Sera Cahoone

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Seattle songwriter who drummed in Carissa's Wierd and Band of Horses before turning to spare, pedal-steel country of her own, sung low and unhurried.

Born August 4, 1975, Sera Cahoone grew up in Littleton, Colorado, the daughter of a Rocky Mountain dynamite salesman and a business executive mother who raised her alone; her siblings are also musicians. She started drumming at twelve, partly to manage anxiety, and gave her first public performance backing a group of bluesmen at an open mic in a North Denver bar.

She moved to Seattle in 1998 for a retail job, then worked in a coffee shop while focusing on music. She drummed for Carissa's Wierd until the band broke up in 2003, played in the first lineup of Band of Horses and recorded session drums on their debut, Everything All the Time, and also played behind Patrick Park, Panda and Angel, and Betsy Olson.

Stepping out front, Cahoone self-released a self-titled debut in 2006 that drew attention from KEXP and NPR, then signed to Sub Pop in 2007, a label already home to former Carissa's Wierd bandmates. Only as the Day Is Long followed in 2008.

Her records stay quiet and slow moving, mostly acoustic guitar with pedal steel and brushed drums behind a low, level voice, closer to country than to the indie rock she came from. Deer Creek Canyon, made with producer Thom Monahan at Bear Creek Studios in Woodinville, came out in 2012.

From Where I Started, self-released in 2017, was recorded in Portland with producer John Morgan Askew and a cast of local musicians who have also worked with Iron and Wine and Death Cab for Cutie.

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