them into lockdown , however , that Russell and Nero began to earnestly pursue getting Outside Child released . Ultimately , it came out on May 21 , 2021 , via Fantasy Records , in part thanks to revered singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile falling in love with the thenunreleased songs .
Now , a little over a year later , Russell is contemplating what it means to be playing large , sold out shows , to have received three Grammy Award nominations ( for Best Americana Album , Best American Roots Song for “ Nightflyer ,” and Best American Roots Performance ), and have won a Juno Award for Contemporary Roots Album of the Year ( plus a nomination for Songwriter of the Year ), a Canadian Folk Music Award for Contemporary Album of the Year , and the two top honours at the 2022 International Folk Music Awards ( Artist and Album of the Year ). Plus , she ’ s currently nominated for Album and Song of the Year at the 2022 Americana Music Awards ( the latter for “ Persephone ”). Frankly , not since Tracy Chapman burst onto the scene with songs like “ Fast Car ” and “ Talkin ’ ‘ Bout a Revolution ” in 1988 has a Black woman so dominated and transcended the world of folk and roots music . Chapman , unsurprisingly , was a major inspiration for a young Russell . But Chapman was a young and brand-new artist . Russell has taken the long and winding road .
“ It feels like a responsibility , I suppose ,” she says . “ I ’ m grateful for the acclaim , but I ’ m mindful of the fact that a number of things had to happen in order for my words and works to be considered with — I don ’ t know — a bit more gravitas or something . As you say , I ’ ve been writing for 20 years and I don ’ t think that I am a wildly different musician .”
It ’ s no coincidence , Russell notes , that interest in the album began picking up steam after the murders of Breonna Taylor , Ahmaud Arbery , and George Floyd , which ignited the worldwide Black Live Matters movement and bigger conversations about racism and power structures .
“ We ’ re still in the midst of pretty intense upheaval and trauma , obviously , and I don ’ t think we ’ re going to know until many years down the line what the real fallout of this time is . But one of the things that happened to me and a lot of other Black creators was a sudden interest ; people were replying to emails , people calling and wanting our opinions about various things . I mean , it ’ s an odd thing to experience and I ’ m grateful , but it also really highlighted the degree to which there is still a disparity in access , even within our rootsy , loving ‘ island of misfits ,’ as Brandi would say ,” Russell says . “ The folk and Americana and roots communities , the fact is that for a lot of my career , people questioned me being in those spaces at all , let alone listening to anything I wrote with the kind of ennobling , careful attention that , say , Jon Pareles [ of the New York Times ] gave not just this record , but my entire oeuvre .”
The story of Outside Child , both the lyrics and broader the story of its creation , is Allison Russell ’ s story . She lays it bare in the first verse of the first song written for the album : I was the queen of Westmount Park
It was all mine after dark Old willow tree , it was my throne Till I , till I went home Father used me like a wife Mother turned the blindest eye Stole my body , spirit , pride He did , he did each night
– The first verse of “ 4 th Day Prayer ”
Born in Montreal in 1979 , Russell ’ s Scottish- Canadian mother was just a teenager when she got pregnant . Her biological father was a student from Grenada who returned to his home country before learning he ’ d fathered a child . Because her mother battled postpartum depression and schizophrenia ,
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PHOTO : MARC BAPTISTE