Tarnation

The country art band Tarnation was essentially a vehicle for <a href="spotify:artist:72ZTVVsOrHbZps2XgHuvGa">Paula Frazer</a>, a talented singer and songwriter who returned to roots music only after a successful foray into 1980s post-punk. Born and raised in Sautee Nacoochee, Georgia, a tiny community located in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains, her musical influences readily came from both parents. She sang in the church choir where her father was a Presbyterian minister, while her mother taught her piano and introduced her to music from <a href="spotify:artist:1YuknfkSYTTbolRpwZBOv4">George Gershwin</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:1YzCsTRb22dQkh9lghPIrp">Billie Holiday</a> to the contemporary music of the '60s and '70s. At the age of 14, the Frazers moved to Arkansas, where she began performing with local jazz groups and wrote and recorded demos of her own folk-inspired songs.

After graduating high school, <a href="spotify:artist:72ZTVVsOrHbZps2XgHuvGa">Frazer</a> relocated to San Francisco, and during the early '80s she performed with bands including <a href="spotify:artist:4I37MmXKpdVBFzHXaqCGv6">Frightwig</a> and Trial, where she met frequent collaborators Desmond Shea and John Borruso. She also played with Cloiter, who released an EP on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22NufSed%22">NufSed</a>; the label's owner, Brandon Kearney, was an early member of Tarnation, which <a href="spotify:artist:72ZTVVsOrHbZps2XgHuvGa">Frazer</a> formed in 1992 with former <a href="spotify:artist:5VnVs7HH7mTTAuXdVvZfSP">S.F. Seals</a> members Lincoln Allen and Michelle Cernuto, along with steel guitarist Matt Sullivan. <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22NufSed%22">NufSed</a> issued the band's 1993 debut album I'll Give You Something to Cry About in a limited edition of 1,000 copies. The album made its way to the <a href="spotify:artist:2GATzeg62cr6sH29wSOVWe">Red House Painters</a>' <a href="spotify:artist:0qt6QSruHshcWT9QOzyfZp">Mark Kozelek</a>, who introduced <a href="spotify:artist:72ZTVVsOrHbZps2XgHuvGa">Frazer</a> to <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%224AD%22">4AD</a>. The label released Tarnation's second album, Gentle Creatures, which featured production work by <a href="spotify:artist:4LMQqMZYbFJgvxBOzshZVL">His Name Is Alive</a>'s Warren Defever, in 1995. That year, however, the other three members departed to pursue their own work, leaving <a href="spotify:artist:72ZTVVsOrHbZps2XgHuvGa">Frazer</a> to assemble an initial touring lineup that, after a further change on bass, became the unit that recorded the band's 1997 album, Mirador. After various touring appearances, including dates in Europe with her hero, <a href="spotify:artist:4UXJsSlnKd7ltsrHebV79Q">Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:72ZTVVsOrHbZps2XgHuvGa">Frazer</a> found herself once again without a band.

She dropped the Tarnation name in favor of her own in 1998, releasing a string of solo albums (2001's Indoor Universe, 2003's retrospective A Place Where I Know and 2005's Leave the Sad Things Behind) on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Birdman+Records%22">Birdman Records</a>. <a href="spotify:artist:72ZTVVsOrHbZps2XgHuvGa">Frazer</a> revived Tarnation for 2007's Now It's Time, much of which was recorded at her home on an eight-track tape machine. After forming the psych-rock trio Skystone with guitarist Brock Galland and drummer Royce Seader in 2010, <a href="spotify:artist:72ZTVVsOrHbZps2XgHuvGa">Frazer</a> returned to Tarnation with the 2014 EP In Some Time on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22MRG%22">MRG</a>. For 2017's full-length What Is and Was, Tarnation's lineup included singer/songwriter Jacob Aranda, pedal steel guitarist David Cuetter, and <a href="spotify:artist:72ZTVVsOrHbZps2XgHuvGa">Frazer</a>'s longtime collaborators Patrick Main and Justin Frahm on keyboards. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi