Nashville-based singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Lydia Luce has announced her new album Mammoth, due out October 31. Produced with longtime collaborator Jordan Lehning (Kacey Musgraves, Joy Oladokun, Caitlin Rose), the new record documents Luce’s triumphant journey of self-discovery and finding a sense of peace.
Along with the announcement, she shares the album’s sweeping opening title track, which was inspired by her winding road back to physical health after a period of debilitating chronic pain that forced her to step away from music. Arriving with a dreamy music video filmed in the great outdoors, “Mammoth” also sets the tone for the upcoming album, which incorporates nature recordings into the soundtrack for this current chapter of tranquility.
About the new song, Luce says: “‘Mammoth’ was written with Jake Finch and Collin Pastore, two incredible producers/songwriters. I loved writing this with them, we kept the guitar parts from the day we wrote it because they are so incredible! The music video was created with Jason Lee Denton and Aliegh Shields. We hiked over 30 miles on the Rocky Mountains with my husband Ryan assisting. It was an incredibly magical time in nature with buds. Grateful that we have this time capsule of a video to remember it.”
In 2023, Luce was diagnosed with a herniated cervical disc, bilateral carpal tunnel, tennis elbow and an inflamed bone. At one point, the pain was so bad she could barely hold her instruments. She was medically advised to stop playing at the time but music is her life, quite literally, as an artist and session violinist, and she continued until the pain was so bad she finally had no choice. Surgery, plus a newfound understanding of her body, has left her in a much better place. “I had never asked for so much help,” she says. “I couldn’t open or carry anything. But now I’m happy to say I’m stable, strong and playing my instruments again.”
“Mammoth” follows the meditative “Wisteria” and “Florence,” a tender lullaby dedicated to her soon-to-be-born first child that was written while yearning for motherhood. Recorded over just one week at Peter Gabriel’s celebrated recording institution Real World Studios in the UK countryside, Mammoth began with the search for the right sonic textures — in this case, sounds like the blowing wind and morning birdsong were woven into the instrumentation. Luce here was equally inspired by the quietly contemplative compositions of ambient music, something she has been working on individually through her Lethe music project. Lehning and Luce, who together run the Nashville-based string collective Lockeland Strings, also recruited their partners and his children into the studio for a creative family affair.
Throughout the new album, there are potent common threads of self-love, hope and acceptance, along with a fervent belief in the serendipity of the last few years. “These songs reflect where I am in my life right now,” explains Luce. “They’re about the peace I’ve finally found at home, in my body, and in my relationships.
