Kristin Daelyn
About
“Philadelphia indie folk artist + fingerstyle guitarist Kristin Daelyn is rooted in the comfort and simplicity of folk while weaving intricate guitar with poetic, intimate storytelling to create a tender world of melancholy and warmth.” – NPR
Beyond the Break, the second full-length album by Kristin Daelyn, is a statement of rare tranquility and wisdom, atmosphere and grace. In these eight compositions, the Philadelphia songwriter takes influence from solo guitarists like Leo Kottke and John Fahey as well as writers like Mary Oliver, whose poem “Patience” inspired the early single “Patience Comes to the Bones.” Through instrumental pieces that highlight her virtuosity as a player and elegant folk songs that showcase her gifts for tender pop melodies and emotionally incisive lyrics, Daelyn’s voice feels both urgent and timeless. Like a well-loved paperback passed between friends, her songs are open to reflection and personal annotation, designed to be of use.
Recognizing the therapeutic power of her songs after honing her voice as a live performer, Daelyn sought an intimate approach to recording. Working with co-producer Jason Cupp, she worked in her old apartment, tracking vocals and guitar simultaneously to ensure each song had a live performance at its heart. From these intuitive takes, she incorporated subtle textures in appearances from guitarist Dan Knishkowy (Adeline Hotel, Jackie West) and multi-instrumentalist Danny Black (Good Old War, Gregory Alan Isakov) as well as string arrangements by Patrick Riley.
As a songwriter, Daelyn never shies away from heavy subject matter but her writing has a way of casting beauty around each phrase, summoning meaning that extends beyond language. “We all share similar heartaches and desires,” she reflects on her inspiration. “I started thinking about our relationship with longing. The further the distance between ourselves and the thing that we want, the greater the tension.” Tracing a general arc from weary acceptance to forward momentum, her songs tell stories of love and loss that feel cosmic in scope yet alluringly hushed in their delivery.
Since her debut album, 2022’s Gardens & Plantings, Daelyn has ventured beyond the ambient touches that made her work feel cloaked in cozy layers of fog. This time around, her soaring, spectral voice sits higher in the mix, and her lyrics take center stage, incorporating imagery based on her love of poetry and a creative practice that draws from philosophical texts and exploration of the natural world. The songs themselves, Daelyn explains, are often designed to create inhabitable landscapes for the listener, an approach noticeable in the open-ended language of “Longing.” “I don’t know what to call it now/That you’re waning in and out,” she sings before casting her gaze to the sky.
With this newly visceral approach, Daelyn brings to focus her evolution as a guitarist. Focused as much on melody as the texture of her playing, she favors chords that leave suggestive space between each note, dissonance that never quite resolves and adds a tender shadow to her major-key melodies. In the instrumental title track, she plays in collaboration with Knishkowy on guitar and Black on pedal steel, resulting in a mood that blends the open-road psychedelia of William Tyler with the dreamy travelogues of Julie Byrne.
“That’s the song where I realized what the record was about,” Daelyn says of the title track, drawing attention to the closing moments where all the instruments fade away, leaving only a hopeful motif that she plays alone on acoustic guitar. The result feels like emerging from the woods to see a familiar skyline, realizing you are closer to home than you thought. All throughout Beyond the Break, she creates landmarks from quiet moments like this: the layered, wordless refrain of “An Opening” that makes her imagery of a broken heart feel uniquely physical; the descending baritone guitar that gives “White Lilies” the gravity of an old country standard; the way she turns the title of “Wanted” into a multisyllabic, one-word hook. Speaking of her intentions as an artist, Daelyn explains, “I want people to feel cared for and connected… That’s all I want in the world, and I hope my music does that, too.” On Beyond the Break, she carves a path for us each to find our way home, knowing that the long, solitary journey is what we all share in common.
