Liz Cooper and the Stampede Window Flowers 2LP (Rainbow Splatter Vinyl)

Nashville-based band Liz Cooper & The Stampede released their debut full-length album, Window Flowers, in 2018. Recorded at Welcome to 1979 in Nashville with co-production from TJ Elias, Window Flowers was the culmination of a yearlong dedication in which Cooper pushed herself to spend every single day creating in at least one medium and saying "yes" to everything she was asked to do.

Of the recording, Cooper reflected, "Our first time working with an outside producer and our first time in a proper recording studio was when we recorded Window Flowers. TJ Elias' mad scientist ideas, an abundance of hot dogs, and lack of sunlight pushed us outside of our comfort zones to work more cohesively as a unit than we ever had before."

Joined in the studio by bassist Grant Prettyman and special guests Leah Blevins, Will Brown, Steve Dawson, Emily Kohavi, Michael and Ben Ford and Gianni Gibso, the album followed Cooper's earlier self-released EPs—Monsters (2014) and Live at the Silent Planet (2016). Alongside Cooper, "the Stampede" consists of Prettyman and drummer Ryan Usher.

a gorgeously arranged and performed bouquet of psychedelia-tinged folk-rock

Cooper and her players create music that weaves, floats and occasionally dive-bombs into your psyche, sticking there until you realize this is something special. It's an auspicious, slow-burn introduction to an artist with a vision, one we hope to hear more from.

Liz Cooper and The Stampede may be responsible for an entirely new independent genre, one best described as cerebral psychedelic folk given the way it blends Cooper's fragile singing with more than a hint of atmospheric intervention. The delicate designs are obviously alluring, but Cooper's winsome delivery puts the melange into a different realm entirely, one which is both compelling and elusive all at the same time.

If we're lucky, we are going to hear a lot more artists in the future like Liz Cooper and the Stampede.