4x GRAMMY-nominated singer, songwriter, poet, activist, and multi-instrumentalist Allison Russell has announced her new album ‘The Returner’ which will be released on September 8th 2023, via Fantasy Records, and you can whet your appetite for it by aurally lapping up the title track below. The album was written and co-produced by Allison along with dim star (her partner JT Nero and Drew Lindsay) and was recorded over Solstice week in December 2022 at Henson Recording Studios in Los Angeles, CA. It features Russell’s “Rainbow Coalition” band of all-female musicians along with special guest appearances from Wendy & Lisa, Brandi Carlile, Brandy Clark, and Hozier.
Allison Russell says of the album: “My goal with The Returner – sonically, poetically, and spiritually – is a radical reclamation of the present tense, a real time union of body, mind, and soul. This album is a much deeper articulation of rhythm, groove, and syncopation. Groove as it heralds the self back into the body, groove as it celebrates sensual and sexual agency and flowering, groove as an urgent call to action and political activism. In just a word, it’s funkier. But as is the history of anything funky, it’s never just a party. It is a multiverse of energies that merges the celebration and the battle cry. For while an embrace of the present tense is a celebration, it is equally an unquestioning leap into battle – cultural, political, environmental.”
Allison Russell arrives in the UK at the end of next week at Black Deer before playing a handful of dates around the country and Ireland too (oh and one in Spain):
June 17 – Black Deer Festival – Chatham, UK
June 18 – Noches Del Botánico – Madrid, SPAIN
June 21 – Band on the Wall – Manchester, UK
June 22 – The Bullingdon – Oxford, UK
June 23 – Glastonbury – Somerset, UK
June 25 – Queens Park Big Top – Glasgow, UK^
June 27 – Gleneagle Inec Arena – Killarney, IRELAND^
June 30 – Malahide Castle – Dublin, IRELAND^
July 02 – The Piece Hall – Halifax, UK^
^ = supporting Hozier
That is one groovy song – Allison Russell seems to really be on a roll now!
The Glastonbury appearance is on the Acoustic Stage on Friday night – same night as Steve Earle, so I guess it’s the Acoustic Americana Stage that night…