In music, Zoh Amba is always striving for greater proximity to the divine. On Eyes Full, their debut singer-songwriter release and first with Matador, they’ve never come closer. Having already become one of the most exciting saxophonists to emerge from NYC’s avant-garde scene, Amba is now letting their heart guide them back to their first instrument, the guitar, and to their hometown of Kingsport, Tennessee. The music is distinctly, instinctively tied to that place: muddy, loose blues with sweet burnishes of Appalachian folk. It feels like a pure transmission of their soul. The record was tracked live at Drop of Sun Studios in Asheville, an hour from Amba’s hometown, with no overdubs. Their best friend Kevin Hyland plays electric guitar, while drummer Jim White, whom Amba met on the streets of New York years earlier and now calls the closest thing they’ve had to a family, plays drums. Eyes Full is a lesson in how to look and to stay open to the universe, and to all the hearts that inhabit it.