Sophomore LP, ANTI- Records, Out Now
Eleven songs about the slow weather of leaving and the long road back, recorded in a converted Asheville schoolhouse over a wet October.
About
Wren Halloran writes songs the way other people keep journals: a little superstitiously, every day, never quite finished.
Raised between a paper-mill town in coastal Maine and her grandmother's farm outside Asheville, North Carolina, Halloran started playing guitar at twelve on an instrument her uncle won at a county-fair raffle. Her debut, Smaller Houses (2023, self-released), surfaced quietly on Bandcamp and was eventually picked up by Aquarium Drunkard, NPR's All Songs Considered, and a string of folk DJs in Ireland and the UK. ANTI- signed her in 2024.
Her second record, Long Light, was recorded over four weeks at Echo Mountain Studios with producer Sam Cohen (Kevin Morby, Cass McCombs). The band is Halloran on voice and steel-string, with regular collaborators Pearl Tessier (upright bass, harmonies) and Mac Sloan (pedal steel, Wurlitzer). Buck Meek of Big Thief sits in on three tracks.
Critics tend to file her with Maggie Rogers, Big Thief, and Adrianne Lenker, but Halloran herself names Karen Dalton, Vashti Bunyan, and the field recordings of Alan Lomax as the records she returns to. She tours the United States and Europe full time and writes an irregular newsletter, Letters from the Long Light, that arrives in subscribers' inboxes on Sunday mornings, six or seven times a year.
Tour
Twenty-four dates in North America with Big Thief, plus a UK / EU run in July. Festival announcements weekly.
House Concerts
Between tours I take a small handful of house shows each year — the kind of evening where thirty friends crowd into someone's front room with folding chairs and a casserole dish, and we work through new songs together before any of them touch a record.
This is how my mother used to host poetry readings when I was a kid. It is, for my money, the best way to hear and to play this music. If you've thought about hosting one — and you've got a willing room, a solid power outlet, and a date in mind — I'd love to hear from you.
Long Light
Produced by Sam Cohen · Echo Mountain Studios, Asheville · Mixed by D. James Goodwin · Mastered by Heba Kadry
A record about quiet weather and slow forgiveness. Pearl Tessier on upright. Mac Sloan on pedal steel. Buck Meek sits in on "Bath, 4 a.m." and "County Fair."
Letters
An irregular journal — tour notes, poems I've folded into my notebook, the songs I'm covering in soundcheck. About six a year, never on a schedule.
April 14, 2026 · 8 min read · Featured
A fluorescent-lit church basement in Knoxville. Forty folding chairs and a PA borrowed from the Methodist youth group. I have never had a better Tuesday. There is a thing that happens, in a room with bad acoustics, where you stop trying to make the room behave and start letting it sing back at you, and that surrender turns out to be the whole job.
Read on →February 28, 2026 · 12 min read
Sam Cohen has a tape machine he calls "the Marlene" because it complains in German when you push it past 14 minutes. Three of these songs nearly broke her.
Read on →January 03, 2026 · 5 min read
Every January I listen to It's So Hard To Tell Who's Going To Love You The Best on a single Sunday afternoon. This year I want to write down why.
Read on →Mailing List
Tour announcements, new songs, the occasional letter from the road. About six emails a year. No promotional newsletters, no third-party sponsorships, no algorithm.
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Get in touch
David Levy at Wasserman Music. Festivals, clubs, theatres, US/Canada touring.
Lily Hayes at ATC Live. Festivals, clubs, theatres, all of Europe and the British Isles.
Sue Marcus at Pitch Perfect PR. Bio, hi-res photos, and full EPK on request.