O’Neil has been reborn several times, in several places. She cut her teeth with the short-lived but seminal post-hardcore bands Drinking Woman and Rodan in early-’90s Louisville. Ironically, though, it was in New York that she first unleashed the punk-tinged folk and country sounds at the core of The Sonora Pine, Retsin, and The Naysayers, as well as the solo work she began releasing rapidly over the following decade. Her west-coast era, beginning in Washington and including a long stay in Portland, has been no less fertile, though her major projects have arrived at a more intentional rate in recent years.
O’Neil’s travels have earned her a world-weary wisdom that’s evident across Cool Cloud. They’ve also helped her garner a seemingly infinite network of friends and collaborators, many of whom were in attendance when she performed in Brooklyn two days before the record’s release. Played live, the new songs felt lived in, as torn and treasured as a pair of well-worn jeans. “May a cool cloud of okayness rain on we,” O’Neil toasted the crowd to finish the set’s first song, wishing us safety and serenity in a world on fire.