ALBUM REVIEW: Schaefer Llana Comes 'Full Circle' for Her Debut

A voice as coolly effortless as Schaefer Llana’s didn’t come from nowhere. It was practiced and nurtured in church as a child, in college as a music student, and then as an engineer at Matt Patton of the Drive-By Truckers’ Mississippi studio Dial Back Sound. Though she’s since planted roots in Austin, Llana returned to Dial Back to make her debut album, the aptly titled Full Circle, playing live to tape in the same place where she sang background vocals for so many artists who came to record there, including Jimbo Mathus, whose touring band Llana joined for a time. But even with such an impressive resume, Llana is so much more than just a protegé. 

The dreamy garage haze of the Mathus-penned “Skateland Baby” is one of Full Circle’s best, a nostalgic, rose-colored vignette of first love, the perfect vehicle for the elasticity of Llana’s vocals, which can somehow be ethereal and full-throated all at once. A voice like Llana’s was never meant to just be in the background, and she proves it again and again on Full Circle not just in her singing, but in her songwriting, capturing memories in vivid color and emotions as fresh as the day she felt them.