Kevin Bronson on February 9th, 2022

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L.A. native Lily Donat crafts folk-pop songs with direct yet sophisticated lyricism and clarion vocals.

The 21-year-old songwriter, the granddaughter of the late Grammy-winning artist and activist Helen Reddy, debuted her original music last year with a pair of singles, “Supernova” and “Most Important Man,” each exploring the aftertaste of a toxic relationship and each embellished with contemporary pop production. But Donat’s latest confessional, “How It Feels,” hits even harder as gently burnished acoustic folk song.

After two darker numbers, it completes a song trilogy for the songwriter. “It’s a three-part story and each song is like a story on its own,” she told Audiofemme, where the song premiered. “With this song, I wanted to kind of be … truthful, but optimistic and hopeful. It’s the emergence of hope … the song of recovery and healing.

“I hope it’s energizing. I hope it’s that kind of song you hear when you think you might be coming on the other side of something [and can] see the light at the end of the tunnel.”

Donat possesses a voice that would make her grandmother proud — and one that can also be heard on the track “Revolution” on the soundtrack to the 2019 Reddy biopic “I Am Woman.” Donat appeared in the film as a nightclub singer performing the song.

||| Stream: “How It Feels,” “Most Important Man” and “Supernova”