When Rachael received a four-track recorder as a bat mitzvah present, she began learning the nuts and bolts of audio recording and production, and after enrolling at Stanford University, Sage was soon regularly performing at local coffeehouses. In 1996, Sage recorded her first album, Morbid Romantic, and released it on her own MPress Records label. (In time, MPress would grow into a successful independent label, releasing albums by Melissa Ferrick, Seth Glier, and A Fragile Tomorrow as well as Sage's body of work.) By 1999, Sage had released a second album, Smashing the Serene, and performed on the Village Stage on the 1999 Lilith Fair tour, as well as being chosen to open for Ani DiFranco on a tour of Europe.
A prolific songwriter and recording artist, by the time Sage dropped Blue Roses in 2014 (which included Sage performing a duet of Neil Young's "Helpless" with her close friend and mentor Judy Collins), she'd released 11 full-length albums and two EPs, brought home four Independent Music Awards, and won the grand prize in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest. In addition to her busy recording schedule, Sage tours regularly, playing upwards of 100 dates a year with her band the Sequins (Kelly Halloran on violin, Ward Williams on cello, and Andy Mac on drums). Sage is also a published author and an accomplished visual artist who has displayed her work in New York galleries and provided illustrations for her album packaging. In 2016, she released her twelfth album, Choreographic, which contained material she'd composed for dancer Maddie Ziegler. Two years later, in 2018, Sage returned with Myopia, which explored themes of vision and visualization. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi