mai | 2021 | DOMINIC77

Allison Russel. Je connais ce nom comme la moitié du duo, qui est plus qu’un duo, des « Birds of Chicago » depuis qu’étant tombé sur leurs premiers albums au hasard de mes errances dans les catalogues de musique indépendante ils ont accroché mes oreilles. Au fil des années ils ont eu le bon goût de rencontrer des artistes dont par ailleurs j’aime le travail. Le duo pas ordinaire formé d’une québécoise anglophone et d’un gars de l’Illinois ne se laisse pas enfermer dans les grilles d’un style et ose même mêler quelques lignes de français dans les chansons de leur « rock poétique » qui n’hésite pas à franchir les frontières de style ou à inviter les amis. Leurs deux voix si dissemblables vont pourtant bien ensemble. Avant de travailler en commun leurs groupes respectifs, « Po’Girl » pour Allison et « JT and the Cloud » pour Jeremy pratiquaient déjà la géométrie variable et n’hésitaient pas à s’inviter dans leurs tournées car tous sont des musiciens de scène, des musiciens vivants.

Les rencontres au hasard des projets entre la fille de Montréal et le gars de Chicago aboutissent à la création des « Birds of Chicago » en 2011 autour du couple sans rompre avec les partenaires précédents qui les accompagnent dans la nouvelle aventure. Après le succès d’estime de leurs deux premiers albums ils traversent le pays pour enregistrer « Real Midnight » produit par le grand Joe Henry. Et déjà sur la pochette on ne voit qu’Allison, madone en dégradé de bleu.

Real+Midnight+cover
Cette session est l’occasion d’une autre rencontre avec une personne dont je connaissais le beau travail au sein des « Carolina Chocolate Drops » ou la lumineuse participation aux « New Basement Tapes« , Rhiannon Giddens. Ce ne fut donc qu’une bonne surprise mais pas un réel étonnement de voir les deux jeunes femmes rejoindre Leyla McCalla, violoncelliste et auteure haïtienne que j’écoute aussi, et Amythyst Kiah pour chanter les « Songs of our native daughters », la voix des femmes de couleur marquées par le racisme et le sexisme.

Nous n’aurions donc pas du être étonnés de l’annonce de la mise en sommeil du groupe pour laisser la place au premier album solo d’Allison Russell, « Outside Child ». Depuis la sortie de l’album des Native Daughters on connaissait un peu l’histoire personnelle d’Allison. Fille d’un étudiant de La Grenade reparti au pays avant sa naissance elle devient la fille adoptive de l’homme que sa jeune mère épouse. Suprémaciste blanc, violent, raciste celui-ci abusera émotionnellement et physiquement de sa belle-fille. Alors qu’ils vivent à Montréal à quinze ans elle fuit pour échapper à l’enfer qui menace de la détruire. Le refuge trouvé très tôt dans les livres sera suivi de la libération dans la musique. « Outside Child » raconte cette trajectoire et bien plus.

Sans misérabilisme et loin du voyeurisme nous écoutons le chant de la jeune femme qui s’envole. Au fil des morceaux sa voix quelque fois modulée par la gravité de la clarinette nous parle directement. Quand il devient nécessaire préciser le sens ou le genre des mots une ligne de français venue dans le texte en passager clandestin vient enrichir la palette.

Les morceaux.

1. Montreal
2. Nightflyer
3. Persephone
4. 4th Day Prayer
5. The Runner
6. Hy-Brasil
7. The Hunters
8. All of the Women
9. Poison Arrow
10. Little Rebirth
11. Joyful Motherfuckers

Ecoutons les.

Montréal : La ville de la jeunesse est aussi celle de la fugue, de l’évasion, la ville qui la prend dans ses bras. La fraîcheur des nuits d’été dans les cimetières ou la douceur des jours d’hiver dans les églises accueillent la jeune fille sans maison qui se sent « si jeune, si vieille ».

Nightflyer : La lecture a été un refuge précoce de la petite fille. Ce cavalier de la nuit inspiré d’un récit gnostique, « Le tonnerre, intellect parfait« , nous convoque dans une rêverie poétique sur notre ambiguïté intrinsèque.

Persephone : Retour à Montréal où la fugue n’aurait pas été possible sans l’amie de cœur. Celle à la fenêtre de qui on vient frapper la nuit tombée. Le doux partage de leurs corps d’adolescentes devient un abri contre la brutalité du monde extérieur. « Si mes pétales sont froissés, je suis toujours une fleur ».

4th Day Prayer : Nous poursuivons le récit avec cette prière scandée à tous les enfants martyrisés, abusés. Qu’ils trouvent la force de s’évader.

The Runnner : Et vient un jour le temps de l’évasion. La rupture musicale d’un rock and roll enjoué marque le tournant, le départ d’une autre vie quand on passe la bonne porte. Pas moins que l’immense Yola pour apporter son discret contrepoint à la voix d’Allison. Cet album est bien une œuvre collective.

Hy Brasil : La clarinette nous convoque d’entrée vers des terres musicales inexplorées. La batterie devient percussion. On pourrait presque entendre des voix amérindiennes.

The Hunters : L’enfant évadée peut maintenant regarder sans peur en arrière et s’adresser les yeux dans les yeux aux adultes défaillants.

All Of the Women : Allison n’a cessé de dire que la dernière étape, majuscule, de son évolution a été de devenir la maman de sa fille Ida. L’amour de l’enfant les lient à toutes les femmes du monde.

Poison Arrow : La couleur musicale peut changer et même la flèche empoisonnée n’arrête pas la course vers le soleil.

Little Rebirth : La course vers la nouvelle naissance de chaque contact avec le monde.

Joyful Motherfuckers : Il est temps avant de nous séparer de célébrer tous les « joyeux enfoirés », les amoureuses sans peur, les chasseurs d’arc-en-ciel, tous les vrais pardonneurs. Et la voix de Jeremy peut rejoindre celle d’Allison pour la suite à venir du voyage.

Pour l’acheter.

https://allisonrussell.bandcamp.com/album/outside-child

Pour écouter. (Pour une fois oublions que Youtube appartient à Google.)

Le personnel.

The Community of Artists in alphabetical order:
Jason Burger- drums, percussion, apple cider vinegar bottle
Steve Dawson- pedal steel
Jamie Dick- drums, percussion
Dan Knobler- guitars, slide guitar, banjo, synths, mellotron
Drew Lindsay- Rhodes, Wurlitzer, Mellotron, pump organ, organ, piano
Alfreda McCrary- harmony vocals
Ann McCrary- harmony vocals
Deborah McCrary- harmony vocals
Regina McCrary- harmony vocals
Chris Merrill- bass
Ruth Moody- harmony vocals
JT Nero- acoustic guitar, vocals, co-writing
Joe Pisapia- acoustic and electric guitars
Erin Rae- harmony vocals
Allison Russell- songwriting, writing, lead vocals, harmony vocals on Montreal and Nightflyer, clarinet, banjo
Jake Sherman- organ on 4th Day Prayer
Yola (appears courtesy of Easy Eye Sound)- harmony vocals on The Runner

Produced by Dan Knobler
Engineered by Kevin Sokolnicki & Dan Knobler
Recorded at Sound Emporium, Studio A, in Nashville – September 18-21, 2019
Assistant engineer: Zaq Reynolds
Additional recording at Goosehead Palace
Organ on « »4th Day Prayer » » recorded by Jon Seale at Mason Jar Music
Mixed by Dan Knobler
Mastered by Kim Rosen, Knack Mastering

Les textes

1-MONTREAL

Oh my Montreal
Can I dream of you tonight?
Of before the fall
Your rose, your azure light
Oh you Cathedrals
Your shadows felt like loving arms
I was your child, Montreal
You would not let me come to harm

To reminisce on the times before
There were just so few of them of them
The jackal came in spring, took me
When I was still so young so young
But the mind of a child has oceans wide
And a thousand millenniums
And the city was my sky and stars
Les fenêtres de l’infini (the windows of infinity)
Hmmm hmmm

J’étais si vieille, j’étais si jeune
J’étais si jeune, si vieille
Les yeux de l’enfant voient tout, voient tout
Voient tout, voient tout, tu sais
La lumière tavelée sur les arbres
La pourriture dans la plus blanche marbre
La sagesse bouleversant
La sagesse coeur brisant
La sagesse de l’enfant
La sagesse de l’enfant
Coeur brisant
Coeur brisant

Oh my Montreal
Can I dream of you tonight?
2-NIGHTFLYER
When I was sixteen I read « The Thunder: Perfect Mind » for the first time – it’s an exhortatory poem discovered among the Gnostic manuscripts in the Nag Hammadi library in the 40’s. It has never left me. I’ve been meditating on the nature of resilience, endurance, and grace more deeply since becoming a mother. I was trying to bridge the divide and embrace shame and my inner divinity equally with this piece. The burden and the balm of our lineages that we all carry. We all come from long lines of survivors. I believe my Ancestors must have been protecting me all along. And now my daughter, Ida, carries their strength…- Allison

Yeah I’m a midnight rider
Stone bonafide night flyer
I’m an angel of the morning too
The promise that the dawn will bring you

I’m the melody and the space between
Every note the swallow sings
I’m 14 vultures circling
I’m that crawling, dying thing
I’m the smoke up above the trees, Good Lord
The fire and the branch that’s burning, Lord
Maybe you were sleeping, Lord,
But Mary she’s not weeping no more, no

Yeah I’m a midnight rider
Stone bonafide night flyer
I’m an angel of the morning too
The promise that the dawn will bring you

I’m the sick light of a hurricane’s eye
I’m a violent lullaby
I’m six fireflies, one streetlight
I’m a suffocating summer night hmm mmm

I’m each of his steps on the stairway
I’m his shadow in the door frame
I’m the tap tap of a lunar moth
I’m the stale beer on his breath hmm mmm

His soul is trapped in that room
But I crawled back in my mother’s womb
Came back out with my gold and my greens
Now I see everything
Now I feel everything good lord
What the hell could they bring to stop me Lord?
Nothing from the earth, nothing from the sea
Not a God Almighty thing

Yeah I’m a midnight rider
Stone bonafide night flyer
I’m an angel of the morning too
The promise that the dawn will bring you

I’m the wounded bird, I’m the screaming hawk
I’m the one who can’t be counted out
I’m the dove thrown into battle
I can roll and shake and rattle hmmm mmm

I’m the moon’s dark side, I’m the solar flare
The child of the Earth, the child of the Air
I am The Mother of the Evening Star
I am the Love that Conquers All

Yeah I’m a midnight rider
Stone bonafide night flyer
I’m an angel of the morning too
The promise that the dawn will bring you
3-PERSEPHONE
« Persephone » is from Allison Russell’s first ever solo project, Outside Child (produced by Dan Knobler). Stream/buy here: https://found.ee/AROutsideChild
« Persephone » is written by Allison Russell and Jeremy Lindsay aka JT Nero.
« An homage to my first love. We were just kids, 15 years old. Her loving kindness saved my sanity and my life on bitter winter nights when I was homeless and hanging on by a whisper. Her dark basement was a refuge and an oasis. » – AR

Blood on my shirt, two ripped buttons

Might’ve killed me that time oh if I’d let him
He’s slow when he’s drunk, and he lost his grip on me
Now I’m running down la rue St. Paul
Trying to get out from the weight of it all
Can’t flag a cop ’cause I know he won’t stop…
I’ll go see Persephone

Tap tap tappin’ on your window screen
Gotta let me in Persephone
Got nowhere to go but I had to get away from him
My petals are bruised but I’m still a flower
Come runnin’ to you in the violet hour
Put your skinny arms around me, let me taste your skin

Mouth to mouth, mouth to flower
Salty sweet you give me power
I feel you shake under my lips
Your fingers tender find my secrets
Don’t make a sound, don’t cry out love
Your parents are sleeping just above
I kiss you once, I kiss you twice
Fall asleep looking in each other’s eyes

Light on your shoulder, light on your cheek
Light telling me it’s time to leave
The birds are calling to the morning
Your parents’ feet above us stirring
Kiss your belly before I go
Climb back outta your basement window
Back to the cold’s bite, back to the hard life
Back to the harsh bright street

Tap tap tappin’ on your window screen
Gotta let me in Persephone
Got nowhere to go but I had to get away from him
My petals are bruised but I’m still a flower
Come runnin to you in the violet hour
Put your skinny arms around me, let me taste your skin
4-4TH DAY PRAYER
[Verse 1]
I was the Queen of Westmount Park
It was all mine after dark
Old willow tree it was my throne
Till I, till I went home
Father used me like a wife
Mother turned the blindest eye
Stole my body, spirit, pride
He did, he did each night

[Chorus]
One for the hate that loops and loops
Two for the poison at the roots
Three for the children breaking through
Four for the day we’re standing in the sun

Ooh, ooh, ooh

[Verse 2]
« These are the best years of your life »
If I’d bеlieved it I’d have diеd
Something told me that they lied
Oh I, oh I survived
Left home, I was just a child
Slept in the graveyard, end of the Mile
When the sun came up and found my skin
I rose, I rose again
[Chorus]
One for the hate that loops and loops
Two for the poison at the roots
Three for the children breaking through
Four for the day we’re standing in the sun

Ooh, ooh, ooh

[Verse 3]
Slip streams and fever dreams
Do you see what I can’t see?
Tell me, tell me, tell me
I want to understand
From the coast of Africa
To the hills of Grenada
To the cold of Montreal
That whip, that whip still falls

[Chorus]
One for the hate that loops and loops
Two for the poison at the roots
Three for the children breaking through
Four for the day we’re standing in the sun

One for the hate that loops and loops (Ooh)
Two for the poison at the roots (Ooh)
Three for the children breaking through (Ooh)
Four for the day
One for the hate that loops and loops (Ooh)
Two for the poison at the roots (Ooh)
Three for the children breaking through (Ooh)
Four for the day
5-THE RUNNER
[Verse 1]
Oh, I had to run, to run, to run
From Mont Royale
Aux Portes des Lions (to the Lion’s Doors)

But no freedom would come my way
Yeah, no freedom from
What he’d done to me

[Chorus]
Then I heard that Rock and Roll
Outside the South Hill Candy Store
Felt myself walking in
I was up above me, I was standing right beside me, oh
And I saw my deliverance
Deliverance

[Verse 2]
Oh, I had to sing, to sing, to sing
From the western sea
To the old country

Oh, I had to bleed, to bleed, to bleed
Till his poison left my veins
Left me
[Chorus]
Yeah, I heard that Rock and Roll
Outside the South Hill Candy Store
Felt myself walking in
I was up above me, I was standing right beside me, oh
And I saw my deliverance
Deliverance

[Verse 3]
Now I still run, still run, still run
To catch a song
And cheat the gun

Come freedom come, I pray, I pray
Can’t stop me now
Can’t steal my joy

[Chorus]
Then I heard that Rock and Roll
Outside the South Hill Candy Store
Felt myself walking in
I was up above me, I was standing right beside me, oh
And I saw my deliverance
Deliverance
6. HY-BRASIL
[Verse 1]
My great grandmother was a magic weaver
Came across the water and caught the fever
She wondered if her mother could hear her when
She said the words she learned to say

[Verse 2]
Down in the cradle oh I would hear hеr
As I breathed my soul beliеved if
I sang those words I could leave there
Leave my sorrow and pain

[Chorus]
In the blue camhanaich all shimmering still
Dame Calluna, low Lady of the Hills
Cup of cold sun and a winterpill
Send me back on my way
Seven black rabbits of Hy-Brasil
Twenty-one petals of daffodils
Thirteenth note of the blackcap trill
I’ll fly home today
[Verse 3]
Though my brittle body was caught in his snare
My soul would learn how to travel where
The eyes of the rabbits were gleaming there
On the isle of Hy-Brasil

Seven years we drown, seven years we rise
Said the black rabbit with the ancient eyes
You’ll be free, oh lura lae
He cannot match your will

[Verse 4]
Though I drowned for ten years, I’m still rising
Stronger for my pain and suffering
My body was broken but my heart’s reborn
I’m freer than the sky
[Chorus]
In the blue camhanaich all shimmering still
Dame Calluna, low Lady of the Hills
Cup of cold sun and a winterpill
Send me back on my way
Seven black rabbits of Hy-Brasil
Twenty-one petals of daffodils
Thirteenth note of the blackcap trill
I’ll fly home today
7. THE HUNTERS
[Verse 1]
Hey Papa, hey Mama
The sun is out, oh, can I play?
Yes my child, yes my child
But do not leave the path today

Why Mama, why Papa?
The trees are my friends, as is the shade
The wolves have come down from the hills
They’re hungry and they’ll have their way

Oh Papa, oh Mama
It is of you I am afraid
The hunter and the hunter’s bride
Your teeth as sharp as razor blades

[Chorus]
Le coeur de l’enfant est le coeur de l’univers, l’amour doré
Comme bien-printemps, généreux, chaleureux
Mais jamais innocent
Ni complétement sans douleur

[Verse 2]
Look Mama, look Papa
The wilderlands have made me brave
The wolves came down, they called me kin
They gave me strength to run and chase
Oh Papa, oh Mama
I have come to break your blades
Curse you child, curse you child
We should have killed you as a babe

Yes Mama, yes Papa
You had your chance, now it’s too late
Yes Papa, yes Mama
The wolves will howl and dance today

[Chorus]
Le coeur de l’enfant est le coeur de l’univers, l’amour doré
Comme bien-printemps, généreux, chaleureux
Mais jamais innocent
Ni complétement sans douleur

[Outro]
Hey Papa, hey Mama
Hey Papa, hey Mama
Why Papa, why Mama
Why Papa, why Mama
Why Papa, why Mama

8-ALL OF THE WOMEN
[Chorus]
She’s been a fixture as long as I’ve lived here
On the corner most every night for the last six years
When she’s not there
When she’s not there
When she’s not there
I worry about her
Worry about her
I think of all of the women
All of the women
All of the women
Who disappear
Who disappear

[Verse]
We’ve made friendly acquaintance, sometimes we talk
She likes the way that I smile
And sing as I walk
I like her fabulous outfits, the proud way she moves
She says, « I used to be a dancer
Some grace you don’t lose
Some grace you don’t lose

I made some choices, some were made for me
For the way I survive I make no apology
Everybody and somebody don’t always meet up
I’m the salvation for those left without
For those left without, those living small lies
What I provide can’t be measured in nickels and dimes
In nickels and dimes »
I ask, « What about the bad dates, don’t you ever get scared? »
« Well I’ve had my share, honey, but it’s fear I can bear
It’s fear I can bear
‘Cause I’m stronger than eggshells, I’m tougher than luck
I’ve never been despised so much or hit so hard, or hit so hard
I couldn’t get back up
I couldn’t get back up
I couldn’t get back up »

[Chorus]
She’s been a fixture as long as I’ve lived here
On the corner most every night for the last six years
When she’s not there
When she’s not there
When she’s not there
I worry about her
I worry about her
Think of all of the women (All of the women)
All of the women (All of the women)
All of the women (All of the women)
All of the women (All of the women)
All of the women (All of the women)
All of the women (All of the women)
All of the women (All of the women)
Who disappear
Who disappear
[Outro]
Who disappear
Who disappear
Who disappear
Who disappear
Who disappear
9-POISON ARROW
Poison arrow be kind to me and I’ll be kind to you
It’s not just your poison, it’s the bow, the string
Shaft and feather too
The rush of the wind
The blue sky above
The rain that soaked the ground
To give the oleander love

Go in peace be not afraid
Roll em easy, Namaste
All you sad and broken travelers, come on

Poison arrow broke in my chest
But I’m In my finery
At Le Divan on Boulevard St. Laurent
Sipping dry sherry
The sun is bleeding slow
She dies in pink and blue
Etta’s on the radio
Singing trust in me in all you do

Go in peace be not afraid
Roll em easy namaste
All you sad and broken travelers, come on

Je te souhaîte la paix
Je te souhaîte l’acceptance
Je te souhaîte une deuxième chance
Et le coeur, le coeur d’un enfant
Routier Routier
Chanter! Chanter!
L’heure des miracles est arrivée
Le poison peut-être médecin
Si t’on bois une goute seulement
Translation (I wish for you peace/ I wish for you acceptance / I wish for you a second chance,
And the heart, the heart of a child/ Traveler! Traveler! /Sing! Sing! /The hour of miracles has arrived /Poison can be medicine too if you only drink a drop)

Go in peace be not afraid
Roll em easy, Namaste
All you sad and broken travelers, come on

« Poison Arrow » is written by Allison Russell and Jeremy Lindsay aka JT Nero.
Going back to Montreal even for short visits was always fraught for me. My history there was too present and potent and poisonous. Something changed after I had my daughter. Being able to love her and protect her, and mother her, and give her a truly great, loving father – has been the best antidote. The beauty of my city shines for me again. – A
10-LITTLE REBIRTH
Chimes in the morning
Feet to the Earth
Wild birds calling
A little Rebirth

Cold pavement pressed
Against a barefoot
Can you feel the Mother moving
Through the bonds of our works?

Who have you been
Who will you be
Who are you now
What can you hear, what can you see?

What can you do
What can be done
Who can ever know
The mystery within?

Le dernier sera premier
Une belle journee
Tournesol tourne au soleil
Chanter! Chanter!
Translation (The last shall be first, some beautiful day, sunflower turn to the sun Sing! Sing!)

Dust of the Stars
Bones of the Earth
Breath of the Void
A little Rebirth

Chimes in the morning
Feet to the Earth
We’re all transforming
A little Rebirth

« Little Rebirth » is written by Allison Russell.
After all we’re here but a moment… We’re so tiny, we know so little…For Conni -in Memoriam. – A
11-JOYFUL MOTHERFUCKERS
Where in the world are the
Joyful motherfuckers ?
The fearless lovers, the rainbow shooters
The wild acceptors, the hopeful sinners
the gentle teachers, the true forgivers?

Les courageuses, les amoureuses, les enfants braves, les grand-mères jeunes,
les lumineuses… translation (the courageous ones, the loving ones, the brave children, the young grandmothers, the shining ones)

If you’ve got love in your heart, but it’s way down in the dark
You better let it see the sun, this world is almost done
Grandma always told me love will conquer hate
I don’t know if it’s too late
I don’t know if it’s too late
Hey you hey you
Who you think I’m talking to?
Show em what you got in your heart

Blessings be upon the thief of my childhood
The ragged jackal that loveless coward
Oh my father you were the thief of nothing
I’ll be a child in the garden
Ten thousand years and counting…..

Les courageuses, les amoureuses, les enfants braves, les grands-mères jeunes
Les lumineuses, petites merveilleuses
Constellations hors de temps,
Le coeur est plus grand
Le coeur est plus grand
Qu’on soupçon.

If you’ve got love in your heart, but it’s way down in the dark –
You better let it see the sun, this World is almost done
Grandma always told me love will conquer hate
I don’t know if it’s too late
I don’t know if it’s too late
Hey you hey you
Who you think I’m talking to?
Show em what you got in your heart

« Joyful Motherfuckers » is written by Allison Russell and Jeremy Lindsay aka JT Nero.
Joyful Motherfuckers, stand up and be counted…Talking to myself too…I haven’t adequate words to express the love and gratitude I feel for my good, good man- my chosen family, partner in life, music, and daughter making/raising. I’d be wandering the wilderness still if not for you, JT. – A

CRITIQUES ET COMMENTAIRES

1: Nightflyer. Talk about a song that could have been a massive hit back in the days of the whole Laurel Canyon scene in seventies California. Russell sings with such a smooth soulfulness that you know she isn’t exaggerating when she talks about being a “midnight rider, nightflyer and an angel of the morning too.”

2: Persephone. Blessed with a fluid and flexible instrument, Russell can entirely morph from one song to the next. She is a fully countrified crooner à la Kelly Willis on this celebratory love song. The killer clarinet break is probably courtesy of Russell too.

3: Hy-Brasil. This tune seems to be a variation on a klezmer classic awash in acid rock reverb and then it shifts completely. The ensuing drum-and-voice folk chant that sounds straight out of the Appalachian songbook. It’s a heart-wrenching confessional about soul travelling from bad places.

4: Poison Arrow. A jazzy wee shuffle where the singer thanks a poison arrow for being kind to her. The multi-part harmonies throughout are hauntingly beautiful and the lyrics in French are far more evocative of New Orleans than her Northern homeland.

5: Joyful M—ers. In which the question is posed as to where have all the joyful mf’ers gone now that “this world is almost done.” Is it too late to conquer hate? The song won’t clarify that query, but it sure will leave you feeling empowered. A great close to a great album.
NODEPRESSION

Allison Russell’s first solo album, Outside Child, soars on wings of resilience and redemption, but not before walking through the valley of the shadows of pain and abuse and desolate loneliness. The 11-song cycle circles outward in ever expanding arcs, rippling from the slow, dream-like “Montreal” through the bright, shuffling “The Hunter” to the album-closing celebration “Joyful Motherfuckers.” Although Russell bares the pain of the violent abuse she suffered as a child at the hands of her stepfather, she refuses to wallow in the pain or to be buried by it, and these songs are her exultant shout that such circumstances can be transcended.

Even though Russell says the album has been gestating over a lifetime, she never particularly wanted to do a solo album. “I was terrified of it, in fact,” she laughs. “I have always been more comfortable being part of a whole that is hopefully greater than the sum.”

In 2012, she and her partner, JT Nero, formed Birds of Chicago, in which Russell sang and played clarinet and banjo. While Russell co-wrote a few songs with Nero, or pianist Drew Lindsay, Nero wrote the bulk of the songs that appear on the band’s albums. Birds of Chicago released four highly acclaimed albums from 2013 to 2018. In January 2018, Rhiannon Giddens invited Russell to join her, Leyla McCalla, and Amythyst Kiah to form Our Native Daughters and to work on the project that eventually became Songs of Our Native Daughters, a 2019 album released on Smithsonian Folkways. On that album, the band explored slave songs, folk songs, and poems from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries and created new work inspired by the stories of Black women’s struggles and hope.

Russell describes Outside Child as a “community effort” as well, crediting the community of artists that had a hand in the album’s making, including The McCrary Sisters, Ruth Moody, Joe Pisapia, Yola, Erin Rae, and members of Bird of Chicago, among others. But it’s an intensely autobiographical album, a group of songs that tell a story that Russell knew she had to share, not only to bring closure for herself but to also offer a gift that could help others with similar stories.

“This is my first solo album. It is acutely personal. It was hard for me to write, harder still to sing, play, and share,” she reflects. “Also, a relief. Like sucking the poison from a snake bite.”

For almost 10 years, until she ran away at 15, Russell’s stepfather emotionally and sexually abused her. “He was a white supremacist and a bigot, and it took me years to realize that his abuse of me was a form of enslavement,” Russell says. “My hope is that in spite of the autobiographical nature of this work — or perhaps because of it — these songs may resonate for some of the many, many others who have endured similar trespasses.”

Opening the Floodgates
As much as she yearned to tell her story, motherhood, constant touring, and other circumstances threatened to put it off indefinitely, she says.

“I had very, very intense writer’s block after I had Ida [the couple’s daughter], to the point where I thought maybe I’m not a writer anymore,” Russell recalls. Birds of Chicago was touring all through Russell’s pregnancy, and four weeks after their daughter was born, Russell returned to the road for a European tour. “I just stopped writing — I just lactated, sang songs, and played shows and learned how to be a better mom. Being a new mother is not for the faint of heart,” she laughs.

In 2017, Russell and Nero moved to Nashville, in part to “get off the hamster wheel” of constant touring and sleeping in the van or crashing at friends’ houses or hotels, but also to be part of a larger creative community. “We were in the lap of love,” Russell says.

During her work with Our Native Daughters the following year, the songs started pouring out of Russell. “We ended up writing a lot of original material and that cleared the writer’s block for me,” Russell recalls. “I wrote or co-wrote seven songs for this project, and I wrote more that didn’t end up on that album or on this new album,” she laughs. “The floodgates have not shut,” she says, “and I can’t stop writing.”

She wrote the first song for Outside Child on the road with Our Native Daughters. “This entire album stared in July 2019 I was lying on the tour bus in a pee-soaked bunk next to my daughter; the bus driver would not stop for us, and I was trying hard not to wake up Leyla’s or Rhiannon’s daughters or our nannies as I was trying to find dry clothes for us,” she laughs. In those moments, she recalls, “I and my daughter were surrounded by this beautiful wolfpack of wild, wonderful women, and I was so lucky to be in this situation. I thought about every single woman before me who didn’t have this level of support like I had with my native daughters and with an incredibly loving partner and being equal in raising our daughter, writing together.”

The song that started to come to her in that moment was “4th Day of Prayer.” She remembered her teen years, when she was being raped and tortured every day. Meanwhile, her friends and others around her were saying these were the best years of her life. As she puts it in the song: “‘These are the best years of your life’ / If I’d believed it I’d have died / Something told me they had lied.”

Russell recorded the album with producer Dan Knobler over six days at Nashville’s Sound Emporium in October 2019, just after AmericanaFest. “Everybody was in town,” she says. “[I] hadn’t played these songs out. I was so twisted up about doing this that I was in denial about making a solo record. Being in the studio, though, was like singing these songs for the first time for my chosen family.”

The album opens with “Montreal,” an ethereal and poignant ode to the city where Russell grew up and that sheltered her when she sought solace and refuge in its parks and cathedrals. In press materials accompanying the single, she says: “I was a teenage runaway— I believe in many ways the City herself protected me. I wandered the Mountain at all hours and slept in the graveyard in the summertime. I haunted the Cathedrals and slept in the pews. Sometimes I stayed up all night playing chess with the old men in the 24 hr. cafes. I was very lucky to grow up there.”

The looping, swirling “Nightflyer” is the album’s thesis statement, Russell declares. “In a way it’s rooted in the pain of the past, but it’s clear that the protagonist — who’s me, of course — is not trapped in that situation anymore. It’s about breaking the cycle of abuse.” The chorus of the song proclaims, “I’m an angel of the morning too / The promise that the dawn will bring you.”

Much as “Nightflyer” draws its images from the Gnostic text The Thunder: Perfect Mind, Russell draws on mythology and fantasy for images in other songs on the album. “I am obsessed with mythology and with Joseph Campbell and the idea of an archetypal journey,” Russell says. “I once wrote a song called ‘No Shame’ — it was the first time I addressed my situation — and in it I say I hide inside of books. I started reading when I was 3 and took refuge in literature and fantasy; that’s how I dealt with the physical part of abuse. “The Hunters,” Russell points out, is an homage to shapeshifting and her escape into it during the years of abuse.

In the song “Hy-Brasil,” Russell draws on the ballad tradition from her Scottish heritage. The song is a tribute to Russell’s Scottish Canadian grandmother, Dr. Isobel Roger Robertson, whom Russell calls “the brightest light of my childhood.” “Hy-Brasil is a mysterious, possibly mythical, Atlantis-like legendary island west of Ireland appearing on maps from 1325 to the 1800s. In Irish myth, it was said to be either clouded in mist or underwater except for one day every seven years, when it became visible but still could not be reached.” In the song, Hy-Brasil becomes the home to which Russell’s soul travels as it escapes the abuse: “Though my brittle body was caught in his snare / My soul would learn how to travel where / The eyes of the rabbits were gleaming there / on the isle of Hy-Brasil.”

Support Through Songs
When she finished Outside Child, Russell felt “a sense of closure and relief; I felt like I expressed something I had to express. I know so many other people are feeling this. My hope is that this kind of work can help defang some of the violence and abuse that has been exacerbated by the pandemic and has existed through our entire existence. What can I do? I can write songs, I can throw songs at it,” she says.

“Art creates and builds and strengthens empathy,” Russell insists. “Outside Child is about art and community and family transcending the circumstances of abuse and violence. It does get better.”

BANDCAMP DAILY – 26/05/2021

ALBUM OF THE DAY

Allison Russell, “Outside Child” By Chaka V. Grier · May 26, 2021

1 Montreal 00:10 / 00:58 2 Nightflyer 00:10 / 00:58 3 Persephone 00:10 / 00:58 4 4th Day Prayer 00:10 / 00:58 5 The Runner 00:10 / 00:58 6 Hy-Brasil 00:10 / 00:58 7 The Hunters 00:10 / 00:58 8 All Of The Women 00:10 / 00:58 9 Poison Arrow 00:10 / 00:58 10 Little Rebirth 00:10 / 00:58 11 Joyful Motherfuckers 00:10 / 00:58
“A violent lullaby” is how Allison Russell sums up her abusive childhood on the disquieting “Nightflyer;” it’s a succinct description that captures the bittersweet and tragic beauty of her debut, Outside Child.

Many of the songs on Outside Child hearken back to classics like “Love Child” by Diana Ross and the Supremes and Cher’s “Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves”—particularly “The Hunters,” where Russell confronts the parents whose brutality still haunts her. It’s an album that gives voice to the unwanted and the exploited and to those who, like the phoenix rising from the ashes, transfigure their past against all odds

Behind Russell’s gorgeous vocals lie stark and disturbing tales of a brutal girlhood. Russell shares the sexual exploitation she suffered at the hands of her father who, “Used me like a wife/ Mama turned a blind eye” on “4th day Prayer.” Mixing mythology, folklore, spiritual magic, and biographical details, Russell’s lyrics evoke visceral emotions. The multi-instrumentalist balances the intensity of these “violent lullabies” with acoustic guitar and banjo, grounding bleakness against the comfort of traditional folk and often selecting one instrument to shine behind her voice—like the sharp banjo pluck on “Little Rebirth” or the menacing acoustic guitar and banjo on “All of the Women.”

Though Outside Child is filled with hard-earned wisdom, Russell’s profound empathy and storytelling shatters the darkness, and her unapologetic truths give space for tragedies to be transformed into triumphs.

FOLK ALLEY 26/05/2021

https://www.folkalley.com/programs/basic-folk/2021/basic-folk-podcast-with-cindy-howes-allison-russell#

Allison Russell’s story is unreal and it’s hard to know where to begin. Unfathomable childhood abuse: sexual, physical and emotional abuse (at the hands of her white supremacist step-father) is chronicled in searing detail for the very first time on her debut solo album Outside Child. Up until now she was not able to honestly address this story in her other projects: Birds of Chicago (with husband JT Nero), Our Native Daughters (with Rhiannon Giddens, Leyla McCalla and Amythyst Kiah) and Po’ Girl (with Trish Klein and Awna Teixeira). These days, Allison recognizes that she needed the support system in her life in order to process and use her gift to share her story through music. That support system, which she calls « The Magic Circle, » includes her partner JT and her daughter Ida, her chosen family of musicians, her newly found biological father and extended Grenadian family and her ancestors. Mainly learning about her many times great-grandmother, Quasheba, and the extreme hardships she faced as a stolen slave in Grenada. Quasheba’s survival allowed Allison to realize that she also had the strength to reclaim agency over her story and break the cycle of abuse.

We talk about her learning where her abuser came from, a sundown town in Indiana, where being Black was basically illegal. Her abuser also made life difficult for Alli’s mom, who was struggling with schizophrenia, but loved music. The song « Kathy » talks about her mother putting the music away and she talks about the impact that had on her and on Allison. She ran away at 15 and started living on the streets on Montreal, until she made her way to Vancouver to connect with an uncle and an aunt who supported her interest in music. She began performing on the folk circuit, formed Po’Girl, met JT and started Birds of Chicago, had her daughter, Ida, and joined Our Native Daughters. She talks about how being a mom to Ida really was the catalyst of wanting to end the cycle of abuse and face her trauma. She actually ended up charging her abuser, facing him in court and seeing him sentenced. It was a light sentence, but it validated that what happened to her was wrong. The new album is joyful, which is intentional, everything about the new record is very intentional. Alli thrives in community and has chosen to remain positive and filled with light through this music.

Thank you, Alli!

Album Review: Allison Russell, ‘Outside Child’
May 25, 2021 Kim Ruehl Album Reviews
by Kim Ruehl (@kimruehl), Folk Alley

Allison Russell Outside Child Album Review
Much has been written already about Allison Russell’s debut solo album, Outside Child, which released on May 21 via Fantasy Records. The artist known for her work in Our Native Daughters, Birds of Chicago, and Po’ Boy has always been a standout performer with a shapeshifting vocal talent. For fans who have been paying close attention, it’s not particularly surprising that she had an album as stunning as Outside Child in her.

Nonetheless, it is a revelation—not just of a horrible past that may seem familiar to an unfortunate number of women, but also of what’s possible in a musical journey. After all, the disc defies genre categories in a way that might have seemed confusing 20 years ago, before genre became so blurred through streaming and other modern deliveries.

Her truth-telling lyricism is courageous and poetic throughout, but we should also celebrate her impressive command of any musical style she touches.

At the onset, she is a jazz singer, crooning in French to her beloved home of Montréal. Soon enough, she’s a country singer ruminating on the woman who saved her. Then she’s a rock and roller, singing about running away from home.

“Hy-Brasil” adheres beautifully to folk tradition, with its marching rhythm and murder ballad-reminiscent melodic and narrative structure. But there’s also an emotionalism that’s usually missing in that tradition, which Russell blows wide open. By the time she gets to “I’m freer than the sky,” you really want that for her. The clarinet solo that beckons you through the fog—that’s also Russell’s voice, just filtered through a reed.

Then “The Hunters,” wherein Russell’s voice tours its entire terrain, from airiness at the beginning to her powerful vibrato. Its strength and clarity, its shadowy corners. After “It is of you, I am afraid,” she sings her way to the power and clarity of “You had your chance / Now it’s too late.”

Then comes the gift of “All the Women,” where Russell snarls and sneers, whispers and wails. The lyrics are exquisite, but the delivery is the thing. The song is one long crescendo, beginning with a low clawhammer banjo and the depths of her vocals—a dark and lonesome music. By the end, she’s got a chorus behind her, transforming what feels so isolated and personal into the reality of a thing that happens to so many. There’s gospel here, a hymn of transcendence. She’s not yelling, but she is singing the hell out of the song.

And then the clarinet comes in. The way she plays is a reminder that both clarinet and voice are wind instruments, borne of breath and muscular control. When there are no words to say, the clarinet comes in. When she cannot hold her tongue anymore, her voice comes through. It is the same thing as when she slips into French for a line or two before jumping back to the English language. These are all ways to say what needs saying, and Russell uses what she needs to use, with great artistry and timing. It’s all a master class in honest, mindful musicality.

For those who have been following along, it seems as though all her artistic endeavors have been pointing toward this one. With any luck there will be more to come. “I’m the one who can’t be counted out,” she sings in “Nightflyer.” That is, quite obviously, the truth.
NPR

https://www.npr.org/2021/05/26/1000521784/singer-songwriter-allison-russell-shares-a-personal-saga-of-trauma-and-triumph-o

Peut-être le meilleur article.

GREENLEFT AUSTRALIA

https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/10-new-albums-help-heal-world

NEW-YORK TIMES.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/13/arts/music/allison-russell-outside-child.html

ALLMUSIC

https://www.allmusic.com/album/outside-child-mw0003504369

FIP

https://www.fip.fr/rock/folk/outside-child-le-chant-cathartique-et-soulful-d-allison-russell-19053

FRANCE-MUSIQUE

https://www.francemusique.fr/jazz/jazz-trotter-allison-russell-outside-child-95824

LE DEVOIR

https://www.ledevoir.com/culture/musique/603158/americana-outside-child-allison-russell

LA PRESSE

https://www.lapresse.ca/arts/musique/2021-05-18/les-chants-de-resilience-d-allison-russell.php

DOMINIC77

Un peu de tout

Month: mai 2021

Allison Russell, écoutez « Outside Child ».

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