Nina Nastasia is a singer and songwriter who has created a distinctive, emotionally powerful body of work that has roots in folk and Americana, but with a dark, Gothic sensibility. Nastasia's performances are built around her acoustic guitar, usually with arrangements that use spare string sections and minimalistic, dynamic percussion to complement her lyrics, which are intensely personal and unpretentiously literate, as her vocals strike a remarkable balance between delicacy and strength. 2002's The Blackened Air, Nastasia's second album, displayed the full range of her talen...