Something Else

10 years after its release, Lydia Loveless sits down at the piano for an intimate reimagining of her landmark album, Somewhere Else. Title track featuring guest vocals by Jason Isbell.

“a rugged, uncompromising young talent with a distinctive voice and take-no-crap attitude primed and ready to take Americana into the next few decades” —American Songwriter

“Over the last 10 years I’ve been told by countless people, emotional and earnest, that their favorite record of mine is Something Else. I love that, and I nod in amused reverence to it here.

The me of 2012–2013 was drowning in pain and insecurity and my own press, pissed off that nobody could see me for who I really was, what I had really been through, and how hard it was to be me. I was walled in by fears and worries that I would never be good enough. I was struggling with my voice after a debilitating virus and a six week tour. I had rented a little room in the Grandview neighborhood of Columbus and was plugging away on my splintered acoustic guitar with a tape recorder. I was frustrated as could be, not coming up with anything that I felt was “me” or even remotely song like. One day, when I finally thought I had a nugget of something, I read the lyrics aloud to my then husband and he looked at me confused and said, “what are you even trying to say in this, though? Who is the narrator?” I don’t remember what I said to that but I’m sure it wasn’t kind.

When I went back into the studio with my friend Caeleigh Featherstone recording me this go round, she looked at me at one point and said, “Were you singing these songs in front of old dudes? Like, your husband?” Yes, I was, I told her. We both shook our heads and laughed at the hubris on 22-year-old Lydia Loveless.”