About

‘Sawdust and Gin’ is a play on the title of a Joanna Newsom song, “Sawdust and Diamonds,” from her 2006 album Ys.  

This is a music stream-of-consciousness blog, divided into a few categories: album reviews, show reviews, a podcast, and a vinyl diary. There are also archival zines for sale. See the tabs above to delve into any of these in detail. The podcast is currently on hiatus. 

The best way to enjoy this blog is as a choose-your-own-adventure of music. Use the tags in order to browse the SnG archives. For example, if you loved this piece I wrote about Lauren Ruth Ward, you can click the ‘Lauren Ruth Ward’ tag to explore the other articles about her, or click the ‘folk rock’ tag to discover similar music.

If you would like to submit music, contact me. 

If you like anything on the blog, share it! And while you’re at it, connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Soundcloud. We are also indexed by Hype Machine, so show some love for the tracks there as well. 

If you are feeling generous, you can donate to the blog here. 

sawdust and gin

As a music journalist, I aim to illuminate the humanity of the art.

Sawdust and Gin is a labor of love by me, Zoë Elaine. My journey of music discovery during my most impressionable years was unorthodox—one of my earliest influences was the Palm Beach County Library System, where I worked in high school. I was never on top of the top 40 hits of the day, but I was knee-deep in random free downloads from websites that walked the line between shady unverified torrents and throwaway uploads.

Music is spiritual, and since I personally cannot play any instruments, it can take on a mystical quality whose magic I’d prefer to not understand. It is more than a product or a story—whether a song or an album, music is an experience that can wield great power.

In addition to contributing reviews of songs and albums and other collections of music for various music blogs including this one, I am also known to write a mean biography. If you are an artist or know an artist who may need one, please contact me and include BIO INQUIRY in the subject line. I can provide samples and a price schedule to those who are interested.