Joan Shelley will release her new album ‘Real Warmth’ on 19 September via No Quarter, preceded by the single ‘Everybody’.

Joan Shelley has always taken cities and recording studios into account when working on her albums. For her 2017 self-titled album, she travelled to Chicago, to The Loft, with Jeff Tweedy as producer. In 2019, she went to Iceland, taking collaborators Nathan Salsburg and James Elkington with her to make “Like The River Loves The Sea”. The pandemic forced her to stay close to home in Kentucky for “The Spur” (2022), but when a new set of songs began to take shape in late 2024 and she and her family moved into their new home in Michigan, she began looking for a place to record with talented friends.

Enter Ben Whiteley, bassist for The Weather Station, and Jake Xerxes Fussell, who oversaw the snowy sessions that became “Real Warmth” at Wroxton Studio in Toronto. For the new album, Joan was also able to count on the support of great musicians and friends such as drummer Philippe Melanson, saxophonist Karen Ng, songwriters Doug Paisley and Tamara Lindeman, Matt Kelley and Ken Whiteley. Joan’s partner, guitarist Nathan Salsburg, also appears. Toronto-based illustrator Heather Goodchild designed and painted the cover and the rest of the artwork for the new album.

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