Jenny Lewis Enters Her ‘Nashville Skyline’ Phase on New Album ‘Joy’All’

We were quick to report Jenny Lewis’ yacht-rock era back in 2021 when she released the lovely pedal steel-filled ditty “Puppy and a Truck.” But Lewis has moved on — to Nashville, to be exact.

The singer-songwriter dropped the new single “Psychos,” the opener to her upcoming album Joy’All, out June 9 via her new label Blue Note/Capitol Records. “There are no hard feelings,” she casually announces in the blissful chorus. “How I can help you?/It’s time I get away.”

Joy’All marks Lewis’ fifth solo album, following the excellent On the Line, which she released in 2019. “I started writing some of these songs on the road, pre-pandemic… and then put them aside as the world shut down,” she said in a statement. “And then from my home in Nashville in early 2021, I joined a week-long virtual songwriting workshop with a handful of amazing artists, hosted by Beck. The challenge was to write one song every day for seven days, with guidelines from Beck. The guidelines would be prompts like ‘write a song with 1-4-5 chord progression,’ ‘write a song with only cliches,’ or ‘write in free form style.’ The first song I submitted to the group was ‘Puppy and a Truck.’”

Lewis enlisted Dave Cobb to produce the record and channeled Skeeter Davis on the album cover after discovering one of her costumes in a Nashville thrift shop. “Dave works fast and we cut the bulk of the record with his incredible house band — Nate Smith, Brian Allen and Cobb on guitar, and myself on acoustic guitar & vocals — live on the floor in a couple of weeks. Jess Wolfe came back to the studio to provide background vocals on the record and then Greg Leisz and Jon Brion added pedal steel, B-Bender guitar and Chamberlin, respectively, back in L.A..” 

Lewis will tour this summer in support of the record, kicking off with a stint of shows in early June, followed by a trek opening for Beck and Phoenix. She’ll embark on Ben Gibbard’s double-anniversary tour of Death Cab for Cutie and the Postal Service in the fall.

Joy’All Tracklist
1. Psychos
2. Joy’All
3. Puppy and a Truck
4. Apples and Oranges
5. Essence of Life
6. Giddy Up
7. Cherry Baby
8. Love Feel
9. Balcony
10. Chain of Tears