Rachel Ries, the writer, multi-instrumentalist and producer behind Her Crooked Heart, demonstrates immense vulnerability and multifaceted musical craftsmanship in delivering personal and profound musical soliloquies on love and life in a crumbling empire.
...which is a nice and fairly accurate sentence.
But I can probably say more while using my regular voice. It's 2026 and the leaves are falling. It's an achingly beautiful and broken world. I love it here and I want it to be better here; a desire that drives most of what I do:
the songs I write, the choir I lead, the homes I build, the gardens I plant, the tables I set, the people I hold.
As it did for so many of us, life changed immensely with the pandemic. Up until Feb 2020 I was on tour with the original members of Her Crooked Heart and my dearest friends even now: Siri Undlin, Hilary James, Adelyn Strei. To Love To Leave To Live was the record.
What a beautiful time!
And then everything changed, right?
I've continued to create, endlessly, but it's taken a more quiet and localized shape. Hosting songwriter hangs in my living room, serenading (sometimes trolling) my spouse with improv songs, leading larger and larger rock & roll choirs (Kith + Kin Chorus!). I've written and recorded a ton - but mostly for my patrons (join in!). I built a little palace with my own two hands (livable sculpture!).
But as I write this, my spirit rumbles. The desire to sing, share and explore grows and growls in me again. To maybe even tour and find my way back to some of you?
Her Crooked Heart Live at Hive will come out in Dec 2026. Siri, Hilary, Addie and I recorded it in Dec 2019. I was waiting for... something. And that something is now!
A new album, untitled, is deep in production and y'all I've leveled up. A decade since I was last in the studio working on a full-length and I can hear the growth gained by these years of living in a pandemic, living in a crumbling empire, living in the fierce huge-hearted city of Minneapolis.
What am I trying to say?
I'm still here. Me and my crooked heart. And we're very excited to connect with you again.
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