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Download First Rain album

“Inga Swearingen’s melodies unfold like Virginia Woolf’s best sentences, patiently building to an expected climax before transcending it like a sweet exhalation of air.” – American Songwriter (April 2010)

JazzTimes’ Critics Picks 2009 for new releases (Don Heckman, jazz critic for Los Angeles Times)

JazzTimes’ review (April 2010): Working in piano-less settings, bathed in gentle strings, Swearingen includes a handful of clever covers — “Heart and Soul,” Lennon & McCartney’s “Blackbird”, “Skylark,” “Black Is the Color of My True Love’s Hair” — and closes with an egalitarian ode to contentment based on Emily Dickinson’s “Ample.” Swearingen’s own compositions are equally affecting, particularly the examination of growing romantic satisfaction at the heart of “Two Trees,” and the likening of shared rehabilitation to the rebuilding of a crumbling home in “Brick by Brick,” a theme gorgeously reinforced by the coiling of Inga’s voice with that of her kid sister Britta.

“She has the knack for making even complicated musical trajectories sound natural and flowing.” – Josef Woodard, jazz critic for Rolling Stone, Down Beat, JazzTimes and Jazziz.

Inga Swearingen’s third album First Rain, mixes the beautiful homegrown sounds of folk and soulful jazz, created from an amazing collaboration with some great musicians: electric & acoustic guitar wunderkinds Jeff Miley and Larry Koonse, stand-up bassists Darek Oles and Dylan Johnson, percussionists Brian Kilgore and Darrell Voss, and my wonderful sister Britta singing harmonies.

With beautiful string overlays by Ken Hustad and Brynn Albanese and engineers Chris Roberston (Blue Universe Recording) and Nolan Shaheed (No-Sound Studios) to capture the perfect sounds, First Rain is a personal stamp on jazz standards and bossa nova grooves with folk interpretations.

Listen to Brick by Brick

Winner of the New Times’ 2010 Best Jazz Song and Best Overall Song

This City Never Sleeps

Live at the Freight & Salvage, Berkeley, CA – June 10, 2011

Inga Swearingen (vocals, guitar), Britta Swearingen (vocals), Jeff Miley (guitar), John Shifflett (bass), and feat. Char (trumpet) and Robby (cajon) Rothschild of Round Mountain

Find My Way

Inga Swearingen records her new song, Find My Way at Laurel Lane Studios with Damon Castillo. Watch the video and see the creative process. Download the MP3 version here:

Download Find My Way

Inga Swearingen performs regularly on the live radio broadcast show, A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor, which can be heard on public radio stations throughout the world. She also appeared on the Prairie Home’s 30th Broadcast Season Celebration DVD, along with the superb cast, gospel star Jearlyn Steele and country band BR5-49. Sign up for Inga Swearingen’s mailing list for upcoming shows and other updates.

Listen to Prairie Home performances online…

At New York Town Hall on Dec. 1, 2007, with singer/songwriter legend Joe Ely and his pal, Joel Guzman, Inga swings “I Hear Music” and pays tribute on guitar to Joni Mitchell with “The Crazy Cries of Love,” a song for lovers in apartment buildings. She gets the audience to sing along to a Bobby McFerrin-style a cappella version of “Blackbird” in two-part harmony.

Listen to “The Crazy Cries of Love” (81 minutes)
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At Tanglewood — Koussevitzky Music Shed in Lenox, Mass. on June 28, 2008, with The Del McCoury Band and poet Donald Hall, Inga drifts melodically over Mr. Hall’s poem “Summer Kitchen” and weaves the Flower Duet from “Lakme” into a summer camp diary script. With her acoustic guitar, Inga plays her composition “Two Trees,” which will be on the upcoming album due in October.

And again, at Tanglewood on June 30, 2007, with unpretentious superstar James Taylor, Inga sings her arrangement of “Skylark” with bassist Gary Raynor and cellist Owen Young, described as Stravinsky-esque with a repeated bass line and cello motive.

Listen to “Skylark” (34 minutes)
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