Ella Hooper returns with Overnight Success, her fourth solo album and a record that further explores her move into country and Americana. The 11-track album was recorded across several trips to Nashville, where Hooper worked with Australian-born, Nashville-based producer LOLLIES and a group of Nashville musicians, including players associated with Sierra Ferrell and Sheryl Crow, as well as collaborators Steve Poltz and Rachel Baiman.
The album moves between country, Americana, alt-pop and more stripped-back material, with pedal steel, Cajun accordion, backing vocals, keys and acoustic guitar among its textures. The songs deal with heartbreak, family, growing older, desire and resilience, while Hooper also leaves room for humor, particularly on the recent single “Cowboy Man”.
“I’m exploring my voice and my relationship to Americana, the sounds, the genre, it’s parameters,” Hooper says. “I’m not an easy act to pigeonhole; but God I feel like myself on this record.”
The album opens with “Growing Up Is Hard To Do” and includes the previously released “I Got Eyes (On You)”, “Bad Word”, “When The Shit Went Down” and “Cowboy Man”. The title track closes the record.
Hooper has described the Nashville sessions as a significant personal investment, saying she “sent myself broke” making the album over multiple trips. Overnight Success follows 2023’s Small Town Temple, which reached No. 1 on the Australian Country chart.
Overnight Success is available on CD and vinyl, with Hooper undertaking a national album launch tour in October.