The Fungi Sessions was written and recorded over a two-week period at a studio on the Scottish Borders. It was early June and the doors stayed open all day to let in the breeze, pastel light and birdsong. The recording process was organic and the entire ecosystem entered the music—the rolling fields, woodlands, pink poppies and the foxgloves outside the studio windows. Read played fiddle and guitar on the session and was joined by long-time collaborator, clawhammer banjoist and guitar player, Michael Starkey. Acclaimed sound designer Charles Van Kirk added ambience from field recordings made off the Midcoast of Maine—the sounds start in the forest and slowly wend their way to the sea as the album comes to a close. The recording garnered glowing reviews in the press and amongst eminent mycologists like Paul Stamets, Giuiliana Furci and Merlin Sheldrake.

Born in Edinburgh, Read grew up in a family of string players whose parents enthusiastically took her to see trad artists like Shooglenifty and Dick Gaughan. When she was 7, they spent much of one year on the Isle of Eigg off the west coast of Scotland in a house with no running water or electricity. During this time, she was fully immersed in music and would run out to the pier playing fiddle whenever traveling musicians came to the island. At 11, she attended the City of Edinburgh Music School and vividly remembers the wild feeling of singing in the children’s choir for a Celine Dion concert in front of 60,000 people. She felt both electrified and totally at ease and knew intrinsically she wanted to do this forever.

After high school, Read moved to Paris to study jazz vocals at the American School of Modern Music but her ears perked up when she heard American roots music. She was particularly taken with the hypnotic and egoless ethos of old-time music from the Appalachian mountains. Read moved to Boston to attend the Berklee College of Music and studied with Darol Anger, Bruce Molsky and Matt Glaser. After graduation, she settled in Brooklyn to focus on writing songs, collaborating across genres and playing with artists like Sarah Jarosz, Tony Trischka, Cassandra Jenkins, Melanie Safka, Jefferson Hamer, Mipso and more. She was invited to take part in Songs of Separation, an album of songs about separation and togetherness written and recorded by five women from England and five from Scotland, including Eliza Carthy and Karine Polwart. It won the BBC Folk Album of the Year in 2017.

“One of the finest singers of our day” (Mojo Magazine), Read is well-loved as a singer, songwriter, fiddler and collaborator. Her Hudson Records debut, Way Out I’ll Wander, features songs of self-discovery, settings of Scottish poetry and Read’s wide-minded influences. Her follow-up, Cross The Rolling Water, wades in Appalachia’s deep river of song and features Scottish banjoist Michael Starkey. Early July, her sparky new indie-pop project with Andy Monaghan (from Frightened Rabbit) is set to release Follow the Hum in October 2024 on Monohands Records. It’s raw and vulnerable with songs about love, loss, longing and the unanswerable questions of our time.

In her intimately engaging concerts, Read folds her myriad influences together with stories from the Scottish Highlands, songs from the Appalachian mountains, indie-folk ballads and tunes inspired by the woodwide web. Her touring project scales from trio to quartet, often including strings, woodwinds, percussion foraged from the forest and projections of time lapse footage of mycelium. Read has performed at Symphony Space (New York), Barbican Centre (London), Celtic Connections (Glasgow), Alaska Folk Festival (Juneau), Telluride Jazz Festival (Telluride) and Hotel Café (Hollywood). She offers workshops and educational programs (often with local mycologists) that highlight the connections between science and art. Read makes her home in Northern California.

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