Joanna Newsom

Closer in spirit to a home movie than a tour film, Kevin Barker's charmingly lo-fi documentary offers an insider's view of a 'significant moment for culture' (Antony Hegerty, of Antony and the Johnsons). In 2004, Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom and Vetiver crisscrossed North America, sharing their singular strains of 'freak folk' in intimate art spaces and coffee shops. Serving double-duty as the troupe's banjo player, Barker was perfectly imbedded in order to document both onstage antics and backstage insights. The film's two central figures (now both certified indie rock darlings playing sizeable venues) prove an intriguing study in contrasts: whereas the perennially shirtless Banhart is a genuine eccentric with a fondness for stage props like wooden owls and old-fashioned pipes, the introverted Newsom seems every bit as fragile as her delicate composed-for-harp songs.

Idiosyncratic folk rocker Joanna Newsom deploys her harp to great effect on this track from 2004's The Milk Eyed Mender.