Eliza Thorp

The wintertime soundtrack: Eliza Thorp
Who is making the most beautiful music in northern Michigan? It might just be Eliza Thorp, who uses piano and voice — and the occasional accompaniment of violin, cello, or upright bass — to craft stunning, understated folk songs about “her hometown and the places she’s been.” Thorp’s songs seem to capture, especially, the delicate beauty of a northern Michigan wintertime, something she likely knows all too well, given her upbringing in Petoskey. She attended the legendary Berklee College of Music in Boston but made her way back to Michigan in time to record her debut EP, a lovely six-song collection called Queen of the Sea, in Kalamazoo. The album came out earlier this year and is just about the ideal soundtrack for shortening days and dropping temperatures. Thorp is back in the North full-time now, regularly playing live sets at Petoskey’s Beards Brewery and other venues throughout the region. You can hear her Nov. 2 at a “Songwriters in the Round” night at Red Sky Stage, in Bay Harbor, or Nov. 3 at Beards. - Chris Manning

Some albums require – or perhaps induce – a contemplative mood. Pianist and singer Eliza Thorp’s debut is just such a collection, unfolding subtly and brilliantly, with gorgeous, thought-provoking lyrics that reflect her northern Michigan upbringing in Petoskey. Recorded, mixed and mastered at Kalamazoo’s La Luna Recording, Thorp – a graduate of the Berklee College of Music – enhances her reflective music with the perfect accompanists: cello phenom Jordan Hamilton and upright bassist Max Lockwood, both of whom deliver melancholy accents that combined with Thorp’s poignant lyrics can bring a listener to tears. While many of Thorp’s musical stories embrace a bewitching, dreamlike quality, “Unravel These Days” boasts the sort of piano-propelled hook that will stick in your head for a long time. - John Sinkevics