Marian Runk — Two Wires and a Spark

Marian Runk brings a novelist’s pen to Two Wires and a Spark. Dallas-born and Chicago-based, Runk turns her lens on the pecularities of Midwestern culture: Bible-thumping Mennonites, burned-out towns, cold winters, Rust Belt ennui. This is by no means a downer of an album, though: Runk tells these stories alongside a vintage folk and jazz sound, suggesting that the bad things don’t have to weigh you down.