I don't mind the heat, it feels good on my skin

Tracking the Tropics is here!!

We released a new song earlier this week with a visual from my good friend Jackie Lee Young. Jackie came out to West Texas to shoot the album cover and promotional photos for A Mile South of Heaven. And sort of as an afterthought, she mentioned she could bring along her super 8 film camera for fun.

All throughout the shoot, she’d occasionally pull out her super 8 and grab a few seconds. I wasn’t sure if or when I’d see it, but Jackie is the goat, and a few weeks ago she sent it to me and I of course loved it! I love how it brought our whole shoot to life in such a special way, and to my delight, Jackie was kind enough to let us use her footage for the visualizer.

So this is one of those organic things that kind of just happened without a plan, and here we are! That’s the beauty of working with friends and people you trust. Sometimes a thing that you didn’t even plan for just kind of falls perfectly into place.

I got to have a really nice conversation with Marissa Moss at Rolling Stone all about the new album and also Tracking the Tropics. I loved talking to her. It was my first big interview for the album. And I was nervous! Because you never really know how these things are going to go. But as soon as we got on the zoom I was immediately at ease, and I loved talking to her. I guess technically we had 45 minutes to talk, so after an hour she apologized for keeping me so long. I hadn’t even noticed, I was genuinely enjoying the chat.

Here’s the link if you missed it:

Rolling Stone article

By the way, have you pre-ordered your merch?

I am going to put the order in soon so now is a good time if you want to make sure to get your size. One thing about my merch is a) its all as eco friendly/sustainable b) I’m really into making sure the actual material of the shirt is as soft and wearable as can be. I’ll admit in the past I’ve cut corners and gone with cheaper shirts to save money, and I was always disappointed. Lesson learned! So this ringer tee below for example is going to be super soft, you’ll actually enjoy wearing it. I want it to feel like an old vintage t shirt.

Today I want to go in to a little bit of the making of Tracking the Tropics.

Because I had a big gap between writing some of these songs and recording them, I got the opportunity to test drive a few of the songs from the new record on my solo tours. A lot of you heard them, and this was one. I lived with Tracking the Tropics for at least a year before I recorded it, so I had time to think about where it wanted to go.

So below, I tell the tale of the exact Miranda Lambert song I showed Shooter and the musicians when I went in to the studio for inspo on this one, the reason why we completely scrapped that idea after spending several hours on it, how that moment was incredibly healing for me (and surprising!!), and I share a recording of an early version of this song, captured on my dear friend Sam Buck’s iPhone, from my solo show at Barsndall Theater in Los Angeles, back in 2024! This was one of the first time I ever played it.

But first, here’s a video of me and Shooter doing the stomp claps in the studio :)