touring through states like Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, and Kansas,’ says Anja. “Which, whilst wonderful and fascinating, was also a time of unfamiliar solitude.”

And Red is the result of hours driving alone in silence through treacherous winter scenes, feeling miles away from home.

Quincy Who Waits is about a memorial bridge in Des Moines, full of plaques with messages for loved ones.

“One was dedicated ‘For Quincy Who Waits in the Daffodils’. It had fresh daffodils wrapped around it and I found it really moving. I don’t know who Quincy was, but this is a song for him.”

She has also recorded a remix of a Moulettes song (Constellations) with Dan Smith of the Noisettes, as part of a special bonus EP for their recent album.

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