The Nashville-based dream-folk artist on transportive power of a Bob Dylan live performance
The premise of One Track Mind is pretty simple: I ask artists to pick one track that means a lot to them – either something they’ve discovered recently, something that’s been with them for years, or one that reminds them of a specific time in their life or career – and tell me what makes it so special to them. I get to talk to the artists I love, and they get to talk about the artists they love. Love all round!
Marissa Nadler has been quietly reshaping the edges of folk for more than two decades. Her records linger in that space between dream and memory, carried by a voice that feels both fragile and unshakable. Across nine albums, she’s built a body of work that blends spectral storytelling with a painter’s eye for detail, often shifting between stark acoustic pieces and more expansive, layered arrangements.
Her new album, New Radiations, continues that trajectory with a subtle but noticeable shift. The songs carry her usual haunted grace, but there’s a warmth that feels new: textures of synth and soft percussion woven around her fingerpicked guitar. The record holds to her talent for atmosphere while suggesting a degree of light breaking through the familiar shadows.
For her One Track Mind selection, Marissa has chosen to highlight a live version of a song from a folk legend.
Marissa Nadler on Bob Dylan – Visions of Johanna (Live 1966)
When I was in high school, my brother gave me his Bob Dylan songbook with tabs and lyrics. I had already been playing guitar, singing and writing songs for several years by then, and was very into Dylan’s lyrics. I especially loved songs like “Desolation Row”, and “Visions of Johanna”, “Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands”, the era where his writing was really surreal and epic.
I prefer the live performance at Royal Albert Hall in 1966 to the studio version of the song, just because of how raw it is. For me, the instrumentation on the studio album version is a little happy and upbeat, even though I also love it. Whenever I hear either version of that song, I’m immediately transported to being 16 again, sitting in my childhood bedroom, trying to memorize the lyrics and get the patterns right. It reminds me of that special, magical time of discovery.
Hearing this type of writing really made me realize how surreal song lyrics could be, and set the bar very high for me in terms of what I thought good writing was. I think those songs being the earliest ones I tried to cover on the guitar really helped me learn how to write.
Favorite lines:
In the empty lot where the ladies play
blindman’s bluff with the key chain
And the all-night girls
they whisper of escapades out on the “D” train
We can hear the night watchman click his flashlight
Ask himself if it’s him or them that’s really insane
Louise, she’s all right, she’s just near
She’s delicate and seems like the mirror 1)
But she just makes it all too concise and too clear
That Johanna’s not here
The ghost of ‘lectricity howls in the bones of her face
Where these visions of Johanna
have now taken my place
Marissa Nadler – New Radiations is out now
The Predatory Wasp 