Originally Published on May 15th, 2026

As if we needed another reason to grab onto the folk revival that just keeps growing, another young and talented artist has emerged who ignores the alluring call of the digital era of music, choosing to walk a more organic path.

LA-based singer/songwriter, Lucy Clearwater is admittedly so much more. A classical violinist, she is actually more drawn to the acoustics; the human side of songwriting: approaching the process “the way some people keep journals. Honestly. Carefully. With a deep respect for feeling,” (artist bio)

Clearwater won the 2024 Kerrville Folk Festival New Folk Competition. She has been perpetually touring since then, making stops all across the US, Canada, the UK, and Europe. This exposure has helped her amass a respectful following with tens of thousands of monthly listeners streaming her music. Her song, All These Words, a collaborative effort with Lemony Rug has been streamed over 1.6 million times.

Clearwater is a frequent collaborator, often inviting her friends and fellow musicians on stage with her and references an impressive list of artists who all had a part in collaborating with her for her debut album.

People ≠ Possessions

People ≠ Possessions is the debut LP of independent folk artist, Lucy Clearwater. The 12 songs run at around 44 minutes and were mostly live studio recordings at Bell Choir Studios in Los Angeles. It was produced by Grammy Award winner, Tyler Chester, and feature a number of talented musicians including Madison Cunningham, The Milk Carton Kids’ Kenneth Pattengale, and Nickel Creek’s Sean Watkins. People ≠ Possessions was released by Tone Tree Music.

I really love the traditional feel of this album. People ≠ Possessions sounds like peak folk, it has a nice blend of Americana and Roots influence. As mentioned, most of the music was recorded live, which gives it an even more organic feel. Clearwater layers vocals throughout the body of each track and changes the combinations of instruments from song to song to really change the dynamic of the album.

There are no skips on this album whatsoever. The entire work plays so well from start to finish. It is all relative, and it has one tone.

There is a popular debate among independent artists around the country and around the world. “Is the process of album-making dated?” With the culture of the music industry and how important it is to stay relevant by releasing new content, many argue that album releases take too much time and run the risk of killing an artist’s momentum. Others say that the streaming format reduces how much listeners listen to albums. They say that playlists are the future of music and therefore, artists should focus on steadily putting music out on a consistent basis to continue to get added to up to date and relevant playlists. Marketing. Marketing, marketing, marketing.

I recently watched the old movie, Blue Chips, starring Nick Nolte and Shaquille O’Neal. It’s about a famed college basketball coach in the twilight of his career, who has had a couple of bad seasons. His obsession with winning got him to loosen his grip on his integrity and he worked with university boosters to “buy” some of the top recruited players in the country. The climax of the movie shows Nolte’s team of loaded players win a close matchup against the reigning team in the country. Nolte has a breakdown in the press conference after the game and admits to the illegal activities conducted to acquire players, and resigns from coaching.

I think it’s pretty obvious where I’m going with this. I think we can get really caught up at the consumerism of it all: as listeners, as musicians, as managers, as record labels, etc. It’s not a novel idea, either, that I am saying we can’t forget that it should always be about the art and the music first.

I don’t think Lucy Clearwater gives one single damn about how many streams she earns, or about whether or not she should release more singles and focus on her relevance. Just listen to her sing Hold On Me. Listen to her vocals float through the melody of that song. I don’t even think she was there, because she goes somewhere else when she performs. I can hear it.

People ≠ Possessions is a reminder of why we make music. It is a reminder of why we listen to music. It isn’t statistics, it isn’t trends. It is spirit. It is emotion. It is about something that is bigger than we are. Lucy Clearwater, whether she knows it or not, gets it. This phenomenal album is exactly the reason why the art of making an album isn’t going anywhere. It may be more relevant than it ever was.