Julie Byrne’s music is about letting go. When her father, a wedding singer, suffered from multiple sclerosis she started making music in his stead. And when moving from the cold winters of Buffalo to the cold winters of Chicago resulted in a painful separation she recorded her first songs which soon circulated on cassette tapes among friends. Julie Byrne’s songs are hushed drafts, finger-picked on acoustic guitar, each of them a warm breeze into reverberation. Melodies and words are carefully crafted though, sincere, feathery and gorgeous. Even with such a fleeting sound her songwriting is astoundingly to the point, timeless almost, immersed in the kind of sadness that feels good when you feel a little sad yourself. Meanwhile a collection of her songs, titled Rooms With Walls And Windows has been released on Orindal Records, a label run by Owen Ashworth who under the moniker Casiotone for the Painfully Alone counts as an expert on major mood swings. On this side of the Atlantic Julie Byrne is still an insider’s tip, a discovery almost too precious to share.

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