Sarah Masen
Nashville, Tennessee9 reviews across 4 releases
Sarah Masen is a singer-songwriter from Royal Oak, Michigan, who emerged in the mid-1990s through church and coffeehouse performances before Charlie Peacock signed her to launch re:think Records. Her 1996 debut joined folk rock to modern pop, with a standard rock band and occasional organ supporting literate songs about faith and introspection. The voice was the main distinction: clear, wide-ranging, sometimes breathy or playfully falsetto, with an earthy edge. The early writing could seem more academic than personal, but Carry Us Through made the music slower, more expressive, and more acoustically grounded, while widening its palette without settling into one style. By Dreamlife of Angels, the arrangements had become spacious and mellow, and the songs addressed marriage and motherhood while continuing to ask difficult questions about faith and peace.
In 1995, Charlie Peacock heard an independent recording by Masen after her family contacted him about publishing; he invited her to Nashville and signed her as re:think's first artist. Her 1996 debut brought Christian radio attention, and songs from it later appeared in television programs including Party of Five and Dawson's Creek. Masen toured in Europe after the release of Carry Us Through, which moved her away from the more heavily produced sound of the debut. BEC Recordings reissued The Holding in 1999, and she had married and become a mother by the time Dreamlife of Angels appeared in 2001. She continued working outside the major-label album cycle, contributing to Pristina's 2004 project and releasing the independent EPs Women's Work Is Alchemy, A History of Light and Shadow, and Magic That Works in 2007.
4 releases reviewed
Sarah Masen
The Holding
Dreamlife of Angels