Clare & the Reasons

Clare Muldaur, the daughter of musician Geoff Muldaur, established herself as an idiosyncratic indie singer/songwriter before she officially joined forces with the Reasons, releasing two solo albums, Sweetheart and Bentley Circle, in 2002 and 2003, respectively. She teamed up with her husband, Olivier Manchon (the two met when Muldaur was studying jazz composition at the Berklee College of Music), bassist Alan Hampton, cellist Christopher Hoffman, Beth Meyers, and Greg Ritchie to form Clare & the Reasons sometime after she released her solo albums; multi-instrumentalist Bob Hart was brought into the fold soon after the group finished recording its debut full-length. That album, The Movie, hit stores in 2007; featuring cameos by Sufjan Stevens and Van Dyke Parks, the album was comprised of the kind of quirky, jazzy, indie pop that welcomed comparisons to artists like Lullaby Baxter and St. Vincent. The Arrow full-length followed in October 2009. ~ Margaret Reges, All Music Guide