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Not So Much a Woman Acting Like a Kid: Talking With Margaret Glaspy

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What do you conduct yourself according to? To emotions? To math? Or a sickly combination of the two?

On Margaret Glaspy’s critically acclaimed 2016 full-length ATCO Records debut, Emotions and Math, she explores character and motivation, love and loss, memory and lack thereof with a palette of ripping, gutsy guitars and artful songwriting.

Now based in New York City, Glaspy is a trained musician, having obtained her education from the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston. She hails from rural Red Bluff, CA, where she took an interest in songwriting while still a high school student.

During her time spent in Boston, Glaspy rubbed shoulders with her then-neighbor and fellow musician, Bridget Kearney, as well as Rachael Price — who are both now members of retro-indie outfit Lake Street Dive. Around 2010 Glaspy served as the lead vocalist and guitarist for The Fundies, a group made up of Kearney, Price, and fiddle player Brittany Haas.

Leading up to the formal creation of Emotions and Math, Glaspy sang background vocals for a number of bluegrass and country music greats, including Tim O’Brien, Del McCoury,  and Ricky Skaggs.

On June 2 and June 3, Margaret Glaspy will perform at the Nelsonville Music Festival at Robbins Crossing. On June 2, she will play a free set on the festival’s Boxcar Stage, and perform at 3:30 p.m. the following day on the main stage.

WOUB’s Emily Votaw spoke with Glaspy about the making of her first full-length, moving to New York City as a young adult, and the writing process behind Emotions and Math just a few weeks before her Nelsonville Music Festival performance.

Follow WOUB Culture on Twitter, Facebook and right here for continual updated coverage of the 2017 Nelsonville Music Festival.