New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Nora Jane Struthers has long been a voice for "speaking women's truths rarely addressed in song" (NPR), most recently on her 2017 album
Champion - which candidly discusses her first year of marriage to bandmate Joe Overton, the couple's challenges with starting a family, and ultimately finding strength through that adversity. Now finally on the other end of that journey, Struthers returns with Bright Lights, Long Drives, First Words (out February 21), a new collection of eleven songs written by Struthers and recorded while she was eight months pregnant with her daughter Annabell. After realizing her dream of becoming a mother, Struthers' new work begins to consider what it all means for her future as an artist and touring musician. Coupled with changes to her longtime band The Party Line, the core of Bright Lights, Long Drives, First Words finds Struthers pondering the possibility of living both of her dreams at once.
Listen to lead single "Nice To Be Back Home" here: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-country/nora-jane-struthers-new-song-nice-to-be-back-home-new-album-915757/
On Bright Lights, Long Drives, First Words, songs like "I Feel Like My Old Self" and "
We Made It" are clear markers of a new chapter for Struthers - celebratory anthems that signify a move past the difficulties chronicled on Champion. When these songs were written in the first months of 2019, Struthers and Overton were starting on longtime plans to build an intricate garden in their backyard, and also preparing to become pregnant via embryo transfer. As Struthers puts it, "all of a sudden I felt like all of my dreams, which I'd been fighting hard for and watching crumble in the year before, could in fact be realized."
Meanwhile on songs like "
I Want It All" and "Nice To Be Back Home," it's clear that this new chapter for Struthers also brings new challenges. The Nashville-via-New Jersey songwriter explores the concepts of home, life on the road and keeping her musical dreams alive in the wake of new motherhood. On perfect display throughout is Struthers' signature "ability to take stock of deep-seated contentment while insisting on interrogating the dark doubts that so often follow" (Rolling Stone). As NPR's
Fresh Air has described her songwriting, Bright Lights, Long Drives, First Words is ultimately, perfectly "hard-headed about being open-hearted."
Nora Jane Struthers will tour extensively in support of Bright Lights, Long Drives, First Words with dates to be announced soon.
