Whether she is or not isn't relevant anyway. What's important is the fact what she sings about rings true emotionally and is able to strike chords of recognition in a listener whether they are familiar with the stories she's recounting or not. Take the song "Moving On" for example. It is an amazing testimony to the strength needed for a woman to leave both an abusive relationship and to turn her back on an abusive parent. There's no elaborate descriptions, just plain simple words that communicate the reality of that situation far better than anybody else I've ever heard sing about those circumstances.

Dealing with grief is probably one of the hardest things for us in this modern world to do; there just doesn't seem to be the time allowed for us to do the grieving we think we owe the person we love. The worst thing is people telling you that you'll get over it, how do you ever get over the hole in your life where a person once lived? Kimya Dawson's song "It's Been Raining" has to be one of the most honest songs about death and dealing with grief that I've heard sung by anyone: "I've been crying since the first time someone I loved passed away".

Grief doesn't dissipate with the passing of years, it accumulates, and this is the first time I've ever felt that a singer, or anybody else for that matter, has really understood that sensation. Perhaps just reading the line above you aren't able to see that, but that's part of what makes Kimya such a remarkable performer; her ability to deliver a line like that and communicate so much with so little.

Musically, Kimya Dawson isn't easy too define because she's just as likely to sing unaccompanied by anything but the strumming of her guitar, as she is to have an electric guitar and full band behind her. If you wanted to compare her and the feel of her music to anyone, I'd have to say if you were somehow able to combine The Band and Kate and Anna McGarrigle you'd have a vague idea of what she sounds like. The reality is she's very much her own person; (although readers of Stephanie McMillan's cartoon Minimum Security will recognize a kindred spirit) and as much as the word is over used today, she really is unique.

There are not many performers, artists, writers, or creative people of any stripe who can take reality and relate it in such a way that their audience can appreciate it on a personal level, or who can take their personal story and make it have universal appeal. Kimya Dawson is that rarest of rarities in that she can do both, and be interesting musically at the same time. If you haven't listened to Kimya Dawson yet do so, you've been depriving yourself of a genuine pleasure.