There’s a lot going on in the world of Jack White these days. (Actually, isn’t there always?). Well, you can also say the same about his wife, Karen Elson, who will release her full-length solo debut on May 24th via White’s personal imprint Third Man Records.
Titled The Ghost Who Walks, the record was reportedly written inside a closet in her and White’s Nashville bedroom. Upon completion, Elson hit the studio with a backing ensemble that include The Dead Weather’s Jack Lawrence on bass, My Morning Jacket’s Carl Broemel on pedal steel, Rachelle Garniez on accordion and vocals, and her brother-in-law Jackson Smith, son of Patti, on guitar. Jack also of course had a hand, playing drums.
Asked in a recent interview with WWD whether her career as a model or relationship with White would cause some to not take the album seriously, Elson noted that “I was unbearably concerned and insecure about that, and that’s what has taken me so long to put a record out.”
She continued: “Model-slash-anything is just such a [stigma], which is a shame because I know so many ridiculously talented models. It’s just the connotation of the word ‘model.’ If you said waitress-slash-singer or secretary-slash-singer, it’s all fine. [But] this album wasn’t some sort of vanity project where I said, ‘Hey, Jack, let’s make a record so I can be a singer now.’ I worked incredibly hard at making it legitimate.” So, there you go all you reverse-contrarian hipsters!
Find The Ghost Who Walks‘ tracklist below, as well as video from Elson’s recent acoustic performance at Los Angeles venue Laurel Canyon.
The Ghost Who Walks Tracklist:
01. The Ghost Who Walks
02. The Truth Is The Dirt
03. Pretty Babies
04. Lunasa
05. 100 Years From Now
06. Stolen Roses
07. Garden
08. Cruel Summer
09. The Birds They Circle
10. A Thief At My Door
11. The Last Laugh
12. Mouths To Feed
