…how deep it goes, WILLI CARLISLE Higher Lonesome
Willi Carlisle Higher Lonesome is available on Critterland, Apple Music, Deezer
by Walter Price
Venerable singer-songwriter Willi Carlisle knows how to craft a story in song. Like Guthrie, Willie, and Groce before him, substance and realities over the formulaic have won over a legend of fans. And his much anticipated forthcoming LP, ‘Critterland’, sounds like it’ll continue this quest to make folks feel something.
The personal journey single “Higher Lonesome” is a stark beauty which Carlisle, via Instagram, has shared its origin story, “Folks know I rarely do autobiography—I usually slant the truth a little. Not this time.
HIGHER LONESOME is about a bad year, one I didn’t want to live through. It starts with driving too recklessly, and ends with throwing out a bottle of pills. It’s about learning to rely on people you trust, and seeing that self-reliance is the first and most important step in that. Wanting to die is easy. Wanting to live is harder, higher. Thanks, friends, for helping me see that.”
Close your eyes and the scenes Carlile paints in this song are vividly as tough to hear as they are hard to forget. And therewithin is the power of Carlisle’s storytelling, it may not always be magazine pretty but you’ll be chewing on it awhile.
You can stream “Higher Lonesome”, here at the GTC.
WILLI CARLISLE Higher Lonesome
Artist photo and artwork via Bandcamp // Quotes via Instagram and willicarlisle.com
Written and performed by Willi Carlisle
Produced by Darrell Scott
website // facebook // instagram
“If we allow ourselves to sing together, there’s a release of sadness, maybe even a communal one. And so for me personally, singing, like the literal act of thinking through suffering, is really freeing,” – W. Carlisle