Spotlight On: ALLISON RUSSELL

ABOUT this week’s podcast guest + radio hour featured interview:

Grammy’s season is upon us, and while I have mixed feelings about awards in general, on February 4th, there is one artist in particular that I will be rooting for. She is up for four Grammy’s this year, and if I could wave my SHEROES magic wand, Allison Russell would win them all - Best Americana Album, Best American Roots Song and Best Americana Performance and Best American Roots Performance. The album is The Returner, another triumphant creative leap forward for this extraordinary and inspiring Montreal-born singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, poet, and activist, who, as a hard working career musician, has been at it for over two decades, and has over a dozen albums across three bands to her name with Po’ Girl, Birds of Chicago, and most recently, the supergroup Our Native Daughters, with Rhiannon Giddens, Amythyst Kiah, and Leyla McCalla. But it was Outside Child, Allison Russell’s critically acclaimed, and four-time Grammy-nominated 2021 solo debut, that set off what has been a whirlwind three years of awards, accolades, touring, headlining Newport Folk Festival, collaborating, activism, and building what she calls “the Rainbow Coalition”. Outside Child was a chronicle of her escape from childhood abuse and trauma, to finding healing and chosen family in art, music, and community, and The Returner is the next chapter: a celebration of survivor’s joy. It's for all of these reasons that I have fingers and toes crossed that Allison Russell will take home every award she is nominated for, and once you hear today’s conversation, and listen to The Returner, I know you’ll be rooting for her too.

A condensed version of this interview is featured on the SHEROES Radio hour this week. Here’s what else you’ll hear:

New music from:
Hurray For The Riff Raff
Adrianne Lenker
Norah Jones
Ana Tijoux

SHERO Birthdays: 

Lucinda Williams - 1/26
Sarah McLachlan - 1/28
Laura Marling - 2/1

Listen to the syndicated public radio SHEROES Radio hour, below: