Ani Mari + Heather Lynn + Modern Friendship

Alt-Americana singer-songwriter Ani Mari’s debut solo album, girlfriend (produced by Erik Koskinen and Real-Phonic Records, 2023), explores the ambiguities of coming of age in a beautifully precarious world. Across ten warmly combative tracks, she fights for grace and connection amidst the anxieties, desires, heartbreaks, and joie de vivre of being young in America’s heartland. Tracks like “Whitefish Bay” and “The Prettiest Things” echo the forests and waters of the Upper Peninsula and the bluegrass and folk influences Ani grew up immersed in, while title track “Girlfriend” triangulates her current temperature somewhere between Liz Phair, Waxahachee, and Ratboys. Comparisons, however, always fall short. Compelling, humming, and hungry, Ani’s indie-folk songwriting is 100% her own, and definitely not to be missed.

Raised in the Northwoods of Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula, Ani began performing and recording with her folk duo, Ani & Kora, when she was just 12 years old. Now based out of…