Ellen Starski

In her new album Sara’s Half Finished Love Affair, Nashville-based artist Ellen Starski showcases her songwriting range in an exceptional collection of beat-driven, imaginative, and narrative songs. Starski is known for her magnetic personality, dynamic songwriting, emotive vocal style, and her music’s “keen ability to reach directly into our souls” (Take Effect Reviews). This album introduces some darker, grungier elements as well as a bright, alternative pop sense to Starski’s characteristic mix of ethereal and earthy. Instead of finger-picking a melody on guitar as she composed, Starski wrote the songs on Sara’s Half Finished Love Affair a capella, stomping a rhythm with a boot and, in her words, leaving herself more room. This looser, more intuitive songwriting process led to a truly fresh-sounding and cohesive album, produced by Lucas Morton (Jordy Searcy, Jill Andrews) and Max Hoffman.

Her celebrated debut solo album, The Days When Peonies Prayed for the Ants, released May 2018, traces Starski’s autobiographical, geographical, and emotional journey from her origins in rural Reynoldsville, PA, where she began playing guitar at 19 and singing the blues in local bars, to her current career as a solo artist in Nashville. The album’s title affirms Starski’s deep interest in Earth’s intricate connections, alluding to the symbiotic relationship between peony flowers and ants— separate species which rely on each other to grow.