Wendy Eisenberg – Wendy Eisenberg
Brooklyn-based artist Wendy releases their highly anticipated self-titled album, Wendy Eisenberg, via Joyful Noise.
The album includes the single “Vanity Paradox.”
The songs on Wendy Eisenberg began to take root in 2020, when Eisenberg moved from Western Massachusetts to Brooklyn. Longing for pastoral sounds, they gravitated toward classic songwriting practitioners like John Hartford, Gillian Welch, and John Prine; “weirdo country interpreters” like Richard Dawson and Joanna Newsom; and pop-folk orchestrations from Judee Sill, Jimmy Webb, and Van Dyke Parks. “The production is less about seeing what the guitar might be capable of and more accepting the inherent strangeness of the languages it has spoken for the last century and a half,” Eisenberg says.
A personal reckoning between 2023 and 2024, a period of self-confrontation they liken to a personal exorcism, imbued Eisenberg’s new music with sturdiness, clarity, conviction, and beauty. “I had this weird, semi-mystical experience,” Eisenberg says. “I remember walking around for hours alone, having given up on some kind of straight love, straight performance. Much of what I thought I wanted felt totally irrelevant. The part of me that felt like I had to be legible to appease imaginary people finally needed to die.”
On Wendy Eisenberg, the artist works with longtime collaborators—including bassist Trevor Dunn, drummer Ryan Sawyer, and co-producer Mari Rubio, who handled pedal steel, synth, and string arrangements. “I was finally around people who accepted me,” Eisenberg says. “Many of the songs on this record were written in that new feeling. I wanted it to be incredibly comforting as it describes some massive changes in self-understanding. It’s about relief.”
Eisenberg’s life has steadied since that period. They became a full-time assistant professor of songwriting and now live with Rubio, their girlfriend. “These things being true have changed my songwriting voice. It’s just as urgent as always, but slightly more spacious,” they say. “I’d spent my life trying to wrestle things into existence. These are songs that honestly just emerged, miraculously.”
With touring a constant in their life, Eisenberg will be performing steadily throughout the year in both solo and collaborative configurations. Upcoming dates include shows with Richard Dawson and a co-headlining album release run with more eaze, with additional dates to be announced.
Tour Dates
April 3 @ Little Rose Cafe – Cleveland, OH
April 4 @ Book Eater – Rochester, NY
April 5 @ The Brick House – Turner Falls, MA
April 8 @ Baby’s All Right – Brooklyn, NY^
April 15 @ TV Eye – Ridgewood, NY#
April 16 @ Johnny Brendas – Philadelphia, PA#
April 23 @ The Stone – New York, NY
April 30 @ Van Dyck Music Club – Schenectady, NY
May 1 @ The Local – Saugerties, NY
May 7 @ Mama Tried – Brooklyn, NY
May 9 @ Mama Tried – Brooklyn, NY^
May 29 @ The Whitney – New York, NY
June 6 @ Nightclub 101 – New York, NY^
June 25 @ La Sala Rossa – Montreal, Canada%
* w/ Rich(ard) Dawson
# w/ more eaze
% w/ Bill Orcutt
^ Editrix
° whait
#wendyeyes