When it came time to pick a producer for the follow-up to her 2013 self-titled debut, Mackenzie Scott (aka Torres) decided to enlist PJ Harvey’s longtime drummer Rob Ellis, who in turn recruited several of his buddies, including Portishead guitarist Adrian Utley. That’s pretty heady company for a 24-year-old self-described “Baptist girl” from Macon, Ga., who just a year earlier was studying musical composition at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn.
The resulting record, Sprinter , which dropped in May, is full of emotive, raw-nerved tunes, none more powerful than “New Skin,” which — no surprise — sounds like Harvey during her big Rock phase (see 2000’s Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea ). Read more about Torres in this week's Sound Advice .See Torres with Brandi Carlile Wednesday at Taft Theatre. More info/tickets: tafttheatre.org .
