While it was far from her first time playing AmericanaFest, this year’s event was a big week for Kelsey Waldon. Back in May, the Nashville-residing singer-songwriter and native of the memorably named town of Monkey’s Eyebrow, Ky., signed to John Prine’s Oh Boy Records with an album waiting in the wings: White Noise / White Lines is out via Oh Boy on Friday. The signing raised Waldon’s already considerable profile, meaning she was in great demand during the festival.
“That was definitely the most event-filled week I’ve ever done,” she tells the Scene, calling as she prepares to hit the road for a string of tour dates in the Pacific Northwest. “It was awesome to come into [Americana-Fest] this year as an Oh Boy artist. It was super exciting to get to play with Tanya Tucker at 3rd and Lindsley. … It felt real good, you know. It felt like there were some really special moments. Sometimes I can’t really tell, because they always say, when you’re the one on the train, you can’t see how fast it’s going.”
There’s no doubt that many who caught Waldon during AmericanaFest were already fans of the songsmith, whose first two albums (2014’s The Goldmine and 2016’s excellent I’ve Got a Way) have captivated fans of lyric-driven country music. White Noise / White Lines picks up where I’ve Got a Way left off, but it does so in a way that reveals more about Waldon as a songwriter than her earlier releases did.
“On the first two records — that’s where I was at the time, but I feel like there were a lot of stories about other people,” she says. “There were a lot of stories about my reflections on life, but there wasn’t a lot of detail into who I actually was as a person and as an artist. And I think that this record definitely starts to show that.”
One byproduct of Waldon’s more personal approach to songwriting is that some songs get political. One track, “Sunday’s Children,” takes religious hypocrisy to task and was inspired by Waldon’s own experiences growing up in the Southern Baptist church. The arrangement on that track, while still certainly country, ventures deep into Southern psych-rock territory with its crunchy, palm-muted guitar riff and a subtly hypnotic arrangement from Waldon’s band and co-producer Dan Knobler.
“The message of [‘Sunday’s Children’] is about any self-righteous attitude that comes with religion — that seems very dangerous to me at times,” she says. “I think in the end, all walks of life want the same thing. I think we all just universally want happiness, and to be accepted and to be loved. I think sometimes we put up these imaginary lines that stop us from having empathy for other people and trying to understand people that may not be just like us. I didn’t really see it as an attack on any kind of certain beliefs, even if it sounds like that.”
Another grounding element of White Noise / White Lines is Waldon’s inclusion of skit-style interludes, composed of real audio snippets of meaningful memories from her life. There’s a voicemail from her father, as well as a recording she made at his hunting camp of a chant being performed by Chickasaw people. The way these fragments are woven in gives the album an immersive feel. As Waldon explains it, the technique was partially inspired by her love of hip-hop music.
“Some people might be surprised [by my interest in hip-hop], but most people probably wouldn’t,” says Waldon. “But there are OutKast records, or Kendrick Lamar, or Janet Jackson’s The Velvet Rope … where there are so many interludes. I wanted it to feel personal — transparent like that from start to finish, with things set up in the proper way. I wanted the listener to feel the picture as a whole.”
White Noise / White Lines is not just a personal record for Waldon; it’s also a career milestone. When she joined the Oh Boy roster, during a special moment with Prine at a performance broadcast live on the Grand Ole Opry, she became the long-running independent label’s first new signee in 15 years. The significance of that accomplishment, and of the admiration she’s received from someone like Prine, is not lost on Waldon. She praises the sincerity of the Oh Boy team’s belief in her and her work, and she’s grateful that she found a home with a like-minded group of music fans who believe in the power of quality songs.
“They’re kind of like a dying breed in the music business,” she says. “They’re independent-minded, and I am too. John has always been independent-minded. John and I are both kindred spirits, and I just think it’s perfect, to put it simply.”
