It’s the coldest day of the winter, with temperatures plunging well below zero, as I talk on the phone with violinist Molly Healey, who is feeling under all that weather. “I got the flu or crud or something,” Healey tells me from her home base of Springfield, Missouri, on a good day to hunker down.
Sick or not, Healey has things to do. She is busy planning this year’s Earth Day festival in Springfield, the annual all-day music festival that Healey founded in 2019, and she is prepping for a February 9 show at Blue Strawberry in St. Louis. So an isolated day at home works fine for Healey. After all, she needs no outside help to write or record new music: She’s a one-woman band with remarkable gifts for playing and looping sonic layers into uniquely beautiful melodic compositions.
Healey is a ubiquitous presence on the Missouri music scene, playing solo sets with her cello, violin, voice and looping pedals, but just as frequently, she has been in high-profile collaborations as a member of popular Americana bands including Big Smith, Cornmeal and the Ozark Mountain Daredevils, as well as her own four-piece Molly Healey Band.