That Saadi’s musical history reads like something out of a V.S. Naipaul novel is incidental. As the (entirely true) legend goes, Boshra al Saadi was born in Syria, sojourned in suburban Pennsylvania for a spin in Catholic school, ventured to NYC’s Greenwich Village in her late teens with folksinger dreams, and cut her teeth as co-frontwoman for indie rock band Looker, before setting out on her own.

Read more about Saadi on Last.fm.