We can all use a cool and calming presence as we navigate 2021. Lucy Dacus seems up to the task.
The Virginia singer-songwriter set the tone this week for a big few months ahead with word of a new album, Home Video, out June 25 via Matador; a lively new single titled “Hot & Heavy”; and a fall North American tour that brings Bartees Strange and Bachelor, a new duo of Palehound’s Ellen Kempner and Jay Som’s Melina Duterte, along for the ride.
“I thought I was writing ‘Hot & Heavy’ about an old friend, but I realized along the way that it was just about me outgrowing past versions of myself,” says Dacus in a press release. “So much of life is submitting to change and saying goodbye even if you don’t want to. Now whenever I go to places that used to be significant to me, it feels like trespassing the past. I know that the teen version of me wouldn’t approve of me now, and that’s embarrassing and a little bit heartbreaking, even if I know intellectually that I like my life and who I am.”
Dacus recorded Home Video, her third studio album and the follow-up to 2018’s Historian, in 2019 at Nashville’s Trace Horse Studio, and two songs on the LP feature backing vocals from Dacus’ boygenius bandmates Julien Baker and Phoebe Bridgers.
Speaking of Baker, Dacus’ tour kicks off September 10 with two homecoming shows with the Little Oblivions artist, September 10 and 11 at The National in Richmond. From there, Dacus’ tour takes her across the country and back with stops in Los Angeles (September 24 at The Theater at Ace Hotel), Chicago (October 11 at The Vic Theatre), Boston (October 16 at House of Blues), and NYC (October 25 at Brooklyn Steel). Scan all dates as you listen to “Hot & Heavy” below.
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