Joan Shelley has announced a new album called Real Warmth. Following last year’s Mood Ring EP, the 13-track record is set for release on September 19 via No Quarter. The Kentucky artist’s music is the real deal, and lead single ‘Everybody’ is exquisitely warm in every sense of the word. Check it out below.
In a press release, Shelley offers different definitions of “warmth” that the album encompasses:
The warmth of actual bodies: connection and belonging as opposed to the facades we show each other, in person and also in the lifeless online world.
A spiritual, humane warmth as opposed to performative or superficial kindness where love only applies to one’s own group, but will permit incredible suffering for another. How massive an effort it is to still love people at this time, in this place.
The real warmth of the planet and the urgency of our moment. Finding ways to guard the fragile world and gentle people; searching for balance between extremes.
Shelley and her family currently live in Michigan, but she recorded Real Warmth in Toronto with producer Ben Whiteley, who plays bass for the Weather Station and Jake Xerxes Fussell. Her partner, guitarist Nathan Salsburg, appears on the record, which also features contributions from drummer Philippe Melanson, saxophonist Karen Ng, singer/songwriters Doug Paisley and Tamara Lindeman, Matt Kelley, and Ken Whiteley. Toronto artist Heather Goodchild designed and painted album artwork.
“We had a few windows in mid-winter and it really felt like there was an urgency to capture a moment in time with these songs, performances, people involved, and against the political backdrop,” Whiteley recalled. “The record really feels like a capture instead of a meticulous construction. Part of Joan’s concept was not only to go to a place but to draw on the community of musicians from that place.
Real Warmth Cover Artwork:
Real Warmth Tracklist:
1. Here in the High and Low
2. On the Gold and Silver
3. Field Guide To Wild Life
4. Wooden Boat
5. For When You Can’t Sleep
6. Everybody
7. New Anthem
8. Heaven Knows
9. Ever Entwine
10. Give It Up, It’s Too Much
11. The Orchard
12. Who Do You Want Checking In On You
13. The Hum
