Critterland - Black Vinyl LP - Limited Signed

For folksinger Willi Carlisle, singing is healing. And by singing together, he believes we can begin to reckon with the inevitability of human suffering and grow in love. On his latest album, Critterland, Carlisle invites audiences to join him: “If we allow ourselves to sing together, there's a release of sadness, maybe even a communal one. And so for me personally, singing, like the literal act of thinking through suffering, is really freeing,” he says.

Rooted in the eclectic and collective world of his live shows, Carlisle’s third album, Critterland takes up where his sophomore album, Peculiar, Missouri left off, transforming Peculiar’s big tent into a Critterland menagerie and letting loose the weirdos he gathered together. The album is a wild romp through the backwaters of his mind and America, lingering in the odd corners of human nature to visit obscure oddballs, dark secrets and complicated truths about the beauty and pain of life and love.

Produced by the GRAMMY Award-nominated Darrell Scott and to be released Jan. 26, 2024 by Signature Sounds, Critterland considers where we come from and where we are going. On the album, he takes on human suffering through stories about forbidden love, loss, generational trauma, addiction, and suicide, believing that by processing the traits and trauma we inherit, he can reach a deeper understanding of what it means to succeed and to exist.

1. Critterland 

Written by: Willi Carlisle

Dedicated to the fine folks of Meadowcreek, Fox, Mount Olive, and Mountain View, Arkansas.

Willi: vocals, banjo, harmonica, button- box 

Darrell: guitar, dulcimer, pedal steel

2. Dry County Dust 

Written by: Willi Carlisle

Willi: vocals, guitar

Darrell: Pedal Steel

3. The Arrangements 

Written by: Willi Carlisle

Willi: Vocals, guitar

Darrell: Baritone guitar, lap steel

 

4. The Great Depression

Written by: Willi Carlisle

Willi: vocals, flatpicked guitar, harmonica, banjo

Darrell: Fingerpicked guitar

 6. Higher Lonesome 

written by: Willi Carlisle

Willi: vocals, harmonica, guitar

Darrell: Mandolin, lap steel  

 8. Jaybird

Written by: Willi Carlisle

Willi: Vocals, Banjo

Darrell: Vocals, Guitar, Dulcimer, lap steel

 

9. When the Pills Wear Off 

Written by Willi Carlisle and Billy Keane

Willi: Vocals, Guitar

Darrell: Piano

Jonathan Yudkin: Strings

  

10. The Money Grows on Trees 

Written by: Willi Carlisle

Willi: vocals

Darrell: Front- Porch banjo

Tennessee: Thunder, Rain on a tin roof

Album art by Whit Stone