Zoe Muth and The Lost High Rollers with Special Guests Ethan Keller and Hanna Rae Beale - July 8
  
Growing up in Seattle the hometown of Jimi Hendrix and Kurt Cobain, Muth was raised on old school rock before discovering the Anthology of American Folk Music in high school. The stories of rural people jumped out at her through the music and, when she started writing songs a few years later, she naturally gravitated toward that style. It wasn't long before she she'd amassed a remarkably tight backing band, plucked a name for them from Townes Van Zandt's "No Lonesome Tune," and decided to make a record.

While her debut self-titled disc certainly made a strong impression, Starlight Hotel further cements her Americana cred. The title track is named for an old hotel on Ballard Avenue – the cobblestone road running straight through the heart of Seattle's burgeoning Americana scene. "I would pass by the hotel and there was this one room where the blinds were always open. The room was a mess, covered in newspapers, old clothes, and leftover food. It just made me wonder about the man living inside. How did he end up this way? Why was he letting the whole world see into his private life?" She imagined a tale and spun it into a heartbreak song so dark and revealing, you'd reckon it was true.

To contrast, "I've Been Gone" opens the album brightly – its "Ring of Fire"-style horn part swapping licks with "Country" Dave Harmonson's pedal steel. As the disc progresses, it becomes ever more clear Muth has a proclivity for the turn of a country phrase, like her snap about the guy who's not worth the song he put on the jukebox: "If I can't trust you with a quarter, how can I trust you with my heart?"

Indeed a spotlight should rest on Muth's strikingly honest vocal delivery and unpretentious, poetic lyrics. But, one can't overlook her band – the Lost High Rollers (Harmonson on pedal steel, electric guitar, and dobro; Greg Nies on drums and keys; Mike McDermott on bass; and Ethan Lawton on mandolin). This time around, they were joined on trumpet by Billy Joe Huels (Dusty 45's) and backing vocals by husband and wife duo the Starlings (Joy Mills and Tom Parker). The soundscapes the band creates match Muth's lyrics flawlessly, each flutter from the mandolin and every sliding note from the pedal steel pulling the listener further along that country road, closer all the time to the light in the window of that old hotel.