She’s a rainbow… and with a slew of carefully chosen guest artists on her new album, she might also count as a rainbow farmer. The acclaimed singer-songwriter Allison Russell is back with her third solo album, “In the Hour of Chaos,” featuring her Rainbow Coalition band and leading off with a song titled “Rainbows,” reflecting her light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel-and-storms worldview. She’s far from the sole source of multiple colors on the new record, though. Russell had never had a featured guest star on one of her efforts until she did a duet with friend Annie Lennox as a one-off. For the new album, she is offsetting the chaos of the world by reinforcing her belief in community, to the extent that there is a featured artist on all but one of the 11 tracks, with guests ranging from Norah Jones to Brittney Spencer to Kashus Culpepper.
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It’s difficult to imagine a more outrightly joyful collection than “In the Hour of Chaos,” which nearly counts as a party record, until you scratch past the surface and explore the tensions that are making her do the work to arrive at such a celebratory set. It lives up to its predecessors, “Outside Child” and “The Returner,” which is saying a lot, given how many top 10 lists both of those albums wound up on. Russell spoke with Variety about the new record on the eve of taking off for a tour supporting Sarah McLachlan.
You had planned to follow up your first two solo albums, “Outside Child” and “The Returner,” with a third album, “Motherland,” that would complete a conceptual trilogy. But this new album, “In the Hour of Chaos,” is not that trilogy-closer — it’s something different altogether. Anyone hearing it will undoubtedly be pleased that this is the path you pursued, whatever else could have been planned. Can you talk about how you changed plans in order to make this your next album?
Absolutely. It just happened organically and naturally. Over the the last five years since “Outside Child” came out, I’ve been on the road almost constantly, and then of course doing two stints on Broadway in “Hadestown” as well. So there was the most isolation I’ve ever had from my child and my partner, the most separation we’ve ever experienced. I was having so many wonderful opportunities, but at the same time also feeling like a little bit of like a revenant or a ghost in my own home and community.
I was feeling the need to be in community for lots of reasons — on a personal level of feeling disconnected and isolated from my people a lot of the time, and on the macro level of just what we are seeing with the current rise in far-right authoritarianism and fascism that’s happening, obviously, in this country, and globally, really. I was feeling the need to dig in on creative communion with people that inspire me, and to have this person-to-person music as the mycelial network of our human family. It’s healing to me to get to be in community and sing and play with people that I love and admire.
This was the first time we’ve written something over such long distances and spans of time. We started writing for “In the Hour of Chaos” really, gosh, three years ago. Even during the “Returner” sessions, we already had some of these songs as little babies kind of starting to germinate. It’s also the most in-depth that Dim Star and I have really dug into co-writing, but over distances. There were sessions where I wasn’t even there, when they were creating these extraordinary beds for us to later come in and sing over — Meg McCormick, Wendy Melvoin, Lisa Coleman, and JT and Drew, of course. It was a much more slow-moving and collaborative-over-distances-and-time process than anything we’ve done before. I mean, we did “Outside Child” in four days; we did “The Returner” in six days; and we recorded “In the Hour of Chaos” slowly, bit by bit, over two years.
So, yeah, it’s not the “Motherland” completion of the “Outside Child”/”Returner” trilogy that I think will one day still happen. But that requires me to go to Africa and spend time there with my family and delve in. That’s a whole other thing that I have not been able to do yet because my career has not allowed for that. There’s been literally no time free. I’ve been very much flat-out working for the last five years.
And I said this in the liner notes, but this is almost like the mixtape to a musical that’s yet to be written.
And by referring to it as a musical unto itself, you’re referencing how many voices are on it, literally. Anyone who’s looking at the track list will immediately notice there’s at least one feature on every song on the album but one. That’s so different from your previous two albums, where there were no features at all. Did the idea of doing a lot of trading vocals happen gradually — like, you did a couple of them and thought, “Hey, this is creating a vibe, let’s keep going”? Or was it foundational from the start?
It was more intentional. I was feeling that there is such an intense divide-and-conquer happening, across the board. We see it online; we see it in real life. There’s this negativity bias on steroids that happens with the algorithms online, which has real-life terrible outcomes and effect. And I just was wanting to really deeply be in conversation. I mean, music is always collaborative — we know this, it always is. But I wanted people to hear that, to hear the conversations, in a sense. And that’s what duets can do for us.
This album will be a great launching point for people to discover some other artists, if they love what they’re hearing. When it comes to the guest artists on the album, I’m intimately familiar with probably about half of them, and the others I’ve just barely heard of…
Oh, I love that. I love that.
And then some people who listen will know practically everybody. Or there could be a few people who come in not knowing any of these outside voices. Except Norah Jones — everyone knows Norah Jones.
Yes, of course, our queen, our beautiful Norah. I love her so much. I don’t know if you’ve checked out her wonderful Playing Together podcast; I went down such a rabbit hole with that. I met Norah at Willie’s 90th birthday (in concert at the Hollywood Bowl), and that’s when we first collaborated, when Willie asked us to cover “Seven Spanish Angels” kind of at the last minute. Baby Allison who was driving around with Po’ Girl (Russell’s former group) in 2003 obsessively listening to Norah was doing back flips, like, “Try to be cool.”. But I’ve been so lucky to meet musical icons and people I’ve looked up to and listened to for most of my life — like Norah, like Brandi (Carlile) of course, and Joni (Mitchell), and Mavis (Staples), and Joan Baez, and Annie (Lennox) — people that you meet and you feel kinda over-awed at first, and then you realize, well, we’re just kindred spirits, you know?
Is there anybody who isn’t nearly as exposed that you hope people might check out after hearing this album?
I feel like more people need to know Denitia. More people need to know Julie Williams. More people need to know… well, I mean, people are really getting to know Joy Oladokun now, which is wonderful.
Everybody needs to know Ahya Simone. She’s like the Gen Z Alice Coltrane. I first got to work with her on the “Transa” album that Red Hot put out a year or two ago that Sade spearheaded, and it was just such a joy to work with her. We did a cover of Jackie Shane’s “Any Other Way,” penned by William Bell. That project, the whole kind of premise of it was pairing cisgender artists with trans artists to amplify the beauty and the expansive transcendence of that artistic community, and so I got so lucky to get paired with Aya Simone. The co-producer of the track, Terrence Thomas, had thought to bring us together, and I’m so grateful to him for doing that because she’s one of my favorite artists and people on the planet. I want everyone to know Ahya.
Oh, Chibueze Ihuoma. I want everybody to know Chibueze, who sings with me on “Two Stars.” I met him on stage (doing “Hadestown” on Broadway), as Orpheus. He was a swing and came in to sub for Jordan Fisher, and he took my breath away. He’s currently on tour with the touring show of “Hamilton.” And he’s a brilliant, brilliant young songwriter as well, so people are gonna know his name one day soon. Real Broadway buffs kind of already know about him, because he’s so magnificent in every role he takes on, and he’s one of those cases where it’s a “the understudy often outshines the star” kind of thing. I’ve been hearing about how incredible his Hamilton is, when he’s subbed in for whomever has the lead.
I noticed in the song sequencing for the album that initially it’s all female voices, and then as the album progresses, you kind of have a few guys popping up toward the end. I wondered if that was intentional, to sort of have the male voices more in a little grouping of their own rather than sprinkling them throughout.
No, it was more the song journeys and the arc of it. I didn’t even really catch that till later. I don’t know — ladies first, I guess. But it was not intentionally done that way by gender by any means. And actually, you know, Ahya’s at the end there, and she’s very much a woman, a beautiful trans woman. But yeah, that was sort of totally accidental.
And actually, there’s two different orders. There’s the streaming version, and then there’s the vinyl version. And on the vinyl version, the opening track is “Two Stars” with Chigweze, right at the start instead of later in the album. Basically, the director’s cut is the vinyl version. That’s is my favorite order. I’m down with the digital order, too [which is on the CD as well as streaming]. Between the label and Dim Star and I, we kind of came to a good compromise with that. But my true artist’s album order is the vinyl order.
Knowing there is a different sequence for the vinyl changes everything. But in listening to the streaming/CD version, I wondered if the songs with male/female duets coming toward the end had a reason for being grouped together. All these songs are about connection in some way. But early on, the sequence seems to focus on songs that are about being part of a community or sisterhood, and then it seems like some of the more personal, love-relationship-type songs are toward the end. So it seemed like maybe that could be a reason for saving male voices for the latter stretch.
Oh, no. I mean, I’ve had more personal relationships with women than with men in my life. So it’s not that. It’s more just the sonic arc as well as the kind of emotional arc of the album, you know?
The album is similar to “The Returner” in a few ways, in that there’s such an amazingly joyful spirit to virtually the entire album. But then, almost every song is about struggle at the same time, once you dig down beneath the celebration.
You have to enjoy the struggle, because Lord knows we’re never gonna stop struggling in this world, in this life.
Having to create this joy for ourselves somehow by connecting with people is a recurring theme. There is so much attention paid to how we lift each other up, by being complementary and how, when I’m down, you have to be there for me, and vice versa.
Yes, because that’s what we do for each other, right? It really is. I think sometimes people feel like they’re carrying everything alone, or they can’t ever take a break, or they can’t give themselves grace to just be in deep grief or deep depression or deep exhaustion. I think we’re so hard on ourselves for those things, and we forget that that is the grace of humanity. The reason why we’ve survived as a species is because we are not on our own. We would not have ever survived if we were not able to thrive in community and to carry each other. When one is tired, the other can be strong, you know?
The lyrics are very down to earth at times. I mean, at all times with your music, “earthy” probably applies. But sometimes there’s a real sort of high-mindedness to your music, where you elevate the lofty goals of what we need to do together as individuals or a society. But then you also have a song on this album that expresses the simple desire to just watch TV together. I love that you have the whole sort of spectrum in there of what we need to be doing to lift each other up, but then, it’s OK to relax together, too.
Yeah, exactly. It’s so important, those things we do that, like watching something stupid together and laughing about it, and cuddling in the darkness. And that doesn’t have to be withg a romantic partner. That can just be your best friend. I think we devalue platonic love in our culture, you know? There’s so much deep, deep, deep, deep connection and intimacy that we have with people who are not our lovers. That’s so important, and when we don’t have it, we feel the lack of it. And so there’s lots of different interpretations to any lyric within the record.
OK, so spooning is good when done platonically, too.
You can spoon with your bestie.
Let’s talk about the track “Black Lavender.” You released that just prior to the full album, for Juneteenth.
Oh, Brittney Spencer’s voice is like an instrument of divine sonic healing. I find her breathtaking. I still remember the first time I met Brittney. We were just coming out of lockdown, and “Outside Child” wasn’t out yet. Brandi Carlile came to town and did a show at the Ryman as a thank you to all of the first responders and the nurses and the doctors. I remember sitting next to Brittney Spencer and Tracy Gershon and Ali Harnell, with all of us in little masks. And when “Outside Child” came out, it was that hybrid time when you were still doing your kind of shitty home videos and sending them in to Colbert and Kimmel, because we weren’t allowed to go to their studio yet. So I remember doing a video at at Jordan Hamlin’s amazing studio here in Nashville, singing “Nightflyer,” and then Brandi recorded her part separately at their little compound outside of Seattle. That was my first late-night TV, a spliced-together video on Kimmel with Brittney, Brandi and me. It was this auspicious blessing for that whole record and the whole start of my solo-in-name-only career. So this feels very full circle. And Brittney, of course, has done Tennessee Rise with us [the 2023 benefit supporting LGBTQ+ rights in the face of legislative crackdowns], and been such an integral part of our community here in Nashville. So it was joyful that she graced that song with her extraordinary voice.
I was looking up “black lavender,” because I didn’t really know all of the possible associations, and I saw that it’s a tea. I saw that it’s also a weed brand.
I did not even know that it was a weed brand. Is that real? That’s hilarious. Maybe they’ll sponsor us. My bandmates would be thrilled. I can’t do THC. It makes me paranoid, but it works well for others.
You released “Black Lavender” on Juneteenth, so we know the black is not in there just because you’re a big tea drinker. Is it a celebration of Black sisterhood in particular, is it fair to say?
Absolutely. In the same way that the absurdity of misogyny runs rampant through every facet of our culture and industries, the misogynoir is even more intense. And there’s that notion of the false scarcity model, like, there’s only so much interest for women, and there’s really only so much interest for Black women. There’s this notion that there’s only room for one, you know? And I find that to be so completely dishonest and absurd. Anything good that has ever happened to me in my career, almost all of it has come through the auspices and graces of other women in this industry, including other Black women, like Brittney, like Rhiannon Giddens, like Amythyst Kiah, like Leyla McCalla, like Ruby Amanfu, Brittany Howard, on and on and on, all these amazing women lifting each other up. The more of us, the better. I definitely wanted to amplify the voices of artists like Brittney that I adore. There’s room for all of us, and we’re incomparable.
Anything to say about the production style of this? Especially with “The Returner” and now this, it feels like you and your production partners have come into your own with a sound that is just very sort of ear-tickling a lot of the time, with some really pleasingly eccentric sounds, where it’s rarely a fully straightforward R&B or folk song or anything else genre-specific.
Very genre-fluid, for sure. We’ve been growing together as a musical extended family. We’ve got the deepening relationship between Wendy, Lisa, Meg McCormack, Drew… Dim Star is JT Nero and his brother Drew Lindsay, who also goes by Drew Marble, who’s my brother — chosen brother, and brother through marriage as well. The two of them, JT and Drew, as a co-production unit, have been deepening their relationship since the lockdown. They’ve worked on the new record of JT’s [a forthcoming JT Nero solo album], which is extraordinary. They worked on a record for an amazing J-pop artist, Angela. And the three of us have been co-creating for 20 years now. There’s a telepathy and a playfulness, and there’s deep trust with who we choose to cast the room with. Elizabeth Pupo-Walker on percussion, who found an old ancient rusted paper cutter at Concord and loved the sound of it, so that’s on there at the beginning off . Meg McCormick, we acknowledge her on several songs and in liner notes as really having had a producer’s ear herself coming in on this. And Wendy and Lisa, of course, who just elevate everything they come near.
And my Rainbow Coalition, who’ve we’ve been on the road together now for two years straight with this lineup of Ganessa James, Caoi de Barra, Caoimhe Hopkinson, we’ve become sort of a telepathic unit as well. Kyshona and Sara Watkins, who are two of our favorite humans and singers on the planet, had never sung together until they did the sessions for this record, and they fell in love with each other. They’ve named their duo, unofficially; it is called Lush, and it was so joyful. So many people hadn’t been in the studio together before, but we have such deep relationship with each of them, we knew it would work.
Allison Russell is currently out on tour as the opening act for Sarah McLachlan. Read Variety’s joint interview with McLachlan and Russell here.
“In the Hour of Chaos” album track list (streaming/CD version):
- Rainbows
- No Springtime ft Joy Oladokun & Julie Williams
- Cold April ft Kara Jackson, Denitia & Explore! Pop Choir
- Black Lavender ft Brittney Spencer
- Really Real ft Norah Jones
- Just Like Saturday ft Ruby Amanfu
- Chaos Theory ft Kyshona & Sara Watkins
- Love is a Golden Lion ft Devon Gilfillian
- Searchlight ft Kashus Culpepper
- Two Stars ft Chibueze Ihuoma
- Good Omens ft Ahya Simone
Vinyl track list:
Side A
- Two Stars ft Chibueze Ihuoma
- Cold April ft Kara Jackson, Denitia & Explore! Pop Choir
- Black Lavender ft Brittney Spencer
- Love is a Golden Lion ft Devon Gilfillian
- Just Like Saturday ft Ruby Amanfu
- Searchlight ft Kashus Culpepper
Side B
- Chaos Theory ft Kyshona & Sara Watkins
- Rainbows
- No Springtime ft Joy Oladokun & Julie Williams
- Really Real ft Norah Jones
- Good Omens ft Ahya Simone
Allison Russell tour dates with Sarah McLachlan:
Jul 1 – FirstBank Amphitheater – Franklin, TN*
Jul 3 – Synovus Bank Amphitheater at Chastain Park – Atlanta, GA*
Jul 7 – TD Pavilion at The Mann – Philadelphia, PA*
Jul 8 – Hartford HealthCare Amphitheater – Bridgeport, CT*
Jul 10 – Leader Bank Pavilion – Boston, MA*
Jul 11 – Forest Hills Stadium – Forest Hills, NY*
Jul 12 – BankNH Pavilion – Gilford, NH*
Jul 14 – Artpark Mainstage Theater – Lewiston, NY*
Jul 15 – Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre at Freedom Hill – Sterling Heights, MI*
Jul 17 – Acrisure Amphitheater – Grand Rapids, MI*
Jul 18 – Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island – Chicago, IL*
Jul 19 – Everwise Amphitheater at White River State Park – Indianapolis, IN*
Jul 21 – PNC Pavilion – Cincinnati, OH*
Jul 23 – Saint Louis Music Park – Maryland Heights, MO*
Jul 24 – Starlight Theatre – Kansas City, MO*
Jul 26 – The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory – Irving, TX*
Jul 30 – Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre – West Valley City, UT*
Aug 1 – Toyota Pavilion at Concord – Concord, CA*
Aug 2 – The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park – San Diego, CA*
Aug 4 – Greek Theatre – Los Angeles, CA*
Aug 7 – Hayden Homes Amphitheater – Bend, OR*
Aug 8 – Chateau Ste Michelle Winery – Woodinville, WA*
Aug 9 – Chateau Ste Michelle Winery – Woodinville, WA*
Allison Russell headlining tour dates:
Oct 15 – The Orange Peel – Asheville, NC
Oct 22 – Massey Hall – Toronto, ON
Oct 23 – Theatre Beanfield – Montreal, QC
Oct 24 – Imperial Bell – Quebec City, QC
Oct 25 – National Arts Centre – Southam Hall – Ottawa, ON
Oct 27 – Higher Ground The Ballroom – South Burlington, VT
Nov 1 – First Avenue – Minneapolis, MN
Nov 3 – Burton Cummings Theatre – Winnipeg, MB
Nov 5 – Winspear Centre – Edmonton, AB
Nov 6 – Grey Eagle Resort & Event Centre – Calgary, AB
Nov 9 – Chan Centre for the Performing Arts – Vancouver, BC
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