“No one’s gonna hear it the same as it’s said /
No one’s gonna listen to it straight from your head”
—Angel Olsen, “Lights Out”
Cresting the cliffs outside of Asheville, North Carolina, the Blue Ridge Parkway looks out over
the rolling, cyan hills of the Tennessee Valley. It’s one of the most beautiful stretches of highway
in the country, and the switchbacks descending the Appalachian Ridge offer a thrilling release
into the vastness of the foothills. It’s a place of deep reflection. Nestled among these peaks is
a converted chapel where Angel Olsen stood at a crossroads three years ago. The road up here
has been a gradual and winding one, but since finally claiming this post as her home, the singer
has wasted no time in asserting her place among the landscape.
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