Maura Dunst: "Violin Songs" (2026) CD Review

Maura Dunst is a member of The Foxgloves, playing fiddle and mandolin in that group. She released her first solo album, This Won't End Well, in 2022, and followed that with the EP Oh Sister in 2024. Her new release, an EP titled Violin Songs, is a little different. This one is a true solo effort, with Maura Dunst singing and playing violin without any other accompaniment. She also did the arrangements. And though the title is Violin Songs, these aren't songs we generally associate with violin (though we may very well start to do so now). The songs are covers by artists like R.E.M., Sheryl Crow, and Bruce Springsteen. The EP was recorded, mixed and mastered by Steve Kaul at Wild Sound Recording Studio in Minneapolis.

Maura Dunst opens the EP with Sheryl Crow's "Strong Enough." Though the only instrument is violin, she does several violin parts, including using the instrument for a little percussion. It's always interesting to me how certain lines will strike me differently and stand out depending on what is going on in the world. And this time these lines stand out: "Nothing's true, and nothing's right/So let me be alone tonight/Because you can't change the way I am." This is a good rendition, featuring an excellent vocal performance that grows in power as the track progresses. That's followed by "Dancing In The Dark." This song was everywhere in 1984, the first single from Bruce Springsteen's Born In The U.S.A. album. This was back in the days when hit songs deserved to be hits (something that ended only two years later). Listening to Maura Dunst's rendition, it's clear why this song had (and continues to have) such great appeal. "I ain't nothing but tired/Man, I'm just tired and bored with myself/Hey there, baby, I could use just a little help." The song contains lyrics that still speak to us, maybe more now than then, actually. "Stay on the streets of this town/And they'll be carving you up all right/They say you gotta stay hungry/Well hey, baby, I'm just about starving tonight." And I love the pause she adds before those lines, giving emphasis both to those lines and to the previous line, "Come on, baby, the laugh's on me."

There are several different songs titled "Work Song" (when you have a chance, check out the one by The Evangenitals). The one Maura Dunst covers here is that by Hozier, and, yes, she does add clapping. She delivers a beautiful, soulful rendition, tapping into those same timeless elements that Hozier did on the original. "When my time comes around/Lay me gently in the cold dark earth." She follows that with "The Eye," a pretty folk song by Brandi Carlile, included on her 2015 album The Firewatcher's Daughter. Here Maura is picking the violin. I love her approach to this song, this track featuring a gorgeous vocal performance. "I wrapped your love around me like a chain/But I never was afraid that it would die/You can dance in a hurricane/But only if you're standing in the eye." She wraps up the EP with R.E.M.'s "Everybody Hurts" from that great Automatic For The People album. This is a song that has brought me to tears on more than one occasion, and Maura Dunst's version has the same effect on me. "When you're sure you've had enough/Of this life, hang on." And with the multiple violin parts, we do not feel alone. They're able to hold us up. And certainly we need that in these difficult times. "No, you're not alone."

CD Track List

1. Strong Enough
2. Dancing In The Dark
3. Work Song
4. The Eye
5. Everybody Hurts

Violin Songs is scheduled to be released on July 24, 2026.