You say this record sounds like your first one—does it feel like you were going back to your original roots or influences?

Yeah. I moved to Nashville this year, so it was like, “Let me write a record about searching for a home.” I guess it’s a theme that pops up for people that like to move a lot, like me. There’s a song called “I Love Living Here Even When I Don’t”—I have such a love/hate relationship with home. I go away from Asbury Park and come up for a weekend of shows, and I can’t wait to go to all my little spots and walk the boardwalk. It’s so awesome there. But then, after day three, I’m so spent on the things that I don’t like about it. I’m like, “Ah, get me out of here.” I kind of feel like that everywhere I go.

When I was moving, I got married too. In this period of time, I got married, quit drinking and moved to Nashville. It was a lot, and [the songwriting] was like thinking back on my past and trying to reconcile these past grievances with people and myself and stupid things I did. All of the songs are more about those things, just to try to put them to bed in a really beautiful way. Instead of writing a letter and burning it, just putting it all into a beautiful album that sounds like it was made in 1968.

So this show in New York City is the first time you’ve played the city in a few years?

Yeah, it’s my first headlining show since we did the Bowery Ballroom. I’m super excited. We’re going to do most of the new record, too.

I’m curious, being from Jersey, what is your relationship with Jersey music and living in a shadow of the New York City music scene?

I feel like the music scene in New York City is what shaped me most. Other than the scene in the South—I went to college in the South, and that’s where I started writing music. So I kind of brought that with me to New York, and I started out in the anti-folk scene with Regina Spektor, Langhorne Slim and The Strokes in the early days. There was just so much music coming out of there. TV on the Radio was like two houses down from us, and everybody was experimenting so much. There’s a great music scene here in New Jersey, but it veers a lot towards of the Bouncing Souls or punk scene. It’s kind of a very male-dominated scene, too. There’s a lot of Bruce Springsteen cover bands, and so I felt like New York gave me more space to experiment with the sound. When I moved there, I was like, “I’m an Americana artist.” And when I started living there, I realized it was okay to not have a genre. So many bands that I love, they don’t really have a genre, because they’re their own thing.

You sat in with Joe Russo’s Almost Dead at Lockn’, and you’ve played with them before, and I know that WOLF! and Scott Metzger are playing with you in New York. What’s your relationship with those guys and how did you meet?

I met them all doing the Last Waltz four years ago at The Capitol Theatre. We just really hit it off because, one, we all love the Grateful Dead and, two, we are all from New Jersey. Jersey kids kind of stick together. We get each other and get our dark humor. So when Metz was playing with me off and on—when I needed a guitarist, he’d be so kind—I kept saying, “If you guys ever need a Donna in here, give me a call.” And he asked if I was serious about the Donna thing, and I said, “Yeah.” And then the [Almost Dead] show was at the Cap—and I had no idea how popular they were. I thought we were playing at Garcia’s, and I got there and said, “Holy shit, this is insane.”

My husband is from Scotland, so there’s not really a jamband scene over there or much improvisational music, and he was like, “What the fuck is this? This is crazy.” His mind was blown. I’m singing with them, and I never know when they’re gonna be done jamming so I don’t want to stand up there and dance. That would be super awkward. So after I’m done singing I always go off to go to the side of the stage and I’m staring at them, waiting for a sign. I just see Joey’s jaw start wagging and I know it’s “run back out there.” It’s like a workout.

But the Lockn’ show was absolutely insane. I finished my record the day before. It was like nine days down in Austin—waiting three years to make a record and doing it all live and mixing it all to tape. The comedown from that was… The night before I went to Lockn’, I was like, “Oh my God, everything is over now. What am I going to do? This is crazy.” I didn’t know how to handle it. The next day was Lockn’, so thank God for some stress, because it was the most stressful time getting there. My flight was delayed, and I was supposed to land at 10:30 p.m. and I went on at 1am. I had to re-finagle a new route to get there and put my show outfit on and my hot rollers in on the plane. We were supposed to go on stage at 1 and I got there at 1:15. They waited and said, “Let’s go.” I ran up there, and it was more people than I’ve ever played for before in my life. I thought, “Holy shit.” It was great.

Great show.

Thanks. I used to save up money all year to go to festivals like that when I was in high school. When I was up there I was thinking, “High school me would be doing backflips right now.”

Speaking of your shared love of the Grateful Dead, obviously you’re a big fan and know a lot of the songs. Do you put their music into your sets at all?

I used to cover “China Doll” sometimes and “Stella Blue” during my solo sets. We also referenced a lot of Grateful Dead on this new record. There were times, where we did it all live, we were kind of jamming on it. There’s no extended jams, but for a lot of the guitar tones and rhythms I was like, “Holy shit, this sounds like ‘Eyes of the World.’” And we’re trying to make this Aretha Franklin song, and it sounded like the Dead, so it’s kind of seeping in. It’s like all my favorite influences in one thing.

Does that music influence your songwriting?

Definitely. Robert Hunter is one of my favorite lyricists. A lot of the darker Dead songs, like “Blues for Allah” or “Terrapin Station”—the part where it jumps down the rabbit hole. I definitely draw from those moments. Not so much as to copy them, but just to capture that feeling.

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