Jess Williamson released her third album, Cosmic Wink, in 2018, and she’s preparing to follow it with a new one tilted, “Sorceress”, due out on May 15th via Mexican Summer. The first single, a folky, psychy singer-songerwriter track, she says, “grief has a way of making the veil between worlds very thin. Prior to the memorial service, I was sitting on a porch passing around a guitar and drinking beers with a few very dear people in my life who I look up to greatly and who were very close to the person who had passed. We heard an unexplainable sound in the wind that made us all pause. Like a flute, but more angelic. It kept going. We tried, unsuccessfully, to record it. The sound was indescribably beautiful and heavenly. “Were the angels singing just for us, or is that what the wind out here does on tin?” Regardless of the answer, I know that for that brief moment we were lucky initiates into the mystery realm, and I’m deeply grateful.
Williamson says, I’m thrilled to announce that Sorceress, my new album, will be out May 15th on Mexican Summer. We are living in the midst of an occult revival. THE WITCH: in the not too distant past she was abhorred, executed, or at the very least – kept underground. It’s 2020, and she’s gone mainstream. We have witnessed the meteoric rise of astrology apps, Tarot, crystal lifestyle brands, and smudge kits for sale alongside fast fashion. Magic is something that can live in chaos and make use of chaos, and these are uniquely chaotic times. Many of us are seeking a higher power, something to hold on to, to keep us afloat. Some look for it in these mystical realms, others seek it in spirituality or in traditional religion, some pursue it in material success or in romantic relationships, others are caught (understandably) in such muddy, murky waters that even the brightest beacon of light won’t get through, and far too many of us give away all of our energy trying to be that light. Technology – quite the modern trickster – makes all of this somehow more and less accessible to us. This record is me sifting through some of these modalities, thinking about and questioning our spiritual impulses, and exploring the different ways we try to cope.
That said, I am but a mystically inclined fumbling observer. Yes, there’s a little magic in my hat – but I’m no Sorceress.
Today, I’m sharing the first single, Wind on Tin, – streaming everywhere now – along with a music video and a month of tour dates across this great nation. Sorceress was produced by me, with co-production contributions on various songs from Shane Renfro (who I also co-wrote a track with), Dan Duszynski, and Al Carlson. We all played on it, along with Josh Jaeger and Dan Iead. It was recorded by Al at Gary’s Electric in Brooklyn NY and Dan at Dandysounds in Dripping Springs TX.
The Fat Angel Sings 