New York, NY (Top40 Charts) It was announced yesterday that
Allison Russell is nominated for "Emerging Act of The Year" at the Americana
Music Association's Annual Awards taking place
September 22nd. Russell, who performed at the nomination ceremony was also given a nod for "Best Duo or Group" along with her bandmates in the supergroup, Our Native Daughters.
"Russell's solo debut just came out Friday and, based on early reception, is a likely contender for album of the year next time around," said Variety. Yesterday, she was also profiled by journalist Jewly Hight on NPR's All Things Considered. "On Outside Child, she's proved that her voice can carry a story of tremendous weight," said NPR, " - of desperate youthful survival and imaginative applications of agency - and command the spotlight in the revelatory telling of it."
Earlier this week, Russell made her late night television debut on Jimmy Kimmel Live! performing her single "Nightflyer," with Brittney Spencer and Brandi Carlile. The audio of the performance is available for purchase with proceeds going to the The
National Bail Out #FreeBlackMamas initiative. The
National Bail Out
Collective is a Black-led collective of abolitionist organizers, lawyers and activists building a community based movement to end systems of pretrial detention and ultimately mass incarceration. For more information visit: https://www.nationalbailout.org/, or purchase the song exclusively on Bandcamp.
Allison Russell will make her Opry debut tomorrow, May 28th and will be returning to Newport Folk July 23-28 as a solo artist. She played the festival previously with Our Native Daughters and also sat in with Mavis Staples and Hozier. In addition she'll play the Moon River
Music Festival on Sept 11th in Chattanooga, TN. Yesterday, she announced a hometown show at Musician's Corner in Nashville on June 11th and a string of dates opening for Lake Street Dive.
TOUR DATES:
06/11/21 - Nashville, TN @ Musician's Corner
7/27/21 - Newport, RI @ Newport Folk Festival SOLD OUT
8/21/21 - Portland, ME @ Thompson's Point (w/ Lake Street Dive) SOLD OUT
8/22/21 - South Burlington, VT @ The Green at Shelburne Museum (w/ Lake Street Dive) SOLD OUT
8/24/21 - New York, NY@ Summerstage, Central Park (w/ Lake Street Dive) Tickets
8/26/21 -
Highland Park, IL @ Ravinia (w/ Lake Street Dive) Tickets
3/18/22 - 3/25/22 - Cayamo Cruise - SOLD OUT Waiting list
Last week Russell released her first ever solo project, the critically acclaimed Outside Child (produced by Dan Knobler). The poet, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, activist and co-founder of Our Native Daughters and Birds of Chicago, unpacks her youth in searing detail throughout the album. Russel had released four songs from the album prior to the full album including, "The Runner", "Persephone,'' "Nightflyer" and "Montreal." "Throughout the album, she sings about deliverance and redemption, about the places and people and realizations that helped her survive and claim her freedom. It's an album of strength and affirmation, not victimization," said The New York Times in their recently released profile on Russell.
Born and raised in Montreal, Russell imbues her music with the colors of her city - the light, the landscape, the language - but also the trauma that she suffered there. It is a heartbreaking reflection on a childhood no one should have to endure, and at the same time a powerful and warm statement of hope - asserted from a place of healing, of motherhood, of partnership - and from a new home made in Nashville. The record features contributions from many of the artistic family members she has found there including producer Dan Knobler, Erin Rae, Jamie Dick, Joe Pisapia, The McCrary Sisters, Ruth Moody, Yola, and her partner JT Nero.
"It was just about making these songs live and breathe in the most honest way," Russell says. "We were laughing, we were crying. And the communion between musicians, I hope people can hear that on the record. It felt like magic."
"Outside Child, Russell added, "is about resilience, survival, transcendence, the redemptive power of art, community, connection, and chosen family." The album is both a radical reclamation of a traumatic childhood and lost home, and a lantern light for survivors of all stripes - a fervent reminder of the resuscitative power of art. "Allison's new album, Outside Child, draws water from the dark well of a violent past," says poet and songwriter Joe Henry." "The songs themselves --though iron-hard in their concerns-- are exultant: exercising haunted dream-like clean bedsheets snapped and hung out into broad daylight, and with the romantic poet's lust for living and audacity of endurance."
