Challenging Times Paint Lydia Luce’s Dark River in a New Light

If you were to sketch out the path that led Lydia Luce to the release of her second album Dark River, you would see two very distinct segments: the months before March 3, 2020, and everything that has unfolded since. 

Over the past several years, Luce has cemented herself as one of the local music community’s most prominent creative figures, thanks to her incredible talents as a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Her reputation as a sought-after string player has led to her performing on tracks for Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson and Joshua Hedley. But Luce’s talent for writing music that draws on the richness of postwar vocal pop and the intimacy of contemporary folk-pop shines through her solo work, which many heard for the first time on her 2018 debut record Azalea. That project quickly earned her praise from national publications. After the end of a long-term relationship  in the summer of 2019, Luce headed out of Nashville for a trip to the Pacific Northwest.

“That for me was some quiet alone time to really feel deeply,” Luce says. “It was pretty lonely and kind of a sad time. I got really sick, and I didn’t feel the usual excitement and joy that I find when I’m alone and hiking and camping.”

All the same, she was able to sort through and explore her feelings. This was a process of emotional recalibration she needed to complete before diving into the material that would shape her new album. “I just wasn’t ready to write those songs because I hadn’t really dealt with a lot of that stuff,” she says. 

In January 2020, Luce headed into the studio with producer Jordan Lehning, who also worked on Azalea, to complete this new creative chapter. The result is Dark River, which she’ll release on Friday and celebrate with a livestream from the Parthenon as part of Centennial Park Conservancy’s Echo performance series. The album is an emotional, thoughtful and brilliantly crafted exploration of personal growth and acceptance. She addresses challenging topics like codependency and relationship struggles, grappling with confidence and trust in yourself, and eventually finding your own identity on the other side. “It’s about coming into who you are, fully trusting your gut — being 100 percent that person and not letting anybody take that away,” says Luce.

With the album mostly complete, she began planning for its release in mid-2020. But in the early hours of March 3, a tornado tore through East Nashville with Luce’s home directly in its path. Luce was in bed when she first heard the sirens go off, and was one of the many locals who looked at their phones to see @NashSevereWX (whose online coverage is credited for saving many lives that night) advising people to immediately head to the lower level of their homes. She made it to safety moments before a wood piling came through the wall in the exact spot where she had been lying just moments earlier.

“If I would’ve stayed in my room, I might not be here,” Luce says. “That was really intense and really, really crazy to think about after. It kind of wrecked me.”

This experience has changed Luce’s perspective on many things, including her songs. On the surface, the Dark River track “Occasionally” focuses on pining for a love that’s long gone. In the aftermath of the tornado, Luce hears it uniquely vocalizing the trauma of anxiety that can trickle into your mind and body without warning. “It’s cool how songs can really be so many things and have different meanings to people and whatever they are going through,” she says.

The pandemic brought its own waves of change to Luce’s life — “2020 feels like three years in one,” she says with a small laugh. Tour plans were put on hold, and the record’s release date was pushed back. Southern Ground Nashville, the historic studio where Luce recorded Dark River, was shuttered and put up for sale.  

Although these unexpected events were challenging for Luce, they also allowed her to slow down and focus her energy on different creative outlets. She penned “All The Time,” a driving, empowering letter to herself, which became a late addition to the album. 

“If I wouldn’t have pushed [the album back], maybe I wouldn’t have written that,” Luce says. “I spent a lot of time just dreaming up what these sounds look like, thinking about the artwork and getting to create some music videos, in the safest possible way.”

Another creative project close to Luce’s heart is Lockeland Strings, which is the name of both an ensemble and a performance series. It began as a simple DIY house show, but expanded into a monthly showcase with a deeply devoted audience. While helping keep the creative community thriving, Lockeland Strings also partners with a new nonprofit each month. The format has been adapted to presenting livestreams on a less-frequent schedule during the pandemic, but Luce plans on bringing Lockeland Strings back to its previous state once COVID-19 has finally passed.

“The thing I miss maybe the most is just the community aspect of Lockeland Strings,” Luce says. “I love it, and those shows are so special.”

In many ways, Dark River stands as a soundtrack for perseverance, reflection and growth, whether it be from a past relationship or a chapter in life that simply didn’t go as planned. The road behind her was a bumpy one, but Luce sounds determined to keep moving forward.