The sun rises once again on Anti-Corp’s beloved The Magnolia Sessions, returning after a two-year break with a new album by renowned folk singer, WILLI CARLISLE, out now everywhere today, with a vinyl pressing underway to aid victims of Hurricane Helene.
Launched in 2020, The Magnolia Sessions showcases bluegrass, dark country, and folk singer/songwriter acts, recorded live in an intimate outdoor setting by a large magnolia tree at the Anti-Corp/Black Matter Mastering headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee, by owner Dan Emery. The series has delivered albums from the likes of Lost Dog Street Band, The Hill Country Devil, Joe Wunderle, Cooper McBean, The Resonant Rogues, Matt Heckler, Jason Dea West, Johno Leeroy, Cristina Vane, Nick Hans, Casper Allen, Jeff Loops, Angela Autumn, Tyler Hood, Jade Brodie, Douglas Francisco, Ivan McLeod, and Austin Stambaugh, many of which have debuted on the Billboard Bluegrass Charts. Following three seasons of monthly releases in the series, The Magnolia Sessions has been hibernating since late-Summer 2020, but now springs back to life with a slightly altered approach, with periodic releases not bound to a monthly or seasonal release schedule.
The Magnolia Sessions returns with a heartfelt new album by WILLI CARLISLE, who believes singing is healing, and by singing together, he believes we can begin to reckon with the inevitability of human suffering and grow in love. His third album, Critterland – produced by the Grammy Award-nominated Darrell Scott – traverses the backwaters of his mind and America, lingering in the odd corners of human nature to visit obscure oddballs, dark secrets, and complicated truths about the beauty and pain of life and love.
On his installment of The Magnolia Sessions, WILLI CARLISLE delivers a variety of traditional songs and covers, performing everything solo, with Dan Emery handling the production. The artwork for WILLI CARLISLE’s The Magnolia Sessions, which differs from the rest of the series’ style, was inspired by a wood etching by Whit Stone.
Dan Emery reveals, “I hadn’t recorded a Magnolia Session in about a year, and the previous year I had only recorded three. To say I was disconnected from this project is putting it lightly. The reality is, I had been burnt out since the second season, which wrapped up in 2022. That year was supposed to cap off with a session from WILLI CARLISLE that was recorded July 19th, 2021. Numerous things prevented that recording from seeing the light of day, but perhaps that’s for the best. When we reconvened on September 25th, 2024, the plan was to set aside three days to do the session. The idea was to record Wednesday the 25th, take Thursday to go over everything, and wrap up loose ends on Friday. Mother Nature had other plans. On the first day of tracking Willi recorded fifty-nine takes over the course of four-and-a-half hours. I’ve never had an artist feel so comfortable in that environment, and he probably would have stayed out there for four-and-a-half more hours, had I let him.”
Emery continues, “We decided to shuffle things up and record the following day, rather than Friday, which was probably the best decision we could have made. During the two-and-a-half hours we spent recording that day, the rain started. Lightly enough at first, as can be heard in the background of ‘She’ll Never Be Mine’. Those were the beginning droplets of Hurricane Helene, which would go on to ravage North Carolina and surrounding areas. As the session wrapped up on Thursday evening Willi traded songs on the back porch with Nick Hans, who happened to be passing through town that day, and we all watched as the yard began to flood, eliminating any possibility of tracking on Friday and cementing an ulterior purpose into why we were recording dozens of Appalachian folk songs in the dark at night. Altogether Willi recorded eighty-four takes, from which we picked the best eleven to comprise this collection, though he’d probably have stayed out there playing to this day, had I let him.”
WILLI CARLISLE writes, “This collection of folksongs were sung under a big Magnolia Tree in East Nashville. At the time of recording, Hurricane Helene was destroying communities across Appalachia. You can even hear the wind and rain from that storm hitting the microphones. It made these songs about hard times hit even harder. I’m proud to have some of my old favorites on this record: songs from archives, old folk songbooks, reel-to-reel machines, and (mostly) what I’ve heard my friends and mentors play. It has a lot of tools I don’t get to use much: autoharps funky banjos, stuff like that. As the times change, friend, ‘Which side are you on?’”
WILLI CARLISLE’s The Magnolia Sessions is out today and streaming everywhere; find all prime links at THIS LOCATION.
Preorders are now available for a limited run of 500 vinyl LPs of WILLI CARLISLE’s The Magnolia Sessions out on January 31st. All proceeds go towards aid in helping those in the wake of Hurricane Helene. Find vinyl preorders HERE.
WILLI CARLISLE – The Magnolia Sessions Track Listing:
1. Horse Named Bill
2. Leatherwing Bat
3. Pagan Rite
4. Love is Little
5. Pond Creek Bottom
6. Careless Love
7. Rye Whiskey
8. Which Side Are You On?
9. She’ll Never Be Mine
10. When the Roses Bloom Again
11. Jubilee
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