As an artistic reference point, the music of Will Oldham -- he of the deathly pale complexion, tubercular Appalachian croak and sex-unto-death lyrics -- might teach you something valuable about mood and atmosphere, but you'd have to be crazy to copy his execution. Even Oldham himself has managed a few good stylistic jokes at his own expense in the course of his ongoing Palace project, but budding indie singer-songwriters looking for an influence to plunder had better stick to the more corporeal Elliott Smith.

Edith Frost, a native Texan who once fronted three genre bands simultaneously in New York (country covers, Western swing, rockabilly), supposedly sent a demo tape to Oldham's label, Drag City, in the mid-'90s because she felt her own music had something in common with his songs of loss and more loss. When the label agreed to record her music, she moved to Chicago and not only got to play with the Palace people, but also with many of the musicians in the Chicago post-rock underground.

Vocally, Frost has the same breathless, laconic quality as Liz Phair, another Chicago-based singer-songwriter. While Frost's songs approach relationships from a more conventional pop standpoint, like Phair she has a talent for conveying familiar experiences through unfamiliar turns-of-phrase.