Kassi Valazza Drops New Album 'Kassi Valazza Knows Nothing'

Portland, Oregon-based artist Kassi Valazza’s sophomore full-length, Kassi Valazza Knows Nothing, is out today via Fluff & Gravy Records (Margo Cilker, Anna Tivel) in North America and Loose Music (Andrew Combs, Courtney Marie Andrews) in the UK.

In celebration of the new record, Valazza is on tour throughout the West Coast now with an album release show in Portland tomorrow night, May 27. She also recently announced an extensive summer European tour, as well as a U.S. East Coast run in September culminating with an appearance at Americanafest in Nashville. See below for full tour details.

Of recording the acclaimed 10-song set, Valazza offers, "On this album, everything was recorded live, all the vocals and instrumentation. We recorded in a room together with [fellow Portland-based band] TK & The Holy Know-Nothings, who hadn't heard any of the songs before we went into the studio. You're rarely going to find a songwriter that writes and composes every single song; it's a combination of people working things out together, of what I want and what the band hears. When people don't know the songs, it’s a lot looser and more magic can happen. You don't overthink it.”

News of the record arrived earlier this year with lead single “Watching Planes Go By” as the opening track on UNCUT’s Sounds of the New West Vol 6 disc, which sees Valazza leading a list of breakout roots acts including Allison Russell, Nikki Lane, Sunny War, Margo Cilker, Plains, and more. Within a curious and cosmic atmosphere of psychedelic folk-rock, Valazza reflects on the dangers of standing still in life, "Autumn leaves turn to yellow / and green turns to jealousy / Watching days go by."  

Originally premiering at Brooklyn Vegan, the second single “Corners” sees fingerpicked acoustic guitar dancing with bounding bass and twinkling piano, as a gentle backing choir flows behind Valazza like a stream through a lonesome vista. “The clouds move slower than they ever seemed to / Still, they find a way to pass me by,” she sings on her breezy lament about the longing that comes with an unhealthy love, “My friends, though, they wonder what I’m used to / To love a man who never treats me right.”

Holler and The Bluegrass Situation recently shared a music video for the album’s third single “Smile” with the former exclaiming, “If you're a fan of Esther Rose, Sierra Ferrell or Bella White and you don't know Kassi Valazza yet, you are about to lose your s!”

The track opens with a familiar telecaster honky-tonk squawk and a half-time trot, but in Valazza's careful hands, the typical bar-room tale of lost love becomes an ode to self-realization. “It’s that feeling of acceptance when love isn’t enough,” Valazza offers, “finding comfort in a life spent alone.”

Valazza’s songs manage to capture the romanticism of country crooners with the intuition of a naturalist poet. Her gutsy and graceful poetry is backed by swirling Western psychedelia as she explores themes of love and longing through metaphors from the natural world. Though the music plays country cousin to British folk, a Southwestern American streak carves its way through these solemn, sweetly sung melodies like a canyon.

Valazza has inspired a cult-like fascination since the self-release of her 2019 debut album Dear Dead Days, which she followed with a surprise digital EP called Highway Sounds last year. She is seated squarely at the vanguard of new American songwriters strengthening and broadening the sound of country and western, both bearing the torch and bending the arc of roots music.

Kassi Valazza On Tour

May 26 — Trout Lake Hall — Trout Lake, WA
May 27 — Mississippi Studios — Portland, OR
May 30 — Goldfield Trading Post — Sacramento, CA
June 1 — The Wayfarer — Costa Mesa, CA
June 2 — Pappy & Harriet's — Pioneertown, CA
June 3 — Zebulon — Los Angeles, CA
June 5 — Soda Bar — San Diego, CA
June 7 — Bristols Cider House — Atascadero, CA
June 8 — Moe's Alley — Santa Cruz, CA
June 9 — The Grove House — Mariposa, CA
June 10 — Amado's — San Francisco, CA
July 1 — Roskilde Festival — Roskilde, Denmark
July 3 — Kulturhuset — Halden, Norway
July 5 — Country Music Festival — Vinstra, Norway
July 6 — Country Music Festival — Vinstra, Norway
July 7 — Uddevalla People's House — Uddevalla, Sweden
July 8 — Majas vid havet — Varberg, Sweden
July 10 — Folk å Rock — Malmö, Sweden
July 11 — Alma Löv Museum of Unexpected Art —  Smedsby, Sweden
July 12 — Pythagoras AB — Stockholm, Sweden
July 14 — Klubi Turku — Turku, Finland
July 15 — American Car Meet —  Nykarleby, Finland
July 18 — Pub Ettan — Mariehamn, Finland
July 19 — Hotel Eggers — Göteborg, Sweden
July 20 — Ångbåten Blidösund — Stockholm, Sweden
July 21 — Broken Dreams Auditorium — Borlänge, Sweden
July 22 — Skogsnäs Kulturhus — Strömnäs, Sweden
September 1 — Alphaville — Brooklyn, NY
September 2 — The Word Barn — Exeter, NH
September 5 — Crabtree Cottage — North Haven, ME
September 6 — Club Passim — Cambridge, MA
September 7 — MilkBoy — Philadelphia, PA
September 8 — 123 Pleasant Street — Morgantown, WV
September 9 — Purple Fiddle — Thomas, WV
September 12 — The Grey Eagle — Asheville, NC
September 13 — Eddie's Attic — Decatur, GA
September 19-23 — AMERICANAFEST — Nashville, TN