Your Austin Music Minute host first got word of the multi-talented Eva Mueller during her stint with local orchestral pop outfit The Unbearables around 2007. She soon went on to perform with One Hundred Flowers and collaborate with Justin Wiles in Polar Optimist before embarking on her solo project, Hot Cotton, in 2012. Mueller has performed under this moniker since then, but this year marks the release of her forthcoming debut EP, The Secrets I’ve Kept, featuring the new single “Late July.”
Mueller began working on tracks for the EP last year with producer Gary Calhoun James at Bell Tree Studio, and enlisted the talents of Gary Newcomb, Ehren Lorfing, and former Unbearables bandmate Marshall Escamilla to perform on the recordings. The Secrets I’ve Kept is a multi-layered work capturing Mueller’s delicately-crafted balance between determined strength and an uncertain fragility. As Mueller herself puts it, this is the sound of “letting go of your demons.”
Hot Cotton premieres “Late July” and other new tunes at a single release show tonight at the Mohawk, 912 Red river. Carry Illinois and The Human Circuit share the bill. Doors open at 9 p.m. A lovely night for beautiful music. Recommended.
-Photography by Anna Lynn Lively.
