That old house from your childhood—is it still around? Do any relatives still live there? Does the building still stand? Last year, my in-laws sold the family home that had housed generations, and the buyer tore it down to erect a large McMansion in its place. It was a sorrowful moment. It would be even more upsetting if floodwaters rise and wipe that parcel clean from the map. That theme frames the new single by Jess Kerber.
Jess Kerber, a singer-songwriter now based in Nashville, has called several places home. Yet her formative years were spent along Louisiana’s Gulf Coast, a region that is being reshaped by climate change right now. Next month she will release The World Is Dark, But I Want It To Be Funny, a new album she and partner Will Orchard tracked in their house studio. We’ve already shared the lead single “Changing.” Yesterday, Kerber issued “Louisiana Song,” a delicate ballad about mourning in advance for the place she once called home. Here is what she has to say about it:
This song is about my home state and growing up in a place that feels pretty far away from everything else. Louisiana carries so much unique beauty, but also has a tinge of tragedy that’s forever built in. The state loses a lot of coastline each day, so in 50 years, 100 years, it will look different than it does today; it changes every hour. And the feeling of knowing that you won’t be able to return to the thing that you came from is certainly a strange one.
Listen below.
The World Is Dark, But I Want It To Be Funny drops on November 6 through Felte.
