Outside Child Allison Russell

• 1 Montreal 03:45
• 2 Nightflyer 04:55
• 3 Persephone 04:22
• 4 4th Day Prayer 04:11
• 5 The Runner 04:09
• 6 Hy-Brasil 05:35
• 7 The Hunters 05:32
• 8 All Of The Women 05:24
• 9 Poison Arrow 03:58
• 10 Little Rebirth 04:02
• 11 Joyful Motherfuckers 03:11
• Total Runtime 49:04

Info for Outside Child

Born and raised in Montreal, Allison 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 reclamation – asserted from a place of healing, of motherhood, of partnership – and from a new home made in Nashville. Outside Child features contributions from many of the artistic family members she has found there including Yola, Erin Rae, The McCrary Sisters, Ruth Moody, producer Dan Knobler, Jamie Dick, Joe Pisapia, and her partner JT Nero.

“It was just about making these songs live and breathe in the most honest way. 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, says Russell “is about resilience, survival, transcendence, the redemptive power of art, community, connection, and chosen family.” Singing about this on “Nightflyer,” Russell ponders the healing power of motherhood, using the track’s wide-open expanse to convey the strength she didn’t know she had.

Here, the line “I am the mother of the evening star / I am the love that conquers all” is “the most defiantly triumphant, hopeful line I’ve ever written…that’s about the birth of my daughter and how that transformed me.”

Though they had a fraught relationship, Russell remembers how she’d crawl underneath the piano and listen to her own mother play. “I would hum along with her,” Russell recalls. “She said I was humming before I could talk. I was able to feel some kind of comfort or love or connection in a way that she couldn’t verbally or physically express – but I could feel in her music that there was love in her.”

In the end, Outside Child is not only a radical reclamation of a traumatic childhood and lost home, it is a lantern light for survivors of all stripes – a fervent reminder of the eleventh hour, 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.”

Allison Russell

Allison Russell
is an artist, activist, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist of extraordinary power, talent and grace. A founding member of the acclaimed groups Our Native Daughters (with Rhiannon Giddens, Leyla McCalla and Amythyst Kiah), and Birds of Chicago (with her husband/musical partner JT Nero), the Montreal native has begun to emerge as a potent force among creative circles worldwide. On her debut solo album Outside Child (Fantasy Records / Concord), Allison unpacks the story of her traumatic childhood in a deeply moving, unforgettable song-cycle of courage, empathy, and love. Outside Child is a powerful and warm statement of hope, resilience and the redemptive power of art – asserted from a place of healing, of motherhood, of partnership – and from a new home made in Nashville.

This album contains no booklet.