When I heard about this new New England psych project, I wondered if the name “Stella Kola” referred to a solo artist, a duo, or a band—or possibly alluded to a soft drink. It turns out that it’s a little from column A and a little from column B. Stella Kola is the collaboration of Beverly Ketch, a poet and vocalist who’s performed in folk-psych bands such as Bunwinkies and Viewer, and guitarist Rob Thomas, a longtime member of fearless experimental ramblers Sunburned Hand of the Man. They’d been writing dark acoustic songs together for some time before deciding on a name. Ketch originally wanted to call their project “Star Soda,” but she settled on “Stella” in tribute to a friend’s grandmother, who’d recently passed away.
Once Ketch and Thomas had settled on a mutual musical direction, they compiled a wish list of local musicians they wanted to bring aboard to flesh out their fragile tunes. Miraculously, all of them were game. Guitarist, synth player, and fellow SHotM member Jeremy Pisani joined them to form a live trio, and from there the group expanded into a larger ensemble with multi-instrumentalist Wednesday Knudson (Pigeons), bassist Jim Bliss (Wet Tuna), and violist and violinist Jen Gelineau, who’s recorded with Six Organs of Admittance. They began recording Stella Kola in 2020, inviting even more friends to provide additional instrumentation, including guitar wayfarer Willie Lane, Pat Gubler of legendary acid-folk group P.G. Six, and prolific “outsider” musician Gary War. The album isn’t as wild as you might expect, though, despite this star-studded freak-folk lineup: it’s a slice of chamber-folk bliss fueled by Ketch’s hushed but powerful vocals.
Pitched somewhere between Vashti Bunyan’s breathy, quavering delicacy and Judee Sill’s conversational but melancholy clarity, Ketch’s soft sighs weave among aching strings and chiming guitars, and her gentle ruminations on the sparse space shanty “Rosa” haunt my dreams. She can also rise to the occasion of a full-band setting, as she does on the righteous folk-rock anthem “November,” and she multitracks her evocative verses on baroque laments such as “Heart in the Rain” and “Being Is a Beggar’s Blessing,” where her performances recall singer-songwriter greats Margo Guryan and Susan Pillsbury. I know I’ve compared Ketch to four people just in this paragraph, but she’s unique—and she proves it amid the fluttering horns and orchestral flourishes of “First Fret,” when she gently intones “I think of my life / From the beginning to the end / And this time presses so close around / But those times are laid deep in the ground.” Stella Kola transcended their casual beginnings to create something epic with this first album, and I’m excited to see what other trails they’ll blaze.
Stella Kola’s Stella Kola is available through Bandcamp.
