A Taste:

Fiona Apple, Emily Haines, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss

Erin McCarley could very well be Fiona Apple’s successor for the Facebook generation.

Like Miss Apple, she crafts warm, brooding and poignant pop music that’s deeply personal and truly poetic. Just listen to “Pitter-Pat” from her debut album Love, Save the Empty for proof. She examines life and love through vibrant lyrics and undeniably catchy melodies.

After spin of Love, Save the Empty, it’s obvious that Erin is pulling from a lot of different places musically. So she shared her highly eclectic playlist with ARTISTdirect.com in this exclusive feature.

Check out Erin’s playlist below and pick up Love, Save the Empty now.

Erin McCarley’s Playlist:

1. Robert Plant & Alison Krauss — Raising Sand

Obviously on the road you need all different kinds of moods to take you to those different places. When I want to chill out and feel good and warm, I have Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. I love the Raising Sand album. “Gone Gone Gone” is fun to get you going, and then “Killing the Blues” is great too. Those are probably two of my top songs on there.

2. Emily Haines and the Soft Skeletons — “Winning”

She’s part of Metric and Broken Social Scene. Her album is called Knives Don’t Have Your Back. There’s a song on there called “Winning.” It’s just her alone on piano and you can hear every little thing—her pedals and all. It’s totally stripped down. The way they recorded it sounds like she just put a mic in the room and you can hear everything. It’s really dark, intimate and crazy. I love the song.

3. Gnarls Barkley — The Odd Couple

The song “Who’s Gonna Save My Soul” came on when we were driving the other day. There is typically so much production these days that it’s real hissy and it almost hurts your ears. “Who’s Gonna Save My Soul” is so warm though, and it has a lot of depth. I love the samples that they use. Cee-Lo’s voice is ridiculous.

4. Fiona Apple — “Get Gone”

I always have to say Fiona Apple because if I put my iPod on “shuffle,” she always comes on. I have all of her records and all the bootlegs too. The song that always rises up for me is “Get Gone” from When the Pawn Hits…. She sings with such passion. She’s angry in that song, and I love it [Laughs].

5. Brooke Waggoner

I live in Nashville, and there are so many good musicians and artists there. There’s a girl from there named Brooke Waggoner. Her album is called Heal for the Honey. She has a song called “Beaut” that sounds like “Little House on the Prairie,” but it makes you want to cry because it makes you feel so good [Laughs]. Going along there’s a soft harmonica that starts the song out and then these massive strings come in. All of these waves of emotion happen with the song. It’s so beautifully composed. It’s pretty crazy.

6. St. Vincent

She’s a badass. She’s from Texas originally, but she lives somewhere in New York now. She went to Berklee. Her newest record has a song called “Actor Out of Work.” The composition of her songs is intricate but really interesting. She’s got all of these melodies that stem from fairy tales like Sleeping Beauty. There are these massive beats, real grungy guitars and then this really beautiful soft voice. It’s not the kind of voice we always hear today though. She doesn’t sound like other girls out there. I like it. I’m not good at listening to music [Laughs]. We do it every day and a lot of the time, I’m in complete silence and okay with it. Being on the road you’re around so many music lovers that you get exposed to a lot of new music and I do love that aspect of it. That’s how I found out about St. Vincent.

7. Bob Marley

Whenever you want to chill out, you’ve got to love Bob Marley and the Wailers. I love “No Woman, No Cry.” I have the live version on my iPod.

8. Radiohead — “15 Step”

I love the beats and the melodies. That guitar comes in, and it’s so good.

9. Def Leppard

I grew up listening to Madonna—total ’80s pop. My sister was about nine years older than me. She fed me Top 40 ’80s pop. I liked Def Leppard too! I’m probably not inspired or affected by it but I liked them! I did love Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots and all that stuff too.

10. Depeche Mode

—Rick Florino
07.27.09