Through experimentation in spirituality and empowerment, devoting time and energy into her craft and learning to lean into a playful, carefree outlook, Nashville’s Brennan Wedl is experiencing the delicious life moments with a renewed clarity. On her self-titled album–out this Friday–she shakes off the prying eyes of expectation, leaving behind the anxiety of forming yourself for others and welcoming in the delight of finally being exactly who you are.
Today she is sharing the album track ‘High Priestess’
Brennan Wedl – ‘High Priestess’ (Official Lyric Video)
“ “High Priestess” is a POV from behind the wheel of an aimless after-hours drive around town,” Wedl describes. “ “Going for a drive” is often code for working out some ISSUES! From a tarot perspective, the narrator obscures the deep, almost other-worldly intuition of the High Priestess card with their own human agenda. The way they bargain with the past reflects the 2 of Swords and the Magician – doing anything to obscure the reality the narrator just can’t accept. What brings you to drive down your old street? The High Priestess won’t sugarcoat that it’s time to move on.”
Wedl enlisted Katie Crutchfield (Waxahatchee) and Brad Cook (Bon Iver, Hurray for the Riff Raff, Mavis Staples) to co-produce and play on the album, with instrumentalists Colin Croom, Lindsey Jordan (Snail Mail) and Matt McCaughan also sprinkled throughout. Together, they formed a middle ground between punk, grunge and Americana–‘grungetry’ as they affectionately call it––capturing all tracks within a 10 day stay at Cook’s studio in Durham, NC.
Brennan Wedl is a testament to collaboration, with old selves, the selves yet-to-be and the friends helping you along the way. It’s an anthology of spiritual awakening that sizes up the road ahead, encapsulating the messes and triumphs when leaving a traditional path for something less steady. It feels nostalgic because it’s so universal; like a stranger with a familiar laugh or a paint-stroked memory you can’t quite make out.
“I used to cower at being perceived as anything less than a delight,” Wedl admits. Growing up is embarrassing and reckless, uncertain and strange, so it makes sense to look for an anchor amidst the chaos. “The archetype of Daddy is something I’ve been searching for all my life, but turns out, the daddy I’ve been looking for has been me all along,” Wedl says. “Be your own daddy.”
Watch the Relix Session performances of ‘Tasmanian Devil’, ‘Pretty Little Fantasy’ & ‘When The Crazy Comes Out’
Brennan Wedl | Live From Relix
Praise for Brennan Wedl
“A 29-year-old songwriter whose radiant, hooky, tough Americana puts her toe-to-toe with genre godheads such as [Lucinda] Williams circa ‘Car Wheels on a Gravel Road’, or Sheryl Crow had she grown up playing church basement punk shows; also, a vision of Courtney Love in cowboy boots.” – The Guardian
“[A] country-rock supernova” – Stereogum
“Harnessing all her sides: punk, Americana, blues, and country… ‘Brennan Wedl’ [is] a punchy, unfiltered album” – Paste
Brennan Wedl
Brennan Wedl
- Scorpio
2. I Know How This Goes
3. Pretty Little Fantasy
4. High Priestess
5. Tasmanian Devil
6. Just Another Daddy Who Did Me Wrong
7. Let’s Be Models
8. Airplane Movies
9. I Wanna Be Your TV
10. Fake Cowboy
11. Two Dollar Pistol
12. June Gloom
13. When The Crazy Comes Out
