Allison Russell Releases Solo Debut Album 'Outside Child'

Today, Friday, May 21st, Allison Russell releases her first ever solo project, the highly anticipated Outside Child (produced by Dan Knobler) on Fantasy Records. Next week, on Tuesday, May 25th, she'll make her late night television debut on Jimmy Kimmel Live! performing her single "Nightflyer." The performance will also feature Brittney Spencer and Brandi Carlile. Russell will also make her Grand Ole Opry debut next week on Friday, May 28th.

The poet, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, activist and co-founder of Our Native Daughters and Birds of Chicago, unpacks her youth in searing detail throughout Outside Child. She had released four songs from the record prior to today's release including, "The Runner", "Persephone,'' "Nightflyer" and "Montreal." "Throughout the album, she sings about deliverance and redemption, about the places and people and realizations that helped her survive and claim her freedom. It's an album of strength and affirmation, not victimization," said The New York Times in their recently released profile on Russell.

In addition to her Opry debut on May 28th, Allison Russell will be returning to Newport Folk (July 23-28) as a solo artist this summer. She played the festival previously with Our Native Daughters and also sat in with Mavis Staples and Hozier. In addition she'll play the Moon River Music Festival on Sept 11th in Chattanooga, TN. Last week, on Tuesday, May 18th she also made her Country Music Hall of Fame debut. Russell will hold a live concert release day event to stream via Bandcamp this evening. The event will feature Russell and her band playing songs from the new album for the first time in the live setting. The stream will take place at 9PM ET / 8 PM CT. Tickets are on sale via Bandcamp. Proceeds will benefit The National Bail Out #FreeBlackMamas initiative. The National Bail Out Collective is a Black-led collective of abolitionist organizers, lawyers and activists building a community based movement to end systems of pretrial detention and ultimately mass incarceration. For more information visit: https://www.nationalbailout.org/.

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

"It was just about making these songs live and breathe in the most honest way," Russell says. "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, Russell added, "is about resilience, survival, transcendence, the redemptive power of art, community, connection, and chosen family." The album is both a radical reclamation of a traumatic childhood and lost home, and a lantern light for survivors of all stripes - a fervent reminder of the 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."

For special offers and exclusive merchandise, visit Allison's official online store HERE.

Listen here: