Jim Lauderdale Checks In 'From Another World': Exclusive Video & Acoustic Performance Premiere

Courtest of Billboard
by Gary Graff

Check out the video for "One Away" & acoustic performance of ''I'll Forgive You If You Don't" from the new set.

Just one album this year? Is Jim Lauderdale slacking on us?

"Well, the year is not done yet," the veteran Americana singer/songwriter, who released two albums during 2018, tells Billboard with a chuckle. "Yeah, I will feel like a slacker if I don't put out another record -- that's all I'll say for now."

Then again, Lauderdale's fans certainly won't be left wanting with From Another World, his 32nd album, which comes out June 21. (Check out the exclusive premiere of the video for "One Away" and an exclusive acoustic performance of "I'll Forgive You If You Don't" with Lillie Mae and Frank Rische below.) The new set was co-produced with Jay Weaver and engineered by David Leonard, who were also part of Lauderdale's Time Flies last year, and includes co-writes with Melba Montgomery and Logan Ledger.

"I enjoyed making Time Flies so much and wanted to go in with that same crew of people and kind of continue that sound," Lauderdale says. He came up with a double album's worth of material but was convinced by his label, Yep Roc, to keep it to a single disc. The end result, he feels is "a little more on the country side than Time Flies," but certainly with a rocking energy on tracks such as "Some Horses Run Free," "Slow Turn in the Road" and the trippy "The Secrets of Pyramids." "That's just where my head is from years of just ingrained music listening," Lauderdale explains. "As years have gone by and I've made more records, it's just kind of a congealing of sound, I suppose."

And Lauderdale was also determined to create a musical world that was an antithesis and even a balm against the charged social and political landscape of the times. "I think anybody that's making a record does want their music to offer some kind of a respite from the world," he says. "Things are getting more and more tense and crazy out there, and I find that with the divisions that are going on right now music is still a great common thread for people, no matter what they believe politically. It's probably a far-fetched idea, but I hope that at some point before too long we start becoming more civil with each other and listening to each other.” Lauderdale expresses the sentiment further on the new track "Listen," co-written with Buddy Cannon.

Lauderdale has shows booked into September, and he's had to reacquaint himself with the From Another World material. "This record was done in November, maybe December, so it took me a little while to shift gears and come back to this record now that it's coming out," he says. Meanwhile he's been "kind of chipping away at some other things," which may yield something else before the year ends. "I better not say," Lauderdale notes, again hedging his bets. "Maybe...but I don't want to undercut this record. I want to put all my intention into that right now."