Clay Finnesand

Clay Finnesand started putting out music in the late 2000s, with an EP called "Wildflower" arriving in 2012. The title track from that release became his most recognizable song, built around acoustic guitar and vocals that felt more intimate than anthemic.

He followed that with albums like "Evergreen" and "The Lost Waltz," keeping to a lane of indie folk that drew some comparisons to artists like Bon Iver and Sufjan Stevens. There were occasional collaborations, like one with the Portland Cello Project, but his work mostly stayed within a particular mood of quiet reflection.

In 2018, he faced some public questions about originality in his songwriting, which created a distraction from the music itself. The details of that situation never fully clarified, and it became part of the background noise around his later releases.