History Music / JoannaNewsom

* TheBlueBeard: "Go Long," complete with a visit to "a terrible room / Gilded with the gold teeth of the women who loved you".

!!Tropes related to this artist:
* ACapella: The first two lines of "Monkey and Bear" are sung a capella.

* AnimalMotifs: Birds (especially nightjars) show up in the first and last songs on ''Divers''. Many of her songs mention horses.

* {{Bookends}}: ''Divers'' ends with the word "transcend" cut off after the first syllable, and begins with the word "sending." This may be a ShoutOut to ''FinnegansWake''.

For tropers looking to get used to her sound, great songs to start with include "Sprout and the Bean", "Good Intentions Paving Company", "In California", "Emily", "Colleen", "Peach, Plum, Pear", "Baby Birch", "Divers", and "Time, as a Symptom". ProgressiveRock-minded listeners may wish to dive straight into the seventeen-minute "Only Skin".

** "Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie", "Peach, Plum, Pear", "Baby Birch", "Walnut Whales", "Bridges and Balloons".
*** The tracklist of ''Joanna Newsom & the Ys Street Band'' contains ''only'' words/names that start with the letter C: "Colleen", "Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie", "Cosmia".

* AuthorTract: She practically inverts the trope. Her songs can have political themes, but they're so subtle that you'd probably miss them if you weren't looking for them, and a lot of them require deep analysis of the lyrics to uncover, since many of them are used symbolically. In particular, she often uses the ocean to represent female sexuality and/or anarchic pre-civilisation human existence; this can be found in "Divers", almost every song on ''Ys'', and "Colleen", amongst others. A relevant analysis can be found [[http://www.popmatters.com/feature/be-a-woman-joanna-newsom-the-selkie-and-the-sea/ here]].

* BearsAreBadNews: Subverted in "Monkey & Bear", where the bear is the more agreeable character...

* TheBlueBeard: "Go Long", complete with a visit to "a terrible room / Gilded with the gold teeth of the women who loved you".

* {{Bookends}}: ''Divers'' ends with the word "transcend" cut off after the first syllable, and begins with the word "sending". This may be a ShoutOut to ''FinnegansWake''.

* DreamingOfThingsToCome: [[spoiler:Midway through "Colleen", the narrator dreams of returning to the ocean and being warmly received. At the end of the song, she does this for real.]]

** "Cosmia", written about a childhood friend of hers who perished in a car crash while Joanna was on tour.

* HumansAreFlawed: "Colleen" seems to take this stance. The humans on the shore assume that the narrator is "a thief or a whore" and teach her "prayers for chastity" and "the laws that govern property", amongst other things. Throughout the song, she feels a great unease in human society, [[spoiler:probably because she isn't human; she's most likely a selkie. Midway through the song, she dreams of returning to the ocean and being "so sweetly there received", and at the end of the song, when this occurs for real, she remarks of the experience, "you never in your life have felt so free."]] However, she also explicitly invites us to join her, which suggests she possesses a strong belief in NurtureOverNature: in other words, the flaw is in our society, not our biology. It should be noted that the song also features a well-intentioned traveler midway through the story [[spoiler:who awakens the narrator's memory]], though he's AmbiguouslyHuman; it's possible that he's [[spoiler:also a selkie]].

* IntercourseWithYou: Portions of "Only Skin", though in typical Newsom fashion, it is a ''much'' more oblique example than usual for this trope. [[https://allthebirds.tumblr.com/post/4515331470/thats-an-awfully-real-gun-only-skin-and-the This blog entry]] has an analysis of the sexual imagery in the song.

* MeaningfulName: Bear's name is Ursula, from "Ursus": "Bear".
* MilitaryScienceFiction: "Waltz of the 101st Lightborne".

* RearrangeTheSong: Since it wasn't practical to take an orchestra on tour, the songs from ''Ys'' mostly got new arrangements for live performances ("Sawdust & Diamonds", which features only Joanna's harp and vocals, remained mostly the same). Some of these songs became drastically longer in the process; "Cosmia", which was re-recorded in its live arrangement for the ''Ys Street Band'' EP, wound up around six minutes longer. Live performances of all five songs from the album [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes have been bootlegged]]. Earlier songs, such as "Inflammatory Writ" and "Peach, Plum, Pear", have also been radically rearranged in more recent concerts, and again, bootlegs are available, many of them soundboard-quality.
* ReligionIsWrong: "Colleen" is a literal, albeit subtle example. The amnesiac narrator is assumed to be "a thief or a whore", renamed Colleen (which literally means "girl"), taught "prayers for chastity", and told she is "blessed among all women to have forgotten everything". She does not fit in with society and is tormented throughout the song by the sense that something is wrong. [[spoiler:A traveler ultimately awakens her memory; she ends the song by saying "I don't know any [[SophisticatedAsHell god]][[PrecisionFStrike damned]] Colleen", returning to the ocean, and explicitly inviting the listener to join her.]] May also qualify as a ReligionRantSong, depending upon one's criteria; it might be too gentle, too subtle, and/or too much of a FracturedFairyTale to qualify for some people.

* UncommonTime

* WholePlotReference: As noted in FridgeBrilliance on the YMMV page and above under AnAesop, Monkey is becoming more human-like throughout the events of "Monkey & Bear". Given Joanna's history of making literary allusions, this is very likely a deliberate allusion to Creator/GeorgeOrwell's ''Literature/AnimalFarm'', in which the pigs do the same thing.

--> ''With my steely will compounded in a mighty mound that's hounded\\

-->-- "Cassiopeia"

-->"The big myth about Joanna Newsom is that she is fragile. An extraordinary idea when you think how radical, how ballsy, her choices have been. Her albums conform to no prescribed ideas about how many songs they should contain (the last one had five, this one has 18, songs vary hugely in length -- and let's not forget they're written on a harp). [[CrazyEnoughToWork Does anybody else put superglue on their fingers to make sure the callouses don't grow soft?]] Schlep around the world to lead a different symphonic orchestra in playing her songs every night with barely any rehearsal time, everywhere from the London Barbican to the Sydney Opera House? Playing a huge 7-pedalled harp is tough stuff. And who else, aged 18, would go alone to a wild place down by the river, arrange some stones into a circle, and then sit inside that circle and stay there for three days, fasting. (Her friends camped a few miles away and left her small amounts of rice and water while she slept.) It’s a determination like none I've ever encountered."

* EpicRocking: "Only Skin"

* [[SmallGirlBigGun Small Girl Big Instrument]]: the Waif-like Joanna is dwarfed by her signature instrument.

* AddedAlliterativeAppeal: The vast majority of her songs utilise this to some extent, and it is is a signature characteristic of her lyrics. In fact, it is a good reason half the lines from her songs are so memorable.

Apropos of nothing, she is a distant relative of California governor UsefulNotes/GavinNewsom (lieutenant governor from 2011-2019, mayor of San Francisco from 2004-2011) and as of 2014 is married to ([[OddCouple of all people]]) Creator/AndySamberg.

* DreamTeam: Many people regarded ''Ys'' as an example of this. Joanna employed orchestral arrangements by Van Dyke Parks, known for cowriting Music/TheBeachBoys' ''Music/{{Smile}}'' and for his own album ''Song Cycle'', and her voice and harp were recorded by acclaimed producer Music/SteveAlbini. Jim O'Rourke (known for his work with Music/SonicYouth and his own solo career) also worked on the album, as did well-known session bassist Leland Sklar and singer-songwriter Bill Callahan (with whom Joanna was romantically linked for a time).

* GenreRoulette: Her music is always based in folk, but it shifts wildly in style from song to song. This was particularly notable on ''Have One on Me'' and she took it UpToEleven with ''Divers'', where she deliberately worked with different collaborators from track to track to ensure the album didn't have a consistent feel between songs.

*** The tracklist of ''Joanna Newsom & the Ys Street Band'' contains ''only'' words/names that start with the letter C: "Colleen", "Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie", "Cosmia".

* {{Corpsing}}: In an April 2, 2016, performance in Salt Lake City that has been [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes bootlegged in soundboard quality]], one of Joanna's strings broke, so she had to interrupt the show for a few minutes to change it. The new string kept going out of tune while it was being broken in, and a dissonant note in a performance of "Emily" caused her to crack up audibly. (She also apologizes at the end of the song for skipping two verses, noting that she'd been distracted by trying to think of a way mid-song to avoid using the dissonant string).

-->"The big myth about Joanna Newsom is that she is fragile. An extraordinary idea when you think how radical, how ballsy, her choices have been. Her albums conform to no prescribed ideas about how many songs they should contain (the last one had five, this one has 18, songs vary hugely in length — and let’s not forget they’re written on a harp). [[CrazyAwesome Does anybody else put superglue on their fingers to make sure the callouses don’t grow soft?]] Schlep around the world to lead a different symphonic orchestra in playing her songs every night with barely any rehearsal time, everywhere from the London Barbican to the Sydney Opera House? Playing a huge 7-pedalled harp is tough stuff. And who else, aged 18, would go alone to a wild place down by the river, arrange some stones into a circle, and then sit inside that circle and stay there for three days, fasting. (Her friends camped a few miles away and left her small amounts of rice and water while she slept.) It’s a determination like none I’ve ever encountered."

Apropos of nothing, she is a distant relative of California governor UsefulNotes/GavinNewsom (lieutenant governor from 2011-2019, mayor of San Francisco from 2004-2011) and as of 2014 is married to ([[OddCouple of all people]]) [[Series/SaturdayNightLive Andy]] [[Music/TheLonelyIsland Samberg]].

** PaintingTheMedium: Arguably, the fact that we never learn Colleen's real name qualifies as a subtle example of this trope: perhaps, if we actually heard it, something similar would happen to us.

* GriefSong: "Cosmia".

Apropos of nothing, she is a distant relative of California governor Gavin Newsom (lieutenant governor from 2011-2019, mayor of San Francisco from 2004-2011) and as of 2014 is married to ([[OddCouple of all people]]) [[Series/SaturdayNightLive Andy]] [[Music/TheLonelyIsland Samberg]].

Joanna Caroline Newsom (born January 18, 1982) is an American harpist and singer-songwriter, known for her distinctive voice and poetic lyrics. Her {{Mythpunk}}-ish music combines avant-garde Appalachian folk music with an unconventional vocal style and ''highly'' intricate fairy tales.

Many of Newsom's song-poems feature complicated characters and fantasy worlds. Some are BeastFable tales, others just describe nature, and some are classic folk. Her early work (''The Milk-Eyed Mender'', ''Ys'', ''Joanna Newsom and the Ys Street Band'') was close to ProgressiveRock in its intricacy (particularly the latter two), whereas her later work (''Have One On Me'', ''Divers'') has more pop and orchestral influences without completely abandoning the prog influence. Most critics call her an acquired taste, in many cases citing difficulties in getting used to her distinct singing (which is high, throaty, airy and different kinds of childlike across the years; notably, between ''Ys'' and ''Have One on Me'', she had vocal cord nodules that required surgery and also took singing lessons, resulting in a radical change in her voice).

[[Studio albums]]

Albums:

Studio:

Extended Plays:

* DreamingOfThingsToCome: [[Midway through "Colleen", the narrator dreams of returning to the ocean and being warmly received. At the end of the song, she does this for real.]]

* WhatCliffhanger: "Colleen" culminates very vaguely, with the idea that there's a twist ''somewhere'' in there (careful examination of the lyrics certainly seems to support this), and then it sort of... just ends. (One possible interpretation with wide support is that Colleen is [[spoiler:an amnesiac water nymph or selkie who has been convinced that she is human; the song ends with her going back into the ocean]]).