Diane Cluck at The Thing in the Spring 2013 from Pony Problems Productions on Vimeo.

Allston Pudding is pleased to present a series of videos captured live from this year’s Thing in the Spring in Peterborough, New Hampshire. These videos come to us from the newly established Pony Problems Productions, a video production house launched from the Western Mass-based record label TinyRadars.

Virginia-based songwriter Diane Cluck is a wealth of words and tunes. Cluck has seven albums to her name, each with various right-brained tales and curious melodies that wrap neatly around her acoustic chords. In this video, she sets up in the middle of the woods with the accompaniment of a cellist, for an ambient, bare-bones version of “Trophies.” Cluck has a signature approach both to her vocal style and to her guitar-playing. Joni Mitchell is a fair comparison, but while Mitchell croons in a quirkier, more coy way, Cluck’s voice is haunting, letting its range seek out thrilling lows to match impressive highs. She plays her acoustic with an equally open mind, discovering notes higher up on the neck, and plucking them as a harp player might. Check out the video above.