By Ben BonadiesNumber One Babe’s Alex Cholewa photographed by Derek Delahunt

Singer-songwriter Alex Cholewa would like to make a “real” album one day. That’s not to say he hasn’t put out considered, studio-quality recordings—his last album as Number One Babe, 2022’s Ecstatic Function, was a stroll through the prairies of folk and Americana with touches of jazz and classic rock dotting the way—he just means something that’s at least 12 tracks long. “I just feel like I have some kind of boomer conditioning to be like, ‘Thirteen cuts, that’s an album.’” With Red Clover, Cholewa returns with a record that’s more focused and openhearted. “The eight track final version felt more cohesive,” he said.  

Where Ecstatic Function was almost a solo project–Cholewa played nearly every instrument you hear on that record–Red Clover sees him finding new space for collaboration. Nearly the entire album was recorded live at Distorted Forest Studios in North Smithfield, Rhode Island. The band had spent the prior five months working the songs out on stage, which left little else to do but capture the music in the room. 

Despite the newfound company, there is plenty of open space on Red Clover. The band tracked most of the album in the studio’s larger room with tall ceilings and you can hear the extra headroom in the moments of quiet.  Find here a mournful clarinet, gentle splash of cymbal, and hum of slide guitar providing ambient backing for Cholewa’s hushed vocal delivery and careful guitar picking. There are shades of Townes van Zandt and Adrianne Lenker (“My favorite songwriter, maybe ever”) in the tenderness and delicateness of these recordings. 

Cholewa graduated from Berklee in December 2024. “I wanted to go to music school because it was the only thing I could picture myself doing,” he said. The formal education did little to beat his DIY impulses out of him. “I feel like what I learned most going there was how to record songs better at home.” he said. Two of the album’s tracks—“Anything” and “Then Come Back,” which bookend Red Clover—were recorded himself to a gifted a copy of Ableton. “I tried rerecording in a studio and just could not get the same feeling–the vocal deliveries, the inflections–nothing sounded right and so we ended up working with those two home recordings and building on them, and that’s what’s on the record.”

Cholewa is of Mohegan descent from his mom’s side and feels closest to this part of his identity. For the last four years, he was a regular at his uncle’s sweat lodge in Preston, Connecticut. The traditional practice keeps him connected to his community and heritage. “Doing sweat has really changed my life,” he said. “It’s all about prayer. It was the way to reach the spirit world and your ancestors.” Cholewa became sober since starting at the lodge, as many of his fellow lodge mates are.  “[Native American men] would sweat in times of war before battles, when people were sick. We’re still praying for people to get better. We’re still praying for the world.” 

On his immediate horizon is a move to LA. Cholewa and his partner of four years, Celine, will drive across the country to their new place in California. Cholewa plans to keep Number One Babe active while on the west coast and will continue collaborating with his friends back home. “It’s really so valuable to be able to be part of a community and to say that you’re from somewhere. Being in the communities that make music is really special, any way you do it.”

Red Clover is available everywhere now.