By Brett Leigh Dicks.
The Rhythms cover story for our March/April Bluesfest Special edition is Allison Russell. You can read the full feature by subscribing to Rhythms – print or digital or both (subscribe.rhythms.com.au). Next week editor Brian Wise’s recent interview with Russell (in which she talks about her forthcoming album) will be available here and as a podcast.
Allison Russell has a busy night ahead. It’s Friday evening in New York City and after catching up with Rhythms Magazine, Russell needs to rush across town to the Walter Kerr Theatre where she will take the stage as Persephone in the Broadway production of Anaïs Mitchell’s Tony and Grammy-winning musical, Hadestown.
With her four-month Broadway run nearing an end, Russell will next prepare for a return visit to Australia. Having last toured in 2023 when she made her first appearance at Byron Bay Bluesfest and played a series of east coast dates with Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit. This April will see the Canadian singer-songwriter returning to Australia as a headlining act. Not only will Russell and her band make three appearances at the 2025 instalment of Bluesfest, they will also undertake headlining shows in both Sydney and Melbourne.
A return to Australia and performing on Broadway are just a couple of the many opportunities that have presented themselves following the meteoric success of Russell debut solo album, the 2021 Fantasy Records released Outside Child. Along with winning a Grammy Award and jamming with Joni Mitchell, being part of Mitchell’s award-winning musical is just another of many recent experiences that have brought Russell full circle.
While Russell only recently joined the cast, she has been enamored with Hadestown since its inception. It was while sitting in the audience at a show in Santa Barbara watching her partner in music and life, JT Nero, share a bill with Mitchell that Russell was first introduced to Hadestown. Mitchell played a song destined for the musical – “Why We Build The Wall” – as part of her set and after the show explained to Russell and Nero how she was working on a folk opera that sets the Greek myth of Orpheus & Eurydice in the prohibition-era American south. You could tell by her face how deeply the concept resonated with Russell.
Following productions in Edmonton and London, in 2019 Hadestown premiered on Broadway. It has since won eight Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Original Score, and a Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album. After spending last summer opening for Hozier on the North American leg of his Unreal Unearth Tour, in November Russell joined the Hadestown cast. It was while opening for the Irish singer-songwriter that the opportunity to play Persephone coalesced.
“There is an amazing overlap between the fandoms of Hozier and Hadestown,” Russell explained. “Both shows have been embraced by a beautiful rainbow coalition of young people who have gone deep in with Hadestown and deep in with Hozier’s work. I did 53 dates opening for Hozier’s incredible Unreal Unearth Tour, playing to 20,000 of these beautiful young beings every night and because of my song “Persephone,” they got obsessed with the idea that I should play Persephone.”
“I didn’t realize how creaturely I am when dancing on stage and they would take little clips of me and put them on Tik Tok. It became a thing. JT jokingly texted Anaïs one night – we’ve been friends since that show back in 2008 when we were little feral folkies coming up together – and he told her about the overlap between the Hozier and Hadestown audience. He told her ‘They’re calling Alli Persephone and just so you know she’d probably love to do that sometime.’ Anaïs texted back and said ‘wait, are you serious because we’re doing guest stars in that role.’”
Hadestown is just one of a number of high-profile notches Russell has etched into her post-Outside Child belt. In September of 2023 Russell released a follow up to The Outsider, the much anticipated The Returner. The album earned Russell all measure of awards and recognition, including her first Grammy Award. Along the way there were also recorded collaborations with Brandi Carlile (“You’re Not Alone”) and Hozier (“Wildflower and Barley”) along with deeply personal moments like jamming with Joni Mitchell.
After a near-fatal brain aneurysm in 2015, music played a significant role in Joni Mitchell’s recovery. Friends would stop by her Bel Air home to play for her and as she slowly made her way back into the world, in 2018 a 75th birthday tribute concert was held for her at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles. One of the night’s standout performances was Brandi Carlile’s heartfelt duet of “A Case of You” with Kris Kristofferson after which Mitchell invited Carlile to tap into her own network for further living room jam sessions.
In 2022 Carlile took the Joni Jams to the stage of the Newport Folk Festival. Along with Mitchell and Carlile, the ensemble cast included the likes of Wynonna Judd, Taylor Goldsmith, Blake Mills, Marcus Mumford, and Allison Russell. Russell joined the following year’s Joni Jam at the Gorge Amphitheater in Washington State, which also featured Annie Lennox and Sarah McLachlan, and the 2024 instalment at the Hollywood Bowl, which saw Elton John stop by. While Russell’s friendship with Mitchell might have only blossomed recently, her music connection with the icon runs much deeper.
“My mom was baby when she had me and we have a troubled relationship, but I loved hearing her play piano,” Russell recalled. “She would put on a Joni Mitchell album and play along. I remember sneaking under the piano and listening to her play and watching her feet on the peddles. She loved the album Ladies of the Canyon and “For Free” is a deeper cut on that record. It’s about a busker playing the clarinet and Joni being so moved and wanting to go and sing with him but the star maker machinery takes over. There’s a clarinet solo at the end of the song. That was the first time I ever heard the clarinet. I was only young, but remember going ‘what’s that sound?’ To end up playing clarinet in the Joni Jam band, talk about turning full circle, it’s surreal.”
Russell’s musical ascension thanks to her debut solo album has been seen from the outside as somewhat meteoric. But having formed her first band, the celebrated Canadian folk ensemble Po’ Girl, in 2000 before moving on to Birds of Chicago with JT Nero in 2012, Russell has now been making music for almost 25 years. While the level of success that Outside Child delivered was unparalleled, her years of touring and recording meant that going into her second solo album with all the associated public and industry anticipation was never going to faze her.
“This is all I’ve ever done, but never have doors opened in the way they did post Outside Child,” Russell mused. “Even though Outside Child was a debut record, I wasn’t a debut artist. This has been my discipline, my devotion, my compulsion, my joy, and how I express myself in the world since I was 17. One thing I know about art is that self-consciousness kills it. And you can’t control how it’s received, like the shock of Outside Child being so widely heard compared to anything I’ve previously done. I’m proud of everything I’ve done. I’m proud of everything I did with Po’ Girl, I’m proud of everything I did with Birds of Chicago, and I’m proud of everything I did with Our Native Daughters. I believe wholeheartedly in all that work, but it wasn’t all received in the way Outside Child was.”
Produced by Russell, her partner JT Nero, and his brother, Drew Lindsay, The Returner was recorded over six days in Los Angeles during the week of winter solstice in December 2022. The Joni Mitchell connection meant that Henson Recording Studios, which was formerly the A&M Studios and where Mitchell recorded Court & Spark and Carole King recorded Tapestry, was the perfect location for Russell and her ensemble to weave their magic. Joining Russell were regular bandmates Elenna Canlas, Ganessa James, Joy Clark, Megan Coleman and Chauntee and Monique Ross of SistaStrings. The result was not only an album that is richer and more upbeat than its predecessor, but one that beautifully encapsulates the creative synergy of its collaborators and Russell’s own guiding ethos.
“JT, his brother, and I coproduced The Returner ourselves and it was our first coproduction,” Russell explained. “We went into it with a little bit of resistance, not horrible resistance, but the label was pushing me to work with a name producer and up the ante now that we’ve come this far. But I was really clear that I needed to listen to my inner compass. Outside Child was made listening to my inner compass. It wasn’t someone at a label saying ‘let’s do this’ – it was the purest expression of what I needed to put out into the world myself to feel more whole and empowered.
Also joining the foray were Brandi Carlile, Brandy Clark, and Hozier who lent their voices to the choir while longtime Prince collaborators, Lisa Coleman and Wendy Melvoin of Lisa & Wendy fame, provided the impetus for the mostly Nashville-based ensemble heading to California to record.
After being released in September 2023, The Returner went on to earn four nominations at last year’s 66th Annual Grammy Awards with the track, “Eve Was Black,” winning the award for Best American Roots performance. Despite the deep connection Russell shares with the album’s collaborators and the profound affinity she feels with the songs, winning a Grammy Award for the work was far beyond her comprehension.
“The Grammy win for “Eve Was Black” was so surreal,” Russell enthused. “Who could possibly have guessed that? Best American Roots Performance for “Eve Was Black!” I didn’t even have shoes on when they called my name. Never in a million years did I think they were going to name me and “Eve Was Black” and the Rainbow Coalition to this Grammy Award business.”
It is that wave of success that is carrying Russell and her Rainbow Coalition back to Australia. Excited to be headlining her own east coast shows, the opportunity to return to the Bluesfest stage is something Russell is also cherishing. Having carved out a career introducing her music to new audiences and forging a name for herself at festivals around the world just like Byron Bay Bluesfest, the chance to return to somewhere familiar and where she was so well received last time around has heightened her anticipation.
“I think Byron Bay is one of the most mystical and beautiful places that I have ever been,” Russell said. “The only way I used to be introduced to a new audience was through a festival like Byron Bay or through another artist who was once introduced at a festival like Byron Bay and then grown their platform like Jason Isbell or Hozier or Brandi Carlile. That is the beauty of great curation, there is trust put in a place by a community. Newport does that, the Canadian Folk Fest does that, and Byron Bay does that.
“There is a trust that you’re going to discover something new and wonderful. Maybe you’re going to discover your new favorite artist or maybe you’re going to meet your fiancé and get engaged. I felt that with Byron Bay. It was sort of like how the Strawberry Music Festival in California used to be. People have found each other there and families have grown up there. There’s a community that grows around festivals like that and it’s such a gift for independent and grass roots artists to be given that platform and have people’s heart’s open to them.”
Allison Russell will be appearing at Bluesfest on April 19 & 20. Also appearing at Melbourne Recital Centre, April 15 and Sydney City Recital Hall on April 17.
You can read the full feature by subscribing to Rhythms.