Ahead of his upcoming album, The Weakness, Ruston Kelly has shared a new song. On his latest, “Mending Song,” Kelly shares haunting accounts of his childhood, his dissolved marriage to Kacey Musgraves, and his musical journey.
“I tried to fight it like a needle in my skin / The hole inside me kept on growing / Everything went black / Was then I heard the words of my father / Have faith, there’s no storm that doesn’t pass,” Kelly sings softly on over a breezy ukelele, smoothly juxtaposed with the details of a harrowing journey.
Upon the release of “Mending Song,” Kelly revealed that while much of The Weakness was recorded in his Portland, Tennessee home, he wrote the confessional track while on a solo trip to Joshua Tree in California.
“I rented this little cabin out on 22 acres, just me and the coyotes, and ended up checking out a shop nearby and buying a baritone ukulele,” said Kelly in a statement. “I remember thinking, ‘This is so stupid — I’m trying to be that guy, going out to some cabin and writing my opus. Why don’t I just have some fun?’”
You can listen to “Mending Song” above.
The Weakness is out 4/7 via Rounder Records. You can pre-save it here.