Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter Haylie Davis presents Wandering Star, a coming-of-age debut that unfolds like a Townes Van Zandt tale set in a deserted diner off a re-routed interchange: intimate, cinematic and quietly fearless.Haylie Davis channels the spirit of the early ’70s, when Carole King and Joni Mitchell redefined songwriting. That time-travelling sensibility is celebrated on Wandering Star, the album’s title track. A piano-led meditation steeped in longing, the song carries the eerie shadow of Karen Carpenter, buoyed by a luminous, aching sub-melody.The blissful ballad ‘Horns of Time’ taps into a plaintive cosmic country palette reminiscent of Emmylou Harris. ‘Give Me a Rainbow’ follows, a lo-fi folk reverie recalling Clairo, as if filtered through a back-porch-reclining, wide-eyed Dolly Parton in awe of her own roots. Rolling Stone has hailed Davis’ earlier recordings as “gently hued Laurel Canyon folk-pop songs”, and on Wandering Star