Dear reader,
I have a confession. I haven't finished a song in an entire year.
Photo credit: Char Klein
Let’s back up a bit.
In 2015, I started songwriting in earnest. Before that, I’d wait around for the muse to strike and write bedroom pop songs on my Casio Sk8. Those songs are trapped in busted old laptops, never to see daylight. Probably for the best.
But in 2015, I turned 28, got divorced, learned to play the guitar, and became a country singer. In that order. It was a hell of a Saturn return.
That was ten years ago. Lately, I’ve been feeling this ten-year cycle complete.
Most musicians I know started their first band in middle or high school. I was a nearly 30-year-old divorcée struggling with an F chord and forming a band for the first time. The songs were simple in structure, but because I was 28 and not 18, I had some shit to say. I had lived a lot of life. I was not wise per se; just painfully experienced.
So I wrote. Ferociously. I wrote because it was the only thing that made sense. I had three songs in my back pocket when I left my ex-husband. My goal was to have a set of original material so I could play for my friends at Country Night. Next, I wanted a three-hour set so I could play for tourists on Frenchmen St. Then, the labels came (hello, Father/Daughter Records! New West!) and I churned out albums every 2 years:
2017 This Time Last Night
2019 You Made It This Far
2021 How Many Times
2023 Safe to Run
And now it’s 2025, and Want will arrive on May 2.
After I finished writing Want, I put my pen down. I needed a minute. It felt like my inside was now on the outside. These songs are way more vulnerable than my previous material. The recording session was euphoric; hearing my inner world and recovery journey become rock and roll was trippy. I was completely high on the process.
[I love how Kaveh Akbar talks about getting high on art in this Death, Sex and Money interview. Kaveh’s book Martyr! is a must-read for all Midwestern diaspora artists interested in recovery and purpose.]
So for the first time in ten years, I stopped writing. I needed to focus on normal things like touring, or going to the dentist, and being someone’s partner. I also have a job that I’ve somehow maintained as the artist liaison at El Rey Court, where I oversee this boutique hotel’s live music calendar.
But more than any reason, I stopped writing because I said what I needed to say. Want is my opus, and everything going forward is lagniappe.
So, here is a song I wrote recently that I’ll probably never finish. I like it as a fragment. I don’t know what to call it. Leave a comment if you have a name for it. Shout-out to Miranda July, who I love! Her latest book All Fours is a guidebook on how to alive oneself, which is very painful but is our duty as humans.
Come hear the songs in person! Face-to-face is the best algorithm! Share these tour dates with someone you love! Existential dread be damned! And check out my webstore, cause we just dropped merch!
Illustrated by Jackson Tupper & me
May 4 Sun Rough Trade Below @ 3:00 PM - New York City, NY, United States
SOLO TOUR co-bill with Andrew Combs
May 7 Wed PAARD - Den Haag, Netherlands
May 8 Thu Lutherse Kerk - Groningen, Netherlands
May 9 Café "De Amer" - Amen, Netherlands
May 10 Mezz - Breda, Netherlands
May 11 TivoliVredenburg -Utrecht, Netherlands
May 13 Vaktbua Storenes -Kristiansand, Norway - Sold Out
May 14 Kampen Bistro - Oslo, Norway
May 15 Bar Moskus - Trondheim, Norway
May 16 Jazzköket - Östersund, Sweden
May 17 Nalen - Stockholm, Sweden
SOLO TOUR
May 19 The Glad Cafe C.I.C - Glasgow, United Kingdom
May 20 The Deaf Institute - Manchester, United Kingdom
May 21 The Lexington - London, United Kingdom
May 22 Jazzklubben Nefertiti - Göteborg, Sweden
May 24 Hus 7 - Johanneshov, Sweden
May 26 Ideal Bar - København, Denmark
May 26 Strandpromenaden - Sandefjord, Norway
May 27 Musikhuset Dexter -Odense C, Denmark
May 28 NOCHTWACHE -Hamburg, Germany
May 30 Jazzkeller @ - Burghausen, Germany
Jun 2 Supersonic Records -Paris, France
FULL BAND TOUR
Jun 18 Siberia -New Orleans, LA
Jun 19 Woodlawn Theatre -Birmingham, AL
Jun 20 Cannery Hall - Nashville, TN
Jun 21 Nelsonville Music Festival 2025
Jun 23 Blueberry Hill - St Louis, MO
Jun 24 Bottleneck - Lawrence, KS
Jun 27 Winrock Park - Albuquerque, NM
Jun 28 Tumbleroot -Santa Fe, NM
Aug 28 Caveman Music Festival 2025 - Weston, CO
Whatever it is you need,
XO ER
New song sounds so good. A complete fragment! It doesn’t need to be anything
other than what is already is 🌸
This really resonated. I started writing songs at 15 and stopped at 25—it carried me through a whole decade, but once I felt more settled, the drive just vanished. I’ve only ever been able to write from heartache and need. When I’m happy, that cathartic pull disappears. No one really wants a happy-clappy love song, right?
So to hear you started writing at 28 and had such a strong album two years later—and now to see where it’s all led over ten years—that’s incredible. The last two records feel so full of heart. Something about them keeps pulling me in and stays with me. There’s honesty, vulnerability, and also this playful, spirited energy.
Clearly, so many people on the Bandcamp album preview yesterday would be so sad if you didn’t pick up your pen again. Keep going. The new song snippet sounds great.