Little Lonely

Little Lonely, is the moniker of Missouri-born and West Coast-based indie-folk artist, Julie Cain. Known for her emotive style, her music evokes Dust Bowl salvation, roadside general stores and towns submerged in lakes for the sake of progress. So much has changed since the release of her highly regarded full length record. She became a mother, lost her mother and moved her family several times, ultimately leaving her longtime home of Los Angeles, at the height of the pandemic, for the Pacific Northwest. Her forthcoming ep, Velvety Pillow, is an offering of comfort as it explores themes of sense memory, lost innocence, self worth and clunky goodbyes. Produced by Aaron Stern (Capstone Audio, Los Angeles) the ep is expected to roll out in Fall 2026 through Spring 2027.  Fans of Jessica Pratt, Big Thief, Jenny Lewis and Angel Olsen may find a connection here.  Follow along at LittleLonely.com for updates and appearances.

 

 

Little Lonely, is the moniker of Missouri-born and West Coast-based indie-folk artist, Julie Cain. Known for her emotive style, her music evokes Dust Bowl salvation, roadside general stores and towns submerged in lakes for the sake of progress. So much has changed since the release of her highly regarded full length record. She became a mother, lost her mother and moved her family several times, ultimately leaving her longtime home of Los Angeles, at the height of the pandemic, for the Pacific Northwest. Her forthcoming ep, Velvety Pillow, is an offering of comfort as it explores themes of sense memory, lost innocence, self worth and clunky goodbyes. Produced by Aaron Stern (Capstone Audio, Los Angeles) the ep is expected to roll out in Fall 2026 through Spring 2027.  Fans of Jessica Pratt, Big Thief, Jenny Lewis and Angel Olsen may find connection here.  Follow along at LittleLonely.com for updates and appearances.

 

Little Lonely’s 2013 full-length record, produced by multi-instrumentalist, Sean Hoffman (American Music Club, Loch&Key, Linda Perhacs) features accomplished Indie-Rock, Folk and Americana musicians in Los Angeles: Darice Bailey (The Broken West, The Coals), Nic Chaffee (Eels, George Clinton) Greg Eklund (Everclear, The Oohlas), Joey Galvan (Pete Anderson), Eric Heywood (The Pretenders, Son Volt), Baskerville Jones (The Rebirth), Robby Marshall (Cassandra Wilson, Tom Jones) Heather McIntosh (Norah Jones, Gnarls Barkley) and George Sluppick (The Chris Robinson Brotherhood, Mofro). The result combines hushed steel string horizons and echo drenched guitars with vocals that recall the plaintive wail made up of equal parts Maria McKee, Hope Sandoval and Julee Cruise. 

Top Ten lists, radio airplay and performances include:  Just Off the Radar, WUGA 97.9FM Athens, GA, international regular airplay on KOPN 89.5FM, Columbia, MO, Town & Country Underground Radio, Pasadena, CA, Roots Revival (Belgium), The Alternate Root Top Ten, 89.1FM Independent’s Day, KCRW DJ Valida’s Desert Nights at the Standard, Hollywood, Echo Country Outpost (Best Of List – Time Out LA) and a recurring favorite on the main stage at The Grand Ole Echo, the premiere Americana/Country music showcase in Los Angeles, co-founded by PR maven Kim Grant.

 

Little Lonely collaborations with Portland-based artist, Wonder Bright,  involve guerrilla-style productions with a nostalgic sense of place. “Top Stair" (Real Roots Café, Band of the Day), feat. dreamy LA pop duo Loch&Key, is set in Hoffman's Echo Park hills studio and  bungalow. “Penny’s First Available” (Buzz Bands, Indie Musicology) set in bucolic Glendale comes to life in the time capsule strip mall hair salon, Shampoo Conspiracy. “Interstate Hum” (Turnstyled Junkpiled) a rural footage mashup of Cain’s Missouri home town and live footage from The Echo in Los Angeles provides a sense of trajectory while “Furniture Land” shows off quintessential Sunset Blvd's scenes in Silverlake, Echo Park and Lincoln Heights“. Carnival King” lands in a MacArthur Park pop up festival where everything gets swirly in funhouse mirrors and a mask both invites and repels passers by. Other art collaborations include artist/photographers Alex Loftus (Portland, ME) and Lukas Taylor (Portland, OR) as well as Kansas City-based contemporary painter, Marcus Cain (Picture Show, Interstate Hum.)

 

Cain earned money in weddings and funerals in her teens, singing and playing organ in her hometown suburb of Kansas City. As a Fine Art student in San Francisco, and later Los Angeles, she combined her love of singing, writing and performance art in a project entitled Bitsy Lee, based on a fictional character inspired by her Midwest ancestors who roamed from town to town, playing in honky-tonks. After a stint of roaming herself from SF to LA, Cain dropped the moniker to focus on her original songwriting voice and released Interstate Hum ("moody, subtle, intelligent and, just occasionally, a little bit Patsy Cline" - Americana UK) with producers Greg Eklund (Everclear, The Oohlas) and Geoff Walcha (Everclear, Ben Harper.) A second ep, Picture Show (with guests Dead Kennedys’ East Bay Ray & Chuck Lindo (Actionslacks, American Professionals) followed, and so did a few film placements in writer/director Barbara Stepansky's (Outlander) Broken Hill (Timothy Hutton), Hurt (Melora Walters) and short film, My Own Private Demon.  

 

Little Lonely has performed in venues and festivals on the Los Angeles circuit and up and down the West Coast scene, sharing bills with notable artists Charley Crockett, Lauren Ruth Ward, Sarah Shook & the Disarmers and Jaime Wyatt, to name a few. Her music is widely available on all platforms. 

 

Photo Credit: Lukas Taylor