Folk-noir meets dreamy hush-pop in Willow & The Embers’ textural ambient rock, as Willow’s evocative crooning, introspective lyrics, and muse-like persona both soothe and stimulate the savage beast.... “What is it with preternatural musical savants and the dark side? Willow, like Jad Fair and Jandek before her, picked up a guitar one day in 1992 and started to write, formal training be damned. But instead of Fair’s childhood-imp-of-the-perverse or Jandek’s just plain creepiness, Willow belongs to a more formalist goth lineage, like a female Nick Cave (or at least the one who isn’t PJ Harvey). Daughter of a preacher man and former hard-core Bible student, she also brings to mind Sixteen Horsepower’s David Eugene Edwards, the son of a minister, who likewise straddles the line between sin and redemption, reveling in the fire-and-brimstone of it all. But unlike both Cave and Edwards, Willow’s music is imbued with a gentle lyricismf ull of swirling strings alternating with hushed moments of pure voicethat suggests redemption might be possible after all” – Seattle Weekly ”