Jess Williamson

About this event

A Mile South of Heaven is the album Jess Williamson was destined to make. The Texas native, who grew up in Dallas and now splits her time between Los Angeles and Marfa, has long experimented with country and western sounds. Historically, Williamson has refracted the genre’s alluring melodies, sonic rusticity and plainspoken poetry through mystical and alt-pop prisms, as heard on her critically-acclaimed solo albums Time Ain’t Accidental (2023) and Sorceress (2020). She further expanded that creative vision with Plains’ I Walked With You a Ways (2022). It was the stark, understated beauty of her previous album that led NPR to wonder “is there anything more tender and mournful than the way Williamson sings?” Pitchfork praised her “teardrop voice and audacious candor,” noting that she imagines “Lana by way of Lucinda while sounding Texas to the bone.” Now, A Mile South of Heaven is her most twang-forward solo album to date, bringing largely traditional music to the center of the frame without sacrificing the mysticism, emotional depth and indie sensibility that have long defined her work. With A Mile South of Heaven, Williamson reaches a new artistic peak as both a songwriter and singer. The songs draw from the emotional directness of Lucinda Williams, the character-driven storytelling of Guy Clark and the deep introspection of Leonard Cohen, while her voice recalls the earthen timbre of Emmylou Harris. There are evocative images throughout — scenes from the road and from inside Williamson’s heart. A moth on the dashboard. A prairie on fire. A bullet displayed in a shadowbox. There are trucks that double as symbols of liberation, and piercing and perceptive depictions of love and heartache. A Mile South of Heaven is as clear and vivid as the night sky over West Texas A Mile South of Heaven is Williamson's sixth solo album and her debut for the Nashville-based label New West. Produced by Shooter Jennings at the famed Studio 3 at Sunset Sound in Los Angeles, it…