Bella White Finds Beauty in the Upheaval
The folk songwriter discusses her new album, A Sign in the Weather, moving to New Orleans, and finding inspiration in life's transitions.
By Samuel Albert
- Published on
Not one for big productions, bombast, or excess, the Calgary-born, New Orleans-based singer-songwriter crafts simple, acoustic, pedal-steel laden songs as poetic as they are expressionistic, as sensitive as they are commanding. On her latest album, A Sign in the Weather, White’s uniquely nostalgic yet contemporary musical style hits its outstanding peak throughout an impressive collection of songs somehow more stripped down and intimate than White has ever been before.
“I wrote these songs during some big transitional times in my life, as you know, we often do,” White tells RANGE with a knowing smile and dry sense of humour. “I had moved from Vancouver Island to New Orleans while I was in the process of writing these songs, and I just knew that this sense of upheaval was going to be a huge part of the album.” For White, change has been a constant in her life, and a wise-beyond-her-years grappling with the ebbs and flows of adulthood is perhaps one of the most reliable throughlines across her already expansive catalogue. Born and raised in Calgary, but having already lived in multiple urban and rural settings across North America, White’s physical transience has clearly translated into a refreshing sonic vagrancy evocative of Americana-folk legends like Emmylou Harris and Lucinda Williams.
But beyond a sense of acquiescence with instability, White also writes from a space of unique collaboration, a facet of her process that feels unique to the Americana genre she’s rapidly become a young starlet within. “I was resonating with having this vibrant artist community around me,” she says when explaining the inspiring charm of making a new home in a city as musically rich, yet-industry free as New Orleans. “So many of my closest friends are amazing musicians, and so I just wanted to make it with people that I really love, and that I play music with all the time. This led to us recording it here in New Orleans in my friend’s house rather than in a studio. My friend Lee literally just took his bed out of his place a few blocks from me and let us turn his bedroom into a control room where my other friend Ross and I co-produced and recorded the album together.”
It would seem such an unorthodox recording process brought out the best of White’s lyrical acumen and exceptional ability to translate complicated experiences of heartache, isolation, and disillusionment into songs as comforting as they are unpretentious. She also explained that she was frustrated with the discrepancy inherent to a complicated recording process and the nature of performing live folk music the way she does. “It’s slightly disappointing that in the past I couldn’t afford to bring a 6-to-8-piece band with me to play the songs the way they were recorded. So, I think with this one, I just want people to come to the show after hearing the album and then, like, hear the album,” she says with a laugh.
I would argue White’s music doesn’t need anything more than herself, a guitar, and a stage to still be the type of experience you write about years later, her confession feels refreshing to hear in a time when recorded music and live experiences are increasingly valleys apart. While White won’t be touring her new album until closer to the end of summer, A Sign in the Weather is an album that will surely improve with age. If not the immediately obvious sound of the summer, with the release of her new record, it feels almost guaranteed that Bella White will continue to mature into the signature of 21st century folk music.
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