“I’m trying pretty consciously to share more of myself with people,” says New York-based singer-songwriter John Jody, whose Crooked Star EP is out this May via Ramp Local.

Having previously recorded under the aliases Black Nash and Jody Smith, his latest release marks a shift for the artist, not just in name, but stylistically and emotionally as well. While Black Nash’s sound was characterized by a mix of quiet balladry and raucous, angular guitar rock, Crooked Star skips the skronk and goes right for the heart, featuring four almost entirely acoustic tracks with a vivid sense of interiority. In a way they reflect his journey as an artist, one who has, until recently, worked tirelessly in isolation to hone his craft.

“Before I linked up with Ramp Local I was making music in a vacuum,” Jody shares. “I didn’t have many people to show [my music] to, and I used the name [Black Nash] because I didn’t want anybody to trace my music back to me personally—it was a way of hiding.” As he tells it, things started to change with the release of 2021’s Black Nash on Ramp Local and the connections that release helped him cultivate with other musicians. Gradually, he started to feel less like hiding, and with that came the decision to group his old albums under his real name to coincide with the release of Crooked Star. It’s all part and parcel with his desire to share more of himself with his audience and illuminate the circuitous path his musical career has taken up to this point. “That’s something that I’ve sometimes been uncomfortable doing, but meeting people through music has opened up my whole world in ways I didn’t anticipate.”

There’s a sweet irony in the fact that this growing sense of comfort and community has led to a set of songs that are almost uncomfortably intimate. From the voyeuristic longing of lead single “Chelsea Encounter” to the wistful nostalgia of “Sweet Lemon” and the flat regret of “Tokyo”, each track foregrounds Jody’s voice against spare acoustic guitars and sighing pedal steel. At times street noise permeates the vacuum, drifting through the open windows of his apartment, a viscerally relatable reminder that the world continues to turn, regardless of how many days it’s been since you’ve gone outside to check. It all makes for an achingly gorgeous release, one that strips away old layers of artifice to reveal the profound longing and incisive songcraft that’s lurked at the core of Jody’s art.

“I’ve always really liked country songwriting, traditional folk songwriting, where there’s one lyrical or musical idea running through a whole song.” In that sense, he says, Crooked Star is an exercise in direct communication. “When I wrote these songs I was trying to write lasers,” he says. “Straight lines. One thing, said clearly.” This directness certainly comes through in how he’s structured each track. Most revolve around repeated lyrical refrains (“You’re nothing to me”, “God, I wish I was in Tokyo”) that recall classic country songwriting of the 50s and 60s, and all but one (“Sweet Lemon”) eschew bridges completely for simple repeated verses. And yet, even as Jody has become more comfortable opening up, his work retains an enigmatic edge. There’s a sense of mystery in these songs that defies linear explanations—they’re full of hints and allusions, suggestions of an inner life that the songs can’t completely expose.

“No song is going to contain somebody’s whole life,” says Jody. “But songs can tell you a lot about a person.”

releases May 27, 2022

Written, Performed, and Recorded by John Jody
Pedal Steel Mark Huhta and Cody Nilsen
Additional production by Derek Ramirez
Mastered by Ryan Power
Cover art by Caroline Bennett