Nora Jane Struthers (born November 11, 1983) is an American singer-songwriter based in
Nashville
Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and t ...
who is notable for her critically acclaimed Americana and roots rock. ''Rolling Stone Country'' debuted a video for "Let Go" from Struthers' album ''Wake'' with an article in which Stephen L. Betts wrote that "the ever-widening scope of Nora Jane Struthers' musicality means that placing a neat, easy label on the genre she best represents is virtually impossible." In a post for
Amy Poehler
Amy Poehler (; born September 16, 1971) is an American comedian, actress, writer, producer, and director. After studying improv at Chicago's Second City and ImprovOlympic in the early 1990s, Poehler co-founded the improvisational-comedy trou ...
's blog ''Smart Girls'', Alexa Peters wrote that "Nora Jane is entirely and unequivocally herself, and wants to encourage you to do the same."National Public Radio (United States) described Struthers as "quietly brilliant" in article headlined "Country Music's Year of the Woman." Struthers' 2013 album ''Carnival,'' recorded with her touring band The Party Line, spent more than three months in the Top 20 of Americana Radio charts and peaked at No. 7. ''Carnival'' ranked 24th on the 2013 Americana Airplay Top 100 list. In a review of ''Carnival'', the ''Tampa Bay Times'' wrote that Struthers' unique brand of "rich storytelling, repeat-worth melodies and a modern mashup of traditional, bluegrass folk, country and rock influences" sets her apart from many roots-inspired contemporaries.
Early life and education
Struthers was born in
Fairfax, Virginia
The City of Fairfax ( ), colloquially known as Fairfax City, Downtown Fairfax, Old Town Fairfax, Fairfax Courthouse, FFX, or simply Fairfax, is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. At the 2010 census the p ...
six months before her family moved to Avon, Conn. When Struthers was four years old the family moved again to
Ridgewood, New Jersey
Ridgewood is a village in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, its population was 24,958, Struthers was named Nora by her parents after Nora Charles, a character in Dashiell Hammett's novel
The Thin Man
''The Thin Man'' (1934) is a detective novel by Dashiell Hammett, originally published in a condensed version in the December 1933 issue of ''Redbook''. It appeared in book form the following month. A film series followed, featuring the main ch ...
, and Jane after English author Jane Austen. Her family called her Jane, but Nora stuck in school when that name was used for calling roll in kindergarten.
Struthers said as a little girl she would often watch out the front window for her father at the end of the day and greet him with a yodel and the two frequented bluegrass festivals and fiddler conventions along the East Coast as she got older.
Struthers was diagnosed with dyslexia at the age of four, when a reading specialist told her parents that Nora Jane would never go to college. She ultimately proved the reading specialist wrong, however, studying English Education and Africana Studies at New York University's School of Education. After graduating in 2005, Struthers worked as a teacher at The Williamsburg Charter High School in
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Kings County is the most populous Administrative divisions of New York (state)#County, county in the State of New York, ...
, New York until 2008.
Career
Struthers played shows with her father under the name Dirt Road Sweetheart and the duo released an album titled ''I Heard The Bluebirds Sing'' on May 11, 2008. In 2008, Struthers gave up her job as a teacher and moved to Nashville to pursue a career as a full-time musician. She soon began touring with a band of rotating musicians she dubbed The Bootleggers and ultimately won the prestigious
Telluride Bluegrass Festival
Telluride Bluegrass Festival is an annual music festival in Telluride, Colorado hosted by Planet Bluegrass. Although traditionally the festival focuses on bluegrass music, it often features music from a variety of related genres.
History
The tow ...
band contest in June 2010.
Struthers released a self-titled debut solo album on July 10, 2010. ''Nora Jane Struthers'', produced by Brent Truitt, featured established musicians such as multi-instrumentalist Tim O'Brien and fiddler Stuart Duncan.
Struthers joined Americana acoustic quintet Bearfoot later in 2010 and the group released the album ''
American Story
''American Story'' is an American anthology media franchise consisting of several television series created by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk for the cable network FX and FX on Hulu. Each series follows a different genre of fiction, with eac ...
'' in 2011, which featured six songs written or co-written by Struthers. One of them, "Tell Me a Story," became a top-rated video on CMT.
Struthers had written a collection of songs for a new solo album by 2012 and launched a Kickstarter campaign that raised $22,000 in less than four weeks to help fund it. She formed a touring band called The Party Line and released the 14-track ''Carnival'' on April 16, 2013, again produced by Truitt.
Struthers and The Party Line gave nearly 150 live performances across the U.S. in 2013. Struthers said she achieved a childhood dream by playing in the Saturday Night All Star Jam at the Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival in Oak Hill, New York that year.
Struthers and The Party Line released a six-song record titled ''Country EP No. 1'' in July 2014. One of the tracks, a cover of
The Everly Brothers
The Everly Brothers were an American rock duo, known for steel-string acoustic guitar playing and close harmony singing. Consisting of Isaac Donald "Don" Everly (February 1, 1937 – August 21, 2021) and Phillip "Phil" Everly (January 19, 193 ...
classic "(Til) I Kissed You" was featured on a collection of Americana music called ''Native: Americana Spotlight'', released on September 9, 2014 on Tone Tree Music.
Struthers and The Party Line have recorded a new full-length studio album called ''Wake'', featuring 11 original songs. ''Wake'' is slated to be released in February 2015.
Dirt Road Sweetheart a father-daughter duo (Nora Jane and Alan Struthers) released a new album 'Rose of My Heart' on June 16, 2019 under the label of Blue Pig Music.
In February 2020, Nora announced her fifth studio album titled 'Bright Lights, Long Drives, First Words'.
Reception
Reception
Grammy Award-winning musician Tim O'Brien said "Old time music continues to reinvent itself in the able hands of young artists like Nora Jane Struthers."
Kim Ruehl wrote for
NPR Music
NPR Music is a project of National Public Radio, an American privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization, that launched in November 2007 to present public radio music programming and original editorial content for music ...
that Struthers has a "voice as sweet as honeysuckle."
A ''
Tampa Bay Times
The ''Tampa Bay Times'', previously named the ''St. Petersburg Times'' until 2011, is an American newspaper published in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. It has won fourteen Pulitzer Prizes since 1964, and in 2009, won two in a single ...
'' reviewer called Carnival an "Americana gem" writing that "the album never fades through 14 tracks, a testament to the songwriting and musical arrangements."
The video for Struthers' song "Bike Ride" from the album ''Carnival'' debuted at No. 1 on
Country Music Television
Country Music Television (CMT) is an American pay TV network owned by Paramount Media Networks, a division of Paramount Global. Launched on March 5, 1983, as Country Music Television, CMT was the first nationally available channel devoted to c ...
Pure's 12-Pack Countdown in November 2013.
Discography
;Studio albums
*''I Heard The Bluebirds Sing'', as Dirt Road Sweetheart, a duo with her father Alan Struthers (2008)
*''Nora Jane Struthers'' (2010)
*''Carnival'' (2013)
*''Wake'' (2015)
*''Champion'' (2017)
*Bright Lights, Long Drives, First Words (2020)
;EPs
*''Country EP No. 1'' (2014)