Singer/songwriter Karen Pernick's low-key style has been described as haunted, melancholic, and darkly poetic. Her two albums, Apartment 12 and Two Kinds of Weather, are filled with telling observations on the human condition, delivered simply in a calm, smoky voice that makes her tales of lives slowly falling to pieces even more devastating. She's played festivals from Seattle's Bumbershoot to Austin's SXSW, as well as folk clubs from coast to coast, picking up a bunch of songwriting awards along the way, but she never intended to become a professional musician. The ten years between Apartment 12 and Two Kinds of Weather are indicative of a woman who is firmly in control of her own life and priorities. "I'm not out for a 200 dates a year kind of career," Pernick says. "I'm interested in a musical path that allows me to stay true to myself. Why did I stop playing (for ten years)? One has to know their own emotional and physical constitution; it takes lot out of you to (be on the road.)"