Faye Webster recently announced Car Therapy Sessions, an EP of new and re-imagined songs, backed by a full orchestra. Today, she shares a new track from the project . “Suite: Jonny” brings together two fan-favorite songs from her previously released Atlanta Millionaire’s Club. The original songs, “Jonny” and “Jonny (Reprise)” are presented together in this composition and given a lush orchestral treatment to great cinematic effect. The “Suite: Jonny” video is also out today, directed by Sean Valdivieso and edited by hbaCreate. The video gives a window into the recording process that took place at Spacebomb Studios. “This is the song that sparked the whole concept for this project for me. It’s also one of the first songs that I ever wrote that I felt was truly honesty and had true transparency, which I think is maybe why so many people relate to it,“ says Webster. “I wanted to be able to relive this song in a way that felt new at the same time, which is why I really like the direction that Trey took these orchestral arrangements.”
Car Therapy Sessions will be released on April 29th via Secretly Canadian. Earlier this month she also shared the title track, “Car Therapy.” The orchestra was headed by Trey Pollard who was responsible for both conducting and arranging. Drew Vandenberg produced and mixed the EP. Car Therapy Sessions will be available on vinyl in the fall and is available to pre-order now. On the EP, Webster reimagines three songs from her critically acclaimed 2021 release I Know I’m Funny, Haha and 2019’s Atlanta Millionaires Club. With the 24 piece orchestra backing her, in addition to “Car Therapy” and “Suite: Jonny”, the songs “Kind Of”, “Sometimes” and “Cheers” take on a glimmering new sheen.It’s remarkable how beautifully Webster’s work can take on this orchestral treatment. Like Cole Porter, or Judy Garland – her delicate and emotional delivery packs a gut punch when dramatized by the EP’s robust arrangements.
I Know I’m Funny haha, the 23-year-old artist’s most recent release was also her most fully realized effort to date. Though she usually tackles album-making in a song-by-song approach, 2020 necessitated a more intensive recording process. Webster immediately knew the Athens-based players she wanted to record with and headed into the studio with producer/mixer Drew Vandenberg (Deerhunter, Of Montreal, Kishi Bashi). They assembled a band including Harold Brown on drums, Bryan Howard on bass, Nic Rosen on keys and Matt “Pistol” Stoessel on pedal steel – one of the most reliable and essential musical elements of Webster’s records.
A self-taught guitarist by elementary school, with a long tradition of bluegrass and country players in her family, Webster was bound to be a musician. At just 16 she released her debut album, Run & Tell. Like other teenage phenoms Jackson Browne and Laura Marling, it exhibited stunning lyrical and artistic clarity. Her Southern roots were obvious but Webster had more than country music inspiring her worldview – she was deeply embedded in the culture of her hometown, Atlanta. L’il Yachty was her classmate, she was sneaking out to see underground shows and fortuitously had befriended rapper/producer Ethereal while in High School. She went on to sign to Awful Records, making her label-mates with Father, Playboi Carti and Ethereal. To the outsider, an odd home but Webster shared the same weirdo art-kid ethos of her label mates – impossible to peg, endlessly experimenting, making shit, doing stuff, genre-fluid rule breakers.
Her 2017 self-titled release on Awful brought her enough notoriety to get her signed to Secretly Canadian, the home of ANOHNI, Porridge Radio, Whitney, Yoko Ono and more. Two years later, she released Atlanta Millionaires Club to widespread critical acclaim. “Few R&B albums have a pedal steel; few alt-country albums have a rap feature. Faye Webster’s Atlanta Millionaires Club somehow has all of the above. Even stranger, she manages to smooth these apparent contradictions into serene folk-pop with a mellow soul tinge. Webster is an anomaly, but her arty individualism represents an important common value,” said Pitchfork.
A multi-hyphenate talent, Webster also is a successful photographer who has shot campaigns for Killer Mike, Offset, D.R.A.M, Nike and other brands. She is a sometimes model and full-time yoyo enthusiast. Webster incorporates her yoyo skills into her live show. In 2020 Barack Obama included her single “Better Distractions,” on his playlist of favorite songs and she also released the single “In A Good Way.” Both songs appear on I Know I’m Funny haha.
Faye Webster will be out on tour this spring and summer throughout North America. She’ll hit the road with HAIM beginning May 4th at the Moody Amphitheatre in Austin, TX. Highlights include two nights at The Anthem in Washington D.C. on May 13th and 14th and Madison Square Garden in New York City on May 17th. Webster will also play Shaky Knees Festival on April 29th and Primavera Sound Los Angeles on September 16th. Full tour dates listed below.
CAR THERAPY SESSIONS – TRACK LISTING:
1. Kind Of (Type of Way)
2. Sometimes (Overanalyze)
3. Car Therapy
4. Suite: Jonny
5. Cheers (To You & Me)
TOUR DATES:
*With Haim
April 29 – Shaky Knees Festival – Atlanta, GA
May 04 – Moody Amphitheater – Austin, TX*
May 05 – The Pavillion at Toyota Music Factory – Irving, TX*
May 06 – 713 Music Hall – Houston, TX*
May 08 – Daily’s Place – Jacksonville, FL*
May 09 – FPL Solar Amphitheatre – Miami, FL*
May 11 – Ameris Bank Amphitheatre – Alpharetta, GA*
May 13 – The Anthem – Washington D.C.*
May 14 – The Anthem – Washington D.C.*
May 17 – Madison Square Garden – New York, NY*
May 19 – Andrew J. Brady Icon Music Center – Cincinnati, OH*
May 20 – Ascend Amphitheater – Nashville, TN*
Aug 12 – XL Live – Harrisburg, PA
Aug 13 – Mass MoCA – North Adams, MA
Aug 14 – Beak & Skiff Apple Orchards – LaFayette, NY
Aug 19 – Royale – Boston, MA
Aug 26-28 – Thing Festival – Port Townsend, WA
Aug 28 – Vogue Theatre – Vancouver, BC
Sept 16 – Primavera Sound Festival – Los Angeles, CA
