The Stranger:
The Seattle singer/multi-instrumentalist’s music is barely there, but it moves you deeply. Her voice sounds vulnerable yet steadfast, supple yet ancient. Sokai Stilhed (aka Heather Cullen) often bathes her vocals in reverb and delay via GarageBand, lending them a penumbra of eeriness. Guitar, music box, erhu (Chinese violin), bodhran, and a beat-up accordion sparely augment her ectoplasmic ballads and reconstructed folk and blues standards.