Over the past two months alone we’ve seen some pretty promising new names emerge from the Austin area, even if the artists behind the project have been in plain sight for some time.

Take for example longtime live scene veteran Ana Zae, whose prior solo iteration Liza Day (Rose) first popped up in August 2020 with six soulful self-recorded originals. Heavy on the multi-tracked vocal harmonies but angled towards acoustic authenticity, those tunes told us everything we needed to know about this mature music-maker; she had the stuff.

Fast forward to this February, when the singer-guitarist rolled out her rebrand as Ana Zae with two stellar singles. Thanks to Black Pumas collaborator Will Grantham engineering and producing the pair, Ana’s sound has undeniably leveled up from the humble, stripped-down home studio aesthetic of her antecedent. Between a previously unheard one (“Set Me Free”) and “Lifted” (lifted from her Liza Day debut Roses and Waves), this two-part reintroduction channels the waltzy rhythms and sultry chord changes of classic Patsy Cline through the lens of golden era grunge electric guitar, both of them teetering with triplets, love-hungry lyrics, and a set of pipes that put more than plenty to shame. And with a full album reportedly on the way from Ana Zae, our fandom stands to stay unfazed.

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