A new musical voice is emerging from Woodstock, one shaped less by revivalist nostalgia than by deep, lived immersion. Storey Littleton, still in her early 20s, arrives with At a Diner, a debut album that announces itself quietly but with real authority—songs that invite you in with softness and then hold their ground. The album is being released by Don Giovanni Records on February 8.
Part of a new generation of young musicians emerging from Woodstock’s musical crucible, Littleton makes music that feels unhurried and self-possessed. Influenced by 1970s California songwriters like Judee Sill, Gram Parsons, and Rickie Lee Jones, At a Diner unfolds as a kind of road-trip breakup album, drifting from the Salton Sea to the Moon—two places that are beautiful, mysterious, and fundamentally uninhabitable. Co-produced by Littleton and Lee Falco (drummer and owner of The Falcon), the record is driven by finger-picked acoustic guitar and surrounded by an ensemble that includes clarinet, French horn, and pedal steel. Those textures give the album its desolate, dreamy quality, creating a landscape that feels both intimate and slightly unmoored—just like one’s 20s are supposed to feel.
Littleton’s lyrics mirror that atmosphere. Her writing often begins with simple observation before tilting, sometimes abruptly, into something more unsettling. A single added word can turn a benign phrase accusatory; a question becomes a challenge rather than an admission of doubt. Innocence and experience coexist without explanation. She can sing “I’m just a child” in one song and, elsewhere, offer an image of “posing for you on a motel bed,” allowing the tension between those moments to resonate across the album. Rather than resolve those contradictions, Littleton leaves them intact, trusting the listener to sit with them. That restraint gives the songs their durability—they feel less like confessions than carefully placed fragments.
Music has always been part of Littleton’s environment. A Brooklyn-based songwriter, she grew up on the road with her family band, performing everywhere from libraries to dive bars. Her mother is Elizabeth Mitchell, and her father is Dan Littleton, both members of the soft-spoken indie rock group Ida. That early exposure informs At a Diner without defining it. Familiar song forms are adopted and then subtly unsettled, as on “January,” which borrows the talky setup of a teen-drama tragedy only to abandon its myth-making and shift the focus back to the girls observing the scene.
The album closes with “Nothing to No One Again,” a song that distills Littleton’s sensibility with particular clarity. The arrangement is spare and steady, her voice close and unadorned, letting repetition do the work. She sings—almost analytically—about knowing she’s “supposed to” be in her reckless era, reaching that desire through thought rather than impulse. Restraint brushes up against longing; steadiness holds chaos just at the edge. There’s no grand release, only a sustained holding-on, an understanding that self-knowledge doesn’t necessarily bring resolution.
Alongside her solo work, Littleton continues to tour with her family, playing guitar and keyboards in Ida. She fronts the band M0N0GAMY with Livia Reiner and Matthew Danger Lippman, and provides supporting instrumentation for artists including The Hedons, Calder the Destroyer, Luella, and Amy Helm. She has toured nationally as a solo artist, with appearances at SXSW, Levon Helm Studios, and Live at Glass Hill. Her favorite room to play, she says, is Tubby’s in Kingston—a fitting local anchor for a debut that feels both grounded and quietly expansive.
Littleton will kick off a tour to support At a Diner on January 31 at Levon Helm Studios in Woodstock. Tour details below.
Storey Littleton on tour:
1/31: Woodstock – Levon Helm Studios (opening for Cornelia Murr)
2/6: Washington, DC – Miracle Theater
2/7: Brooklyn – National Sawdust
2/11: Toronto – Longboat Hall
2/13: Minneapolis – The Parkway Theater
2/14: Chicago – Old Town School Of Folk Music
2/21: Brooklyn – Union Pool
2/28: Nashville – Blue Room at Third Man
3/14: Austin – Don Giovanni Records SXSW Showcase
