New Album "Personal History" Is Out Today!

Today I’m so happy to be able to say to you all: Happy “Personal History” Release Day!  

I started writing the songs on this album as the pandemic began winding down; the titular song “What Did You Miss” pointed the way forward, with its final verse: “I’ve been writing it down/song by song/as a personal history” when imagining this collection of songs as memoir, and how the wisdom that comes with growing older becomes a north star, whether one is celebrating quotidian joys or navigating life’s inevitable losses.     

Between tours, projects and collaborations,  I sat at the kitchen table with pencil and paper, Angus at my feet, trying to heed the advice to “write your head off”.   I took last year off from the road to get my bum thumb fixed (hit me up guitar playing friends if you need a world class hand surgeon, I’ve got one!) and to put the finishing touches on these songs.

In January we returned to the special place that is Real World Studios in south west England with some of my favorite musicians and engineers: Duke Levine, Cameron Ralston, Chris Vatalaro, Matt Rollings, Katey May, Xav Sinden and the incomparable wizard/alchemist Josh Kaufman in the producer’s chair.  This group of people, artists ALL, brought these songs to life, in full color, full on, full blast.  They have my deepest thanks and appreciation for their wide open- hearted commitment to the emotional excavations and sonic worlds I aspired to … Once we were back stateside, the brilliant Anais Mitchell put harmony vocals on “Home Is A Song” and I will never not cry when I hear her join in.  She found the heartbeat within the words, as she always does.  D.James Goodwin gave us a gorgeous mix and master; the vinyl received the audiophile treatment with Sterling Sound mastering and David Rawlings’ Paramount Pressing in Denver with their D2 Ultra Premium Vinyl.

If songs are snapshots in time, in these I tried to use a longer, finer lens to capture the light that illuminates memory, identity, place, meaning, the stories we carry and portals to new ways of being and seeing.  I hope it takes you to similar places.

Staying mighty, see you this summer with our best pal Brandy Clark!