Dao Strom

With the exception of the incredible Alejandro Escovedo, you would be hard-pressed to find very many people of color making music the realm of Americana/alt-country/insurgent country genres/sub-genres. Of course, it's hard to define what exactly those terms mean, or what music/artists they encompass, but regardless of how you choose to define the terms, it's difficult to find people of color who make music that could tangentially be considered to fall under those categories.

Speaking as someone who enjoys this type of music, I find it a bit disheartening. Alejandro Escovedo is amazing, but these genres consist, mostly, of white people, both in terms of the people making the music, and the people consuming it.

That brings us to Dao Strom.

She is a Vietnamese American, born in Vietnam, grew up in Northern California, and currently operates out of Juneau, Alaska. She makes some pretty awesome alt-country/Americana/[whatever you want to call it] music. She self-released an album this year, as well as one a couple of years ago. I first came across her on the blog Songs:Illinois a few months ago [link below], and thought "oh my god, a person of color on this blog!"

There are some tracks for preview from her new album, Everything that Blooms Wrecks Me on her website [link below]. She has also written a couple of books, into which I have yet to look.

Rec'd if you like: Lucinda Williams kinda, Neko Case sometimes, Marissa Nadler minus feedback plus twang. Songs:Illinois says "Devandra, Alela Diane and Marie Sioux...hybrid of Loretta Lynn and Gillian Welch"

Anyway, here are some links. Check her out.
Dao Strom homepage
HerSpace
Songs:Illinois writeup