Joanna Newsom

Joanna Newsom
Newsom performing at the Orpheum Theatre, Boston, MA, December 6, 2015
Born	Joanna Caroline Newsom (1982-01-18) January 18, 1982 (age 35) Nevada City, California, U.S.
Spouse(s)	Andy Samberg (m. 2013)
Musical career
Genres	Folk, indie folk, chamber folk, freak folk, avant-garde, baroque pop
Occupation(s)	Musician
Instruments	Multi-Instrumentalist
Labels	Drag City
Associated acts	The Pleased

Joanna Caroline Newsom (born January 18, 1982) is an American harpist, pianist, vocalist, lyricist and actress.

Newsom was born and raised in the small town of Nevada City, California. Her mother, Christine (née Mueller), is an internist, and her father, William Newsom, is an oncologist. Her parents were "progressive-minded professionals" who had previously lived in the San Francisco Bay Area.

As a child, Newsom was not allowed to watch television or listen to the radio. She describes her parents as "kind of idealists when it came to hoping they could protect us from bad influences, like violent movies, or stupid stuff". She was exposed to music from a young age. Her father played the guitar and her mother was a classically trained pianist who played the hammered dulcimer, the autoharp and conga drums. Newsom attended a Waldorf school, where she studied theater and learned to memorize and recite long poems.

At the age of five, Newsom asked her parents if she could learn to play the harp. Her parents eventually agreed to sign her up for harp lessons, but the local harp instructor did not want to take on such a young student and suggested she learn to play the piano first. She did, and later moved on to the harp which she "loved from the first lesson onward." She first played on smaller Celtic harps until her parents bought her a full-size pedal harp in the seventh grade.

After high school, she studied composition and creative writing at Mills College, where she played keyboards in The Pleased. She dropped out of school in order to focus on her music.

In 2002-03, Newsom recorded two EPs, Walnut Whales and Yarn and Glue. These homemade recordings were intended to serve as a document of her early work. These EPs were not intended for public distribution. At the suggestion of Noah Georgeson, her then-boyfriend and recording engineer of the EP, she burned several copies to sell at her early shows.