When Storey Littleton takes the stage at Levon Helm Studios on Jan. 31, opening for Cornelia Murr, the setting will be familiar. She has been playing music in that room since childhood. What is new is the timing. Her debut album, “At a Diner,” arrives on Feb. 8, marking her first full step forward as a songwriter.
“Levon’s has been a real musical home for me since I was a kid,” Littleton said. “So many milestones of my life have happened there.”
Littleton, 24, grew up in Woodstock surrounded by musicians. Her parents play in the indie-rock band Ida, and music was woven into daily life early on. Still, “At a Diner” was not written with a career in mind per se, rather more of a cathartic and creative therapy from life’s ups and downs. Littleton composed the songs between the ages of 18 and 21.
“These were honestly the first songs I really ever wrote,” she said. “I didn’t even really know I wanted to be a real songwriter who did this for my life when I started working on this album.”
That distance from ambition shapes the record. Inspired by writers like Judee Sill, Liz Phair and Kacey Musgraves, the album blends folk intimacy with pop melody, moving between restraint and release. Finger-picked acoustic passages give way to swells of electric guitar, with humor, light-hearted chatter, and real tension side by side.
“It was coming from a very raw place that I had no idea what would happen with it,” Littleton said.
She recorded much of the album at her parents’ house in Woodstock, then finished it at The Building, a studio in Marlboro, where it was co-produced with Lee Falco. The process unfolded slowly.
“It was very organic, doing-this-all-from-scratch,” she said. “I was really just finding my way.”
Amy Helm, Littleton’s godmother and a longtime mentor, said she has watched that evolution unfold up close. Helm, a musician and the daughter of Levon Helm of The Band, said the growth has been unmistakable.
“It has been an incredible joy to watch her merge into her artistry with such grace and precision,” Helm said.
Helm described Littleton as “a quiet power,” praising her willingness to write directly about emotional fracture. “She’s singing what people feel and are afraid to say out loud,” Helm said.
That clarity is beginning to carry Littleton beyond Woodstock. She is set to tour this winter opening for Lola Kirke, with dates in New York, Washington, Chicago, Toronto, and Minneapolis. She also fronts the band M0NOGAMY and plays with a rotating circle of collaborators.
For now, though, her focus remains on the room where she first sang publicly as a child.
“I got to play music there as a little kid,” she said. “I got to meet Levon and grow up around so many incredible musicians.”
Littleton salso aid she has been paying closer attention to artists who continue to engage publicly with current events, citing Graham Nash as a recent example. She has seen Nash perform twice in the past two years, including a show at The Egg in Albany where he criticized former President Donald Trump from the stage, drawing a mix of boos and cheers, and a performance at Bearsville Theater in Woodstock where he introduced his 1971 song “Military Madness” by saying he believed the Israeli government was committing a genocide. Littleton said Nash has continued to speak out in recent weeks, including online posts about protest music and efforts to amplify local organizations opposing Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity in Minneapolis, which she described as an example of a veteran artist remaining publicly engaged.
On Saturday night, she returns as a songwriter with a first album about to arrive, bringing those songs back to where they began.
Noah Eckstein is the editor-in-chief of The Overlook. Send correspondence to noah@theoverlooknews.com.