MACIE STEWART

“FINALLY,” sings Macie Stewart, on the opening track of their debut album, “I tell the truth to myself, to you.” The songwriter, singer and composer is much-loved in the jazz, improvisational and indie music scenes of their native Chicago, but Mouth Full Of Glass offers up a deeply intimate, skilfully crafted, alternative portrait of their inner world.

You’ve probably heard Stewart’s work without knowing it: on strings for artists as diverse as SZA and Whitney, as a touring multi-instrumentalist with The Weather Station and Claire Rousay or, most likely, as one half of art-rock duo Finom (until recently, Ohmme) with Sima Cunningham. There are parallels to be drawn between all of those and Stewart’s first music under their own name – but the precise arrangements and experimental flourishes perhaps most closely resemble Stewart and Cunningham’s recent collaboration with Iron & Wine on an EP of songs by the country musician Lori McKenna.

Although Stewart began recording the songs that would become Mouth Full Of Glass in 2019, pausing the project while Finom worked on their second album Fantasize Your Ghost, the bulk of the work – unsurprisingly – took place during the pandemic, with their more collaborative creative avenues closed off to them. Living alone after a major relationship breakup, grappling with loss of structure as a touring musician and dealing with family bereavement, Stewart took lots of long walks around the nature preserve close to their home, giving them time to ponder, process and learn from their inner self, their queerness, their relationships and their hopes for the future.

The version of truth-telling Stewart ultimately lands on is poetic, minimalist and image-rich in turn. The titular reptile on “Garter Snake” – which Stewart recalls crossing paths with frequently on those Chicago walks – becomes. At the other end of the scale, the airy almost-title track “Mouthful Of Glass” barely features lyrics at all: the song was inspired by a dream featuring the central image and Stewart draws out the words like their voice was itself an instrument, the approach that of an impressionist artist to the paintbrush.