• Singer Melissa Swingle uses her voice like an instrument, bending, shaping and blending it into songs that have an otherworldly, ethereal and enticing quality, not unlike the Sirens in mythology.

    — Prefix

  • Give me the hard-bitten moxie of Polly Harvey and the slow-burning twang of Lucinda Williams, and three guys to stand up straight. That's Trailer Bride.

    — Seattle Weekly

  • This Carolina outfit sounds like the creepy punk band the Cramps ran off the road into a Blue Ridge holler, never to emerge.

    — LA Daily News

  • Melissa Swingle's voice—a knowing, laconic combination of drawl and warble—is one of the indie music scene's beguiling treasures.

    — Chicago Tribune

  • Imagine actress Frances McDormand's sheriff character from Fargo ... with a southern accent and Randy Newman's eye for detail.

    — Raleigh News and Observer
Hometown: 
Chapel Hill, NC

One gets the sense that, while they might not have seen Robert Johnson make his bargain with the devil, Trailer Bride may have been around when the deal went bad and debts were collected. Trailer Bride is the band for the tragic, flawed figure in all of us: reaching for the heavens while keeping one eye on the gutter.  

Fronted by the enchanting Melissa Swingle (who also fronted the guitar/drums duo The Moaners), her languid drawl beckons listeners to set a spell while she spins yarns about the ghosts in the trees. Live, she charmed you with her endearing, spastic, arrhythmic dance she does when her eyeballs are rolled up in her head and she's ripping off one of her savant guitar solos. Other guitars wash over you with their ample re-verb and echoey howls from deep in the pines. 

 

Compilation Tracks: 
Recommended if You Like: 
Nikki Lane
Cat Power
Neko Case
Gun Club
Mount Moriah
Alabama Shakes

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