“In any industry, success is measured by climbing as high as you possibly can, but these days I think of music as something more like a public service. You show up in city after city and you bring the music with you, and hopefully it reaches whoever needs to hear it.”
Discussing her latest album, Margaret Glaspy encapsulates the role of the songwriter and musician. For most performers there is precious little money to be made from making music, the reward comes instead from communication and the at least temporary uplift songs bring to people’s lives. It contrasts with my own experience of decades working as what is officially deemed to be a public servant where the financial rewards might be marginally more secure but in which a labyrinthine set of obstacles and rules have to be navigated before it is even vaguely possible to serve people.
With ‘I Am Both’, Glaspy moves away from the indie rock leanings of her first three album into a more folk-centred direction. There is a stunning focus to the songs and performances with her voice cutting through with a rare emotional sharpness. Some of the credit also belongs to production from Joe Henry who has previously worked with the likes of Aimee Mann and Joan Baez. He gives the album a big “live in the room” quality even in its quietest moments.
Glaspy tends to start albums with its most immediately arresting song. 2023’s ‘Echo The Diamond’ began resoundingly with ‘Act Natural’ and this time it is ‘Michigan’ which exemplifies her pin-sharp storytelling and imagines a post-breakup escape from New York to the Midwest. It fits into the category of revenge through self-sufficiency as the dumper unsuccessfully tries to win back his former lover (“You said you didn’t want me / But you still came all this way /You said you didn’t need me /But honey who’s standing in whose driveway.”) While Glaspy’s big, gritty, country-inflected vocal is out-front conveying a heart-broken resilience, all the song’s instrumental details from her expert band are captured perfectly: finger-picking guitar, soulfully understated keyboard whirs from Patrick Warren (whose previous credits include Tracey Chapman, Tom Waits and Bruce Springsteen) and creatively pattering percussion from Jay Bellerose (Alison Krauss, Bonnie Raitt and Robert Plant). She returns to a similar theme later with the hushed and calm ‘Wildest Dreams’, illustrating that the most dignified vengeance is a subsequent life led happily (“Sometimes the loser ends up winning / Looks like the end is only the beginning / Yes I’m set free like I only thought I’d be in my wildest dreams.”)
In another immediate standout, Glaspy wraps her mighty tonsils around ‘That Rose’, a song of almost sweet jealousy. With impressionistic imagery of rose sniffing as well as dreaming “you looked into the clouds like they were my eyes / you made them blush – the clouds got shy / and made a red sky”, the song is an utter delight, the organ peels adding to its mood. Twangy guitar, Ross Gallagher’s resonant bass and sparing piano notes create a simmering drama on the self-critical ‘Petty’, a song of slamming doors, silent rage and falsely thinking telepathy is a requirement for love.
Musically, ‘Reminder’ relies on rhythm more than melody. Its structure initially seems awkward but is especially effective as the percussion and guitar gains in volume and intensity. The song captures an inner monologue, a recognition of the smallness of her own problems against wider suffering and acknowledgement that “money can do lots of things / but it can’t buy dignity.”
Her use of harmonica on a couple of song lends them a Dylan-like quality. The solo on ‘Common Ground’ is a whole-hearted blast on a track that considers the contemporary tendency to either put people on a pedestal or dismiss them entirely rather than make a more measured assessment of their human strengths and weaknesses. In contrast, ‘Martin Luther King, Jr.’ uses the harmonica as a sombre caress on a song that reframes words from a 1957 speech by the civil rights leader while reflecting on the contemporary housing crisis (““Get a job!” They yell /Oh but how do you get / A job without an address / In America / The Land of the free / With steep poverty / It turns out freedom ain’t free.”) It continues Glaspy’s willingness to confront political ills as demonstrated most directly in 2022 by the release of ‘My Body My Choice’ in response to the Supreme Court overturning Roe V Wade which had granted abortion rights.
‘James and Marie’ exemplifies the potency of her words and delivery. A depiction of a relationship riddled with financial worries and that has dissolved into silence for fear of saying the wrong thing, Marie’s image of him having gone from a god to a flawed boy, one who “can’t walk the walk but he’s talking triple”. It demonstrates Glaspy’s capacity for songwriting that mixes clarity with nuance. Reflective, rich piano and cello make an ideal accompaniment to ‘Sharp Knife’ which examines the different reasons why men and women may choose to carry a weapon.
Even though Glaspy has a huge voice, there is considerable variety to her delivery. ‘I Thought She Was A Song’ sees high school friend worship dissected in a part spoken, part crooned voice to contemplative fingerpicking guitar accompaniment. The album ends with its semi-spoken title track, a musically understated celebration of multidimensionality in a world that prefers easy categorisation. It neatly summarises the qualities that Glaspy brings to I Am Both’. The album proves that clarity and complexity are complementary. The more folk-centred sound enables her to flourish as a songwriter to such an extent that ‘I Am Both’ is a realistic album of the year contender and an impressive act of public service.
Margaret Glaspy: I Am Both – Out 7 August 2026 (ATO Records)
Glaspy – Michigan (Official Live Video)
I was editor of the long-running fanzine, Plane Truth, and have subsequently written for a number of publications. While the zine was known for championing the most angular independent sounds, performing in recent years with a community samba percussion band helped to broaden my tastes so that in 2021 I am far more likely to be celebrating an eclectic mix of sounds and enthusing about Made Kuti, Anthony Joseph, Little Simz and the Soul Jazz Cuban compilations as well as Pom Poko and Richard Dawson.
