Lucy Dacus

Lucy Elizabeth Dacus (born May 2, 1995) is an American singer-songwriter and producer.

Dacus released the EP Girls Back Home on Bandcamp on August 31, 2012 when she was a senior in high school.

The track list consists of seven songs: "Girls Back Home", "Finest Cursive", "Pretty Girl", "Lullaby", "Time Travel", "Black Lungs", and "Kiddie Pool".

Like all her other projects, it includes production from Collin Pastore and Jacob Blizard.

It was digitally available for a time, but Dacus took it down shortly before her debut album No Burden was released.

In a Reddit AMA, she stated she took it down because she "didn’t want this EP to be somebody’s first impression of her".

For years after its removal from Bandcamp, the songs were considered lost.

However, internet user Lucyhistorian managed to salvage the entire track list.

It is currently available in its entirety on YouTube, but no official label release exists.

After graduating from Maggie L. Walker Governor's School in 2013, she began studying film at Virginia Commonwealth University, but left to avoid student debt and the "feeling of being misunderstood" in her university program.

Prior to becoming a full-time musician, she was employed by Richmond Camera as an editor for children's school photos.

During this time, she wrote approximately 30 songs, nine of which would comprise the tracklist of No Burden.

Dacus first performed in New York City in March 2015.

Her first single, "I Don't Wanna Be Funny Anymore", premiered in November 2015.

Her debut album No Burden was produced in Nashville by her hometown friends, Berklee College of Music graduate Collin Pastore and Oberlin Conservatory of Music graduate Jacob Blizard; it was recorded at the request of Blizard for a school project.

Originally from Richmond, Virginia, Dacus attracted attention with her debut album No Burden (2016), which led to a deal with Matador Records.

The album was originally released digitally on CD, and on vinyl via Richmond's EggHunt Records on February 26, 2016.

Dacus was then signed to Matador Records, who re-released the album on September 9, 2016.

In the same year she performed at Lollapalooza, in Chicago's Grant Park and made her national television debut on CBS This Morning.

She recorded a Tiny Desk Concert for NPR the same weekend.

In October 2016 she played the London Calling festival in Amsterdam, as a replacement for The Duke Spirit, who had been forced to cancel.

Historian, her second album, was released in 2018 to critical acclaim.

Home Video, her third studio album, was released in 2021.

In addition to her solo work, Dacus is also a member of the indie supergroup Boygenius, with Julien Baker and Phoebe Bridgers.

The band has released one studio album and two EPs to critical acclaim and widespread touring.

The band won 3 Grammy Awards in 2024, including Best Alternative Music Album.

They also became the first all-female band to win Best Rock Song and Best Rock Performance.

In October 2023, Rolling Stone named Dacus the 213th-greatest guitarist of all time, noting: "[her] guitar is as essential an instrument as her voice".

Dacus was adopted as an infant and grew up in Mechanicsville, Virginia, a suburb of Richmond.

She is of Uzbek and Irish descent.

Her adoptive mother is a professional pianist and music teacher, and her adoptive father is a graphic designer.

Dacus had an early interest in music, and bought her first guitar, an Ibanez, from Craigslist when she was in middle school.

Dacus's second album, titled Historian, was released on March 2, 2018.

Like its predecessor, it was met with widespread critical acclaim.

Writing for Pitchfork, Sasha Geffen praised its nuance and sensitivity: "It’s not an easy album to wear out. It lasts, and it should, given that so many of its lyrics pick at time, and the way time condenses around deep emotional attachments to other people."

Rolling Stone rated the album 4/5 stars, as did NME.

Historian, like No Burden, was recorded in Nashville, at Trace Horse Studio, in a similar collaborative effort by Lucy Dacus, Jacob Blizard, and Collin Pastore.

In 2018, Dacus, along with Phoebe Bridgers and Julien Baker, formed the group boygenius.

They released three songs in August 2018 and subsequently announced an EP and tour.

The EP, titled boygenius, came out on October 26, 2018.