‘By Now’ Highlights Maturity and Wisdom by Influential Songwriter Heather Little

Heather Little – By Now (Need To Know Music, 2024)

Heather Little, known for her profound songwriting skill, challenges the stereotype of an obscure yet talented songwriter, potentially becoming a favorite among even renowned songwriters. Little’s career, spanning from the early 2000s, has flourished in relative obscurity despite her songs being embraced by country music giants, earning her two BMI awards. Her engaging upcoming album, By Now, a collaboration with Need To Know Music, marks a significant milestone after her 2013 release, Wings Like These.

Scheduled for release on April 19th, By Now highlights Little’s exceptional songwriting as well as her emotive vocals, often likened to Patty Griffin and Lori McKenna. Musically, Heather Little adorns her songs with a tasteful mix of bluegrass, Americana and American folk music.

Recorded at Need To Know studios in California in 2023, the album features a stellar lineup of musicians and guest vocalists, including Patty Griffin, Leslie Satcher, and Crystal Bowersox, enhancing Little’s songs without overshadowing her.

Throughout the album, Little ventures fearlessly into universal human experiences, offering insights into personal and societal struggles. Her introspective approach reflects a profound understanding of the human condition, garnered through her own journey of self-discovery and growth.

Little’s reflections on the album’s themes emphasize the complexities of self-compassion and the transformative power of love and music. Each track presents a captivating narrative, from the poignant portrayal of marital challenges in “Hands Like Mine” to the raw depiction of abandonment in “Razor Wire” and the confronting stories of abuse in “My Father’s Roof” and “Gunpowder and Lead.”

Little says of the album, “This record is about how easy it is to be hard on yourself, and how hard it is to be easy and cut yourself a break sometimes. Grace is a dense pigment that takes over what it colors, but so are resentment, contempt, anger, fear, and indifference. It took a long time for me to learn the lessons given by the people I’ve known along the way thus far, and even longer to see clearly the situations and circumstances I created with my own choices.

“There is a good bit of reprogramming, re-parenting, rebuilding, and re-replanting yet to do, but this is a start.

“These songs would not exist were it not for the awful parts I did not expect to survive. The existence of this record is proof love will always win in the end: Love of each other as humans, of healing and communication through music, and of what happens when the notes and words and sounds string us all together in the universal language of song. Music is universal. Love is universal. Music is love.”

Musicians: Heather Little – acoustic guitar, vocals; Frank Swart – electric guitars, Bass VI, bass, mandolin, piano; Audley Freed – electric & acoustic guitars; Duke Levine – electric & acoustic guitars; Kevin Barry – electric & acoustic guitars; Jared Tyler – electric guitar; John Jackson – electric guitar; Russ Pahl – pedal steel; Paul Griffith – drums & percussion; Scott Amendola – drums; John Deaderick – piano & organ; Stefano Intelisano – accordion; Niamh Varian-Barry – viola; Eamon McLoughlin – fiddle & mandolin; Sebastian Steinberg – upright bass; Joe Newberry – banjo; Mai Bloomfield – cello; Van Plating – violin; Bow Thayer – bojotar; and Kami Lyle – trumpet.

All songs written by Heather Little, except “Gunpowder and Lead” by Heather Little and Miranda Lambert

Track List:

1. Five Deer County 4:07 ft. Rusty Van Sickle
2. Hands Like mine 3:32 ft. Patty Griffin
3. Razor Wire 4:09 ft. Leslie Satcher
4. Bones 3:16
5. Better By Now 4:34 ft. Ronnie Bowman
6. Landfall 3:29
7. Transistor Radio 6:16
8. California Queen 4:02
9. This Life Without You 5:30 ft. Patty Griffin
10. My Father’s Roof 4:09
11. Saint Christopher 3:17 ft. Crystal Bowersox
12. Sunset Inn 4:50
13. Gunpowder and Lead 3:38 ft. Van Plating

Buy By Now.