Pegi Young Premieres New LP 'Raw' with the LA Times

On February 17, Pegi Young heads out on her own with a new album Raw, a collection of songs about love, loss and forgiveness. The album will be available digitally and physically via Baltimore Thrush Records and is currently available for pre-order via Amazon and iTunes (includes instant downloads of "Do I Ever Cross Your Mind," "Too Little Too Late," and "Trying To Live My Life Without You").

Today, The Los Angeles Times premiered the album in its entirety. "I hope that others who have gone through loss, who have gone through heartbreak - be it divorce, death or other forms of loss - will be able to connect with it," Young told The Los Angeles Times' Randy Lewis. "I'm not the only one to go through late-in-life divorce; I'm not the only one to suffer a major heartbreak. And I won't be the last."

Recently, Entertainment Weekly premiered the video for the song "Trying To Live My Life Without You."

Previously, NPR Music shared an impassioned cover of Ray Charles' "Do I Ever Cross Your Mind" and called the album, "...a searching, tough and vulnerable memoir that bravely explores all the corners of heartbreak, from blunt-force anger to sorrow to brief winks of humor."

Pegi Young's compelling and personal new album Raw is a mix of original songs written with storied Muscle Shoals musician Spooner Oldham and artfully executed covers.

Young wrote most of Raw in the wake of her 2014 separation and divorce from Neil Young, to whom she'd been married for over thirty-six years. The album was announced with an interview feature with Rolling Stone that explained the story behind the album.

The songs aren't all expressions of anger. The first track to be released from Raw was "Too Little Too Late", a raw and poetic psalm of regret. The album's emotional palette ranges from "Gave My Best to You" and Pegi's take on "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'", both conveying resilience and sass, to a gorgeous stripped-down version of Don Henley's "The Heart of the Matter," which explores the grace of forgiveness. As a whole, the album is a journey from shock to rage, from sadness to strength, but not necessarily in that order.

Young says, "I've begun to look at this record as a soundtrack to the seven stages of grief," she says. "And each song could be sung by either party."

In addition to Spooner Oldham, Young's band The Survivors features Muscle Shoals-based guitarist Kelvin Holly (a veteran of Little Richard's band), drummer Phil Jones (Tom Petty, Joe Walsh), and bassist Shonna Tucker (Drive-By Truckers), who've added soulful muscle to the sonic texture.

Excited about the prospect of sharing her new music and playing out live, the singer/songwriter/philanthropist/environmentalist and new grandmother jokes "I just might be eligible to win a nomination for 'Oldest Best New Artist Award' this time out."

Pegi Young & The Survivors will tour in support of Raw later this year and will perform at the 2017 SXSW Music Conference.

Follow Pegi Young & The Survivors:

Track List:

1) Why?
2) Give My Best To You
3) Too Little Too Late
4) Trying To Live My Life Without You
5) A Thousand Tears
6) Lonely
7) Just When I Needed You Most
8) Do I Ever Cross Your Mind
9) You Won't Take My Laugh From Me
10) Up To Here
11) These Boots Are Made For Walking
12) Heart Of The Matter

Credit: Jay Blakesberg

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