Produced by Teddy Morgan, a seasoned guitarist and recording artist in his own right who helped Zdan bring her vision into clear focus at Nashville’s Creative Workshop. In addition to Morgan and Zdan (who played guitars, lap steel, piano, keys, omnichord, and percussion), the sessions also featured Carl Broemal (pedal steel) and Tom Plankenship (bass) of My Morning Jacket, drummer Richard Medek (Alternate Roots, John Doe), and Little Brave (aka singer-songwriter Stephanie Macias, whose eclectic drumming, keyboards, and background vocals have made her Zdan’s go-to musical companion on the road for the last two years).

 

It really feels like a band record, which is what I wanted, enthuses Zdan. We set up all these different stations in the studio, like ‘keyboard world’ and ‘guitar land’ and ‘drum world,’ and we all kind of went around to each one throughout the 15 days that we were recording. It was so much fun!

 

As collaborative as the studio sessions were, though, Zdan wrote all 11 songs on the album solo. There are relationship songs (Back on You, Love to a Ghost, More of a Man), songs both cryptically and unabashedly about sex (Courtship of Wild Horses, What It’s All For), songs about the up-and-down, roller coaster dichotomy of life (Median Artery), and songs about songs about all of the above (Only the Sad Songs, Running for a Song). And true to the album’s name, all of them fit together to form a seamless, unflinchingly honest — and liberating — self portrait.