Since the acclaimed one-two punch of 2020’s Walking Proof and 2021’s Lately, Lilly Hiatt moved from the hustle and bustle of Nashville, fell in love, got married, adopted a dog and scrapped a wealth of material that wasn’t resonating with her in the way she hoped. From those formative experiences comes Forever, which will be released Jan. 31 on New West Records.
The first single from the nine-track LP is the stident “Shouldn’t Be,” which Hiatt calls “a song about standing in your truth. I wrote [it] after a Mudhoney concert and it was the first song I recorded for the album.” Forever was produced by Hiatt’s husband, Coley Hinson, and mixed by Paul Q. Kolderie (Radiohead’s The Bends, Lush’s Lovelife).
More from Spin:
Lilly Hiatt Puts Her Pandemic Blues Behind Her on Lately
30 Artists Reflect on 30 Years of Pearl Jam’s Ten
Cameo Is the New Meet-and-Greet for Musicians and Fans
“Paul brought so much enthusiasm and dimension to the project,” says Hiatt, who is the daughter of legendary folk rocker John Hiatt. “Every time we had a song tracked, we’d share it with him and then he’d get really excited about it, which was really affirming and encouraged us to turn right around and get started on the next one.”
The songs reflect Hiatt’s struggles to overcome feeling “like an outsider watching myself stumble through it all, just constantly critiquing myself to the point where I became so paralyzed I could hardly leave home.“Eventually I just realized that my life was passing me by [and] that the love I was living in required presence to accept. So I started doing the little things you have to do to show up for the people in your life: listen, grow, change. I learned to expand my world.”
Hiatt is largely taking a break from the road until the release of Forever, but she’s among the artists recreating the Band’s fabled The Last Waltz concert on Nov. 23 in Skokie, Il., and will set sail on the Outlaw Country Cruise alongside her dad, Lucinda Williams, Old Crow Medicine Show and many others from Feb. 22-28.
Here is the track list for Forever:
Hidden Day
Shouldn’t Be
Ghost Ship
Somewhere
Evelyn’s House
Forever
Man
Kwik-E-Mart
Thoughts
To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, click here.