Brianna Lea Pruett

Exposed to music, art, and film of all genres from a young age, Pruett was encouraged in artistic endeavors. Her parents’ vinyl collection—encompassing everything from classical and choir music to folk and rock legends like Leonard Cohen, Janis Joplin, and Jimi Hendrix—served as Pruett's first music history education. Other noted influences included Tom Waits, Roberta Flack, and Doc Watson. When she was a teenager, she often sang in clubs, cafes, on street corners, and art galleries in Northern California, performing a cappella, with acoustic guitar, and occasionally with a band.

Pruett died by suicide on September 2, 2015. The cause of death was not made public. She was 32, and had been depressed off and on for most of her adult life.

Pruett's 2013 debut on Canyon Records, Gypsy Bells, gained generally favorable reviews and media attention. Her style is often associated with folk music falling in a singer-songwriter category. However, Pruett lists diverse musical influences like Emmylou Harris, Carole King, Iron & Wine, Pavement, Woody Guthrie, and Charles Mingus and has been compared to a mix of “Angel Olson + Damien Jurado” and Cat Power.

Pruett began filming with a handheld DV camera, creating short films that cost nothing to produce, in 2005.(registration required) Our Love And Voices, a short from her film series Roses For Maya Deren premiered at the 2012 American Indian Film Festival. A DVD release of Roses For Maya Deren was recently funded on Indiegogo, which included 18 of the more than 30 short films she shot between 2005-2012. The final DVD was released in early 2015 and in May 2015, the 18 shorts were made available on Vimeo On Demand. Those titles include:

Pruett has self-released two albums, 2003's Natural Fact and 2004's Winter Apple, both of which were recorded in Portland, Oregon. She later re-released them through Tiger Friends Collective, the same company that released 2011's The Stars, The Moon, The Owl, The Cougar, and You and 2012's Keeping You In Mind.

Brianna Lea Pruett (January 18, 1983 – September 2, 2015) was an American singer-songwriter, musician, painter, poet and filmmaker.

Brianna Lea Pruett was born in Sacramento, California. Her family lived at a Northern California Shingle Springs ranch they had built with extended family members in the 1970s. She attended public schools in Sacramento after the family moved to the city in 1989, and through many moves following her parents’ divorce and remarriages. Pruett was a second generation Californian. Both maternal grandparents descended from European Mormon settlers and her paternal ancestry is Native American. Both sides of her father's family include Cherokee, Choctaw, and Chickasaw relatives, as well as European immigrants. Pruett's interest in her family lineage is well documented through her creative output and helped connect her with the Native American record label Canyon Records.