Country singer Kelsey Waldon has announced a new album, There’s Always a Song, due May 10 via Oh Boy Records/Thirty Tigers (pre-order). The song features renditions of eight songs “from the earliest pages of the country and bluegrass music songbooks,” and the first single is “Hello Stranger” featuring S.G. Goodman, which was also the catalyst for the album. A press release notes:
There’s Always a Song might not even exist, in fact, if not for S.G. Goodman, who in addition to also being a fellow western Kentuckian has been one of Waldon’s good friends since before they were making headlines with their music. During one of their frequent catch-up phone calls, Waldon told Goodman she would love to find a reason to collaborate and asked Goodman if she’d be up for recording a song together. Goodman suggested “Hello Stranger,” specifically citing the 1973 version by Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard.
Other guests on the album include Margo Price, Amanda Shires, and 49 Winchester’s Isaac Gibson, and the announcement sheds more light on those collabs too:
Fellow John Prine devotee and “kindred spirit” Amanda Shires joins Waldon on fiddle for the Bill Monroe classic “Uncle Pen” — arranged in half time like Goose Creek Symphony’s version from 1971 — while Isaac Gibson, lead singer of 49 Winchester, helps Waldon honor his fellow Virginian, Ralph Stanley, on the devastating “I Only Exist.” Margo Price, one of Waldon’s first friends in Nashville, rounds out the list of guests, singing with Waldon on “Traveling the Highway Home,” which Waldon selected from fellow Kentuckian Molly O’Day’s catalog.
The just-released “Hello Stranger” sounds great, honoring the song’s trad-bluegrass roots while sounding fresh. Check out the video below.
Tracklist
Keep Your Garden Clean 1:22
Hello Stranger (with S.G. Goodman) 3:46
I Only Exist (with Isaac Gibson / 49 Winchester) 4:27
Uncle Pen (with Amanda Shires) 3:42
Pretty Bird 3:07
I’ve Endured 3:19
Traveling The Highway Home (with Margo Price) 3:03
Your Lone Journey 4:56