Captured by Terry Matlin

It’s been six years since Aftermath. What needed to happen—in your life or creatively—for Great Television to become the record you wanted to make now?

Resistance and mayhem. But I’m trying to rewire my brain on how I look at those things.  I would like to be able to create more seamlessly and float above all that part.  Thats ultimately what Im working towards.  

You made Great Television with Shooter Jennings at Sunset Sound in Los Angeles. That room has so much history in it. Did being there change the way you approached the record or the way you wanted it to sound?

The setting is always an invisible player, but a player nonetheless.  I usually come in with the cake mostly baked.  And all we have to do is tweak and capture.  But doing that part in Shooter’s sweet and awesome presence, and certainly in that vibey room, in a town I love, gave it a special shimmer I like to think.  I like to airlift myself and the band out of our everyday lives and live together while we track. 

You’ve never fit particularly neatly into one lane—country, rock & roll, Americana. At this point in your career, do genre labels mean anything to you, or are they mostly something other people need?

The only answer to that to give me any peace is I’ve broken a mold somehow. Being female in the country space can be really limiting, and I don’t care for that.  At the end of the day, I serve a greater purpose in my soul and the paths I go down writing songs deserves my complete focus, even if it’s not easily definable on the outside.  I have a deep conviction about that.

“Razorwire Wall” comes from a pretty extraordinary real-life story, and Evan Felker joins you on it. When something that personal happens, do you know immediately that there’s a song in it, or does that come much later?

They’re all different and forming at different paces.  Some songs take 10 years.  Some are more immediate and take 30 minutes.  I think Razorwire was a quick one.  But sometimes yea, a song pings in the moment. 

“Girls of Atomic City” turns toward the women behind the Manhattan Project whose stories often weren’t told. What drew you into that history and made you want to write about it?

I was just excited by thinking about how freaking rad it must have been for it to be 1939 and no way off the farm or block but to marry, and then you get a letter from the government that says come work on a secret project, it’ll help end the war your brother is fighting far away, oh and, we’re gonna PAY you!  They did it. They showed up and came through.  I thought that was inspiring. 

There’s humor, survival and defiance running through so much of your writing. Has what you’re willing to reveal in a song changed as you’ve gotten older?

Yes. I hope Im getting a little more coy with it to protect the innocent.  I feel like on Welder lyrically it was all gas, no brakes.  I love writers that can say something with a wink, like Kristofferson, Shel Silverstein, Loretta Lynn, Todd Snider, Dolly Parton, and Tom T Hall.

You’ve watched the music business reinvent itself more than once. What feels genuinely exciting to you about making and releasing music right now?

I mean we are all somewhat lost at sea. And I’m here for it. I’m glad it’s my job to create and not to figure out how to market.  My friend Todd Snider would say “When you’re on thin ice, boogie!”

After Great Television, where do you want to go next creatively—not necessarily another record, but what are you curious about right now?

Im definitely eager to write more, and tend to lock down and do that in the winter.  I love telling stories in the acting lane and that helps change things up. I’m looking at doing more long form writing, like maybe a Substack or something.  And I’m always creating around my house interior. Been working on banjo and mandolin.

What’s the last song you played twice in a row?

Hmmm either “The Blues on Banjo” – Todd Snider or “WHATCHU KNO ABOUT ME” Glorilla and Sexyy Red.

You get the aux cord on a road trip—what are the first three artists we’re hearing?

It depends on the weather and time of day, but maybe Neil Young, Amy Winehouse, and Drivin and Cryin.