Allison Russell has shared a new single “You’re Not Alone” featuring Brandi Carlile. Written and produced by Russell, “You’re Not Alone” is an inspiring meditation on the power of ancestral strength and the essential nature of community. The track’s exquisite string arrangement is performed by Sista Strings: Monique Ross, Chauntee Ross, and Larissa Maestro. (A version of the song originally appeared on Our Native Daughters’ acclaimed 2019 debut album.)

Russell will join Carlile on several tour dates throughout the summer and fall including two nights at Red Rocks on September 9th and 10th. Both Russell and Carlile recently performed with Joni Mitchell at her historic Newport Folk Festival set.

Russell said about the single and Carlile:

We are not alone.

We are not what we have lost.

We are more than the sum of our scars.

We are the dust of the stars, the bones of the Earth, the breath of the void, the expanse of our imaginations, the arc of art, the love in our hearts.

We lift each other up. 

We are the “Beloved Community” every time we choose to be. Our Circle is battered and bloody but still, whole. None above, none below— our one human family— equal under the listening sky.

I believe what Alice Walker wrote: 

“We are the ones we have been waiting for.”

Every child deserves to be loved and protected. Our families with LGBTQIA+ parents are just as precious. 

No one should be forced into the sacred role of parenthood against their will.

Human Rights are worth fighting for. 

We’ve come a long way but we must go farther still.

I am grateful to my chosen family, Brandi, for singing “You’re Not Alone” with me, for inspiring me everyday, for elevating everything, for leading the way.

We will not be turned back.

Love & Revolution

On her debut solo album, the critically acclaimed Outside Child (produced by Dan Knobler), Allison Russell, the poet, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, activist and co-founder of Our Native Daughters and Birds of Chicago, unpacks her youth in searing detail. She sings about deliverance and redemption, about the places, people and realizations that helped her survive and claim her freedom.

Photo Courtesy: Aimsel Ponti