Laura Zarougian brings all of herself to her new double single “Double-Sided”/”New Used Car.” The self-described sidewalk cowgirl leans heavily into country, Western, and East Village folk on these two songs, though her Armenian heritage is never far from her mind. “New Used Car” has the jaunty, freewheeling nature of a Dylan song, while “Double-Sided” is a luscious serving of pedal steel and loneliness. Zarougian commands these performances with a sense of self and dogged perseverance. Below, she describes her process for the two songs.
I wrote ‘Double-Sided’ after moving to Brooklyn. The song started out as a reflection on a particular run-in with the wrong crowd, but has evolved since I first performed it. It definitely has strong roots in the folk storytelling tradition. Although the themes in this release are more rooted in the American landscape than the Armenian immigrant stories of my first album, Nayri, I feel like this song faces my conflicting identities. There is the sidewalk cowgirl of Brooklyn, and then there is the daughter of Armenian immigrants and refugees — both sides looking for belonging.