Award-winning singer-songwriter-guitarist Sarah King makes her long-awaited full-length solo debut with When It All Goes Down, exploring life’s seismic shifts via her own singular strain of Gothic Americana. The latest in a string of singles, “Pretty Things” is out everywhere on February 2nd, 2024 and, after the subsequent release of the title track in early March, When It All Goes Down will drop on March 29th, 2024. Pre-order launches on March 1st, 2024.
Originally intended for the 2021 EP, The Hour, “Pretty Things” was first imagined as a faster-paced song in response to King being told she needed some “less brooding” material, but it never quite felt right. After experimenting with the tempo, slowing it down to match the incredibly dark lyrics, this groovy, swampier version finally landed.
“Lyrically, it’s a little unhinged – another reverse murder ballad by a woman, but this time she’s killed the intended listener’s partner in order to have the listener to herself,” King explains, continuing, “I don’t actually encourage murder in real life, but I think we’ve all wanted to get someone out of the picture at some point, so we could have someone all to ourselves.”
Produced, engineered, and arranged by David Baron (The Lumineers, Noah Kahan, Darren Kiely), When It All Goes Downsees King weaving classic rock ‘n’ roll, Southern soul, true country, and primal folk-blues into something inspiring and cathartic, deeply personal yet wholly universal. Fired by King’s spellbinding, seen-it-all vocals and rock solid rhythm guitar, songs like “The Longest Night” and the empowering, anthemic title track are haunting, oft-times harrowing, tales of impossible guilt and inconsolable grief, of raising hell (and the repercussions that follow), of how to stand face to face with the Devil himself yet somehow emerge bigger, better, and badder than before.
Currently residing in the Green Mountains of Vermont, in a tiny log cabin without cell reception, Sarah King has walked many a hard road to reach When It All Goes Down. New England born and raised, King spent her early twenties down South, playing in a GA-based rock ‘n’ roll band and generally “growing up, a.k.a. becoming an adult.” She eventually moved back north but found herself at a crossroads, slightly burnt out but driven by an evolving passion for front porch folk and traditional blues, hard times music as real and true now as it was nearly a century ago.
“All of a sudden, my life began to imitate art,” King says. “My dog died and my first husband died and my mom died. Just like that. That’s a lot. But our society doesn’t really teach us anything about grief and how to manage it. So I was like, Well, I am just going to pretend that I’m not grieving. I’m just not going to talk about it. And I’m not going to play music or write music because that would mean I have to get in my feelings.”
Thankfully, King eventually sought help through group therapy and grief counseling, personal work that allowed her to process the pain and trauma brewing inside.
Shot through with subtle swing and heavy horsepower, a current of white-knuckle tension roils just beneath the surface of When It All Goes Down, with King deftly navigating the hidden spaces between darkness and the light.
“We live in the gray areas,” she says. “It’s okay for me to be both light and dark at the same time, I can be heavy and at the same time, optimistic. My music can be very dark but I am still a warm, loving person. I can be who I really am and embrace both sides. I don’t have to choose.”
A captivating and engaging live performer, King is keen to bring her cathartic blues to life on stage both as a solo artist and bandleader. Rich with rare integrity, earnest emotion, and a restless energy born of extraordinary experience, When It All Goes Down captures an acutely authentic artist exploring her spirit and songcraft in an effort to reach a place that’s both true and transcendent not only in herself, but in all those who also call upon the power of music in their time of need.
“My stories are folk stories,” says Sarah King. “Of the people, for the people, by the people (I’m a person). These are songs for folks who’ve lived through some shit and want some music that doesn’t shy away from that.”
