Canadian singer-songwriter, poet, activist and multi-instrumentalist Allison Russell recently announced her new album ‘The Returner’ (Pre-Order the album here), featuring her “Rainbow Coalition” band of all-female musicians. Today she releases her formidable new single, Snakelife, delivered over a mesmerising minimalistic groove, it’s a gothic-tinged conjuring that manages to be both enrapturing and otherworldly. There’s an uncanny new confidence and strength to Russell’s music that’s impossible to resist.
“This song is a conjuring.
A summoning.
A spell.
An invocation of the Afro-Future-Rainbow-Coalition-Transformative
Universe I wish to inhabit and foster.
How do we use our words? Who do we value? How do we love ourselves and each other? How do we turn dreams into reality? Growth, transformation, evolution are uncomfortable. We can handle it. We are stardust after all— energy indivisible and indestructible.
From the Word, The World…”
The song is described as a haunting meditation on transformation that contains Russell’s album thesis – “I used to dream, but now I write; I wield my words like spindles bright; To weave a world where every child Is safe and loved; And Black is beautiful and good.”
Video Director Seck and all those involved in this video just nail it. Snakelife is also our Song of the Day.
Tour Dates:
Aug 12 – Burnaby Roots and Blues Festival – Burnaby, CANADA
Aug 13 – Regina Music Festival – Regina, CANADA
Aug 17 – Whistler Summer Concert Series – Whistler, CANADA
Aug 18 – Salmon Arm Roots & Blues Festival – Salmon Arm, CANADA
Aug 20 – Catbird Music Festival – Bethel, NY
Aug 26 – Badlands Amphitheatre – Drumheller, CANADA
Aug 27 – Harbour Blues ‘n Roots Festival – Victoria, CANADA
Sept 09 – Bristol Rhythm & Roots Festival – Bristol, TN
Sept 15 – Harvest Music Festival – Fredericton, CANADA
Sept 16 – CityFolk Festival in Ottawa, CANADA
Sept 22 – FreshGrass Festival – North Adams, MA
Sept 23 – Farm Aid – Noblesville, IN
Sept 24 – XPoNential Music Festival – Camden, NJ
Oct 13 – The Ark – Ann Arbor, MI
Oct 19 – Terminal West – Atlanta, GA
Oct 20 – Princess Theatre – Decatur, AL
Oct 21 – Toulouse Theatre – New Orleans, LA
Oct 25 – 3TEN ACL Live – Austin, TX
Oct 28 – The Lensic – Santa Fe, NM
Oct 29 – MIM Music Theater – Phoenix, AZ
Nov 01 – El Rey Theatre – Los Angeles, CA
Nov 04 – Sweetwater – Mill Valley, CA
Nov 05 – The Center for the Arts – Grass Valley, CA
Nov 07 – Hult Center for the Performing Arts – Eugene, OR
Nov 09 – Mississippi Studios – Portland, OR
Nov 10 – Admiral Theatre – Bremerton, WA
Nov 11 – Tractor Tavern – Seattle, WA
Nov 13 – The State Room – Salt Lake City, UT
Nov 15 – Boulder Theater – Boulder, CO
Nov 16 – Bluebird Theater – Denver, CO
Nov 17 – Roaring Fork Sessions – Aspen, CO
Nov 29 – World Cafe Live – Philadelphia, PA
Nov 30 – Music Hall of Williamsburg – Brooklyn, NY
Dec 02 – Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts – Katonah, NY
Dec 03 – Infinity Hall Hartford – Hartford, CT
Dec 07 – The Sinclair – Cambridge, MA
Dec 08 – Portland House of Music – Portland, ME
Dec 09 – Levon Helm Studios – Woodstock, NY
Jan 11 – The Basement East – Nashville, TN
Jan 13 – Sheldon Theater – St. Louis, MO
Jan 14 – Thalia Hall – Chicago, IL
Jan 16 – St. Cecilia Music Center – Grand Rapids, MI
The Returner – Track List:
1. Springtime
2. The Returner
3. All Without Within
4. Demons
5. Eve Was Black
6. Stay Right Here
7. Shadowlands
8. Rag Child
9. Snakelife
10. Requiem