FRESH WIND SESSION No. 6
Dandelioness (fka Chloe Grace)
Recording Date: 17 August 2022
KNCE 93.5 FM Premiere: 21 August 2022
Substack Premiere: 27 February 2025
Dandelioness (the musical moniker of Chloe Grace Caemmerer) is the first local act that I recorded in the unbroken series of Fresh Wind sessions that started in the summer of 2022 and continues through to the present. For that reason, and a few others, it holds a special place in my heart. At the time, Dandelioness was performing under the name Chloe Grace, and she was one of the first acts that I got to see when the music scene started picking up in Taos after the Covid lockdowns. The first time I saw her perform was at a short-lived DIY venue called The Old Montgomery, and she kept the attention of a large audience of Taoseños for a two hour set that spanned material old and new. This video of the song “Lucifer” from that show captures a bit of the vibe. In press materials, Caemmerer describes her voice as a “radioactive falsetto” - and, I think that just about nails it.
It was only a few weeks after the Old Montgomery show that Dandelioness came over to record this session featuring five songs (“Pink Lightening,” “Towers,” “Through The Dark,” “Lucifer,” and “Man On The Moon) and a short interview. I was still teaching myself how to record, and what the format of these sessions would be, so the interview doesn’t go quite as deep as some of the more recent sessions I’ve recorded. That being said, it does capture a bit of what Caemmerer was going through at the time, and sweetly tells the story of what originally brought her to Taos. A few months after this session, she decamped to London to record the debut Dandelioness record, Scorpio Ballads, with producer Josh Haynes (aka Sh0tgun Josh). That record, which includes three of the songs from this session, found Caemmerer pushing her sound in a more pop-oriented direction. When she held the release show for the album at Ennui Gallery in the summer of 2023, as part of the Sunset Series I curated there with Sarah Hart, my band Big Numbers had the memorable opportunity to back Dandelioness up on some of the more raucous tracks on the record.
In the time since releasing that record, Dandelioness has become a touring artist. Over the past few years, Caemmerer has traveled extensively through the southwest and southeast, developing her sound and showmanship further. Though she moved down to Albuquerque at some point following the Scorpio Ballads release, she’s recently returned to having Taos as her home base - and I’ve had the opportunity to reconnect with her as part of Taos Song Circle. I’m told another record is in the works, and that this fall will see her traveling to London again to work with Sh0tgun Josh on another collection of Dandelioness tunes. Her sound has changed considerably since 2022 - with her live shows now prominently featuring her singing through a pedal that provides spectral harmonies (think Bon Iver). For folks interested in checking out more of her work, you can find 11 songs on her Bandcamp page, and follow along on her Instagram.
