"Remember" earned All Music Guide’s praise: “It portrays an emotional honesty that, even in its weakness  — or perhaps because of this admittance — contains a strength and humanity that's seen in few contemporary artists.” Pitchfork noted “her music feels like a comforting, unexpected embrace.”
“(The songs express) how I deal with stuff and the fact that some people get something out of that is extra,” she notes. “My songs vomit themselves out of me. I don’t rework things and don’t have a nervous breakdown over whether they're ready. I'm a one take kind of girl.”
Her sound has always been primitive – aural folk art to a certain degree – and its simple, often naïve qualities are what attracted the “Juno” filmmakers to her work. She knew early on the film’s two central teen characters would be singing “Anyone Else But You,” a song that appears on the Moldy Peaches’ lone album, but was surprised when six of her solo recordings made it into the final cut, too.
Unfamiliar with the filmmaking and editing process, she was unaware their inclusion was even a possibility. Even as she goes out to help drum up sales for the Rhino-released soundtrack, she doesn’t load the set list with the tracks in the movie.
“I don’t even know how to play all of those songs” she chuckled. “I did a show (in Brooklyn) and you could tell who knew just the soundtrack. I only did two from 'Juno', but nobody seemed disappointed. I will practice a third one, but no guarantees.”
This week she has already been to New York and Boston; Saturday she’s in Philadelphia. After Maryland, D.C. and Virginia, she heads home to the Pacific Northwest for some early February gigs. She has an instore at Hollywood’s Amoeba Music on Feb. 22 and is looking to book shows in San Diego, the Bay Area and North Carolina.
In March and April, before she concentrates on finishing the children’s album for K Records and figures out the logistics of getting a book published, she’ll be touring with her husband and some French musicians who will be making their first trek through the U.S. She’s asking them to list the places they don’t want to miss so she can have the tour booked accordingly.
Who knows? It might be a bigger tour than initially expected considering the growing popularity of “Juno,” a pic that was widely praised initially and has since been unfairly targeted for its uncommonly smart dialogue and depiction of teen pregnancy. Bigger venues, better conditions for a performance don’t seem to have much of an allure for Dawson.
“We're not about to move and start drinking weird imported water” she says, reinforcing the idea that she’ll be sticking to her guns. “Maybe I'll take the (‘Juno’) royalties and start a college fund for the baby.”
Sounds like a good idea.